Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/158

146 halls. At noontimes a somnolence fell, so that people overcome by it went into cool darkened rooms, and the land slept in a golden haze.

The next afternoon following Kenneth's illuminating talk with Carlson and Frank Moore he rode slowly alone down Main Street at this hour of the siesta. He was almost the only moving creature to be seen. Saddle horses, heads drooping, dozed with one hind leg comfortably out of focus; dogs spread out flat in the shade; even the mule car, having stopped at the beach end of the track, seemed to be staying there indefinitely. The fine white dust of the roadway, as though animated by the life-giving heat of the sun, stirred and rose at the lightest breath of air. It followed Kenneth like a spirit.

Why he was out on horseback at this time of day he had no very clear idea; nor why he had not gone riding that morning with the other young people. He certainly was not consciously taking stock after his illuminating experience of the evening before; though he may have been doing so subconsciously. The morning he had spent in his room fussing about. He had read more of Carlson's poems, he had written a few letters, he had oiled his shotgun, he had loaded half the brass shells. For this was probably the first sixteen gauge shotgun ever seen on the Pacific Coast, and ammunition for it was not to be had for purchase. People shot tens at all sorts of game; though occasionally some small-bore crank used a twelve at quail. He would never have thought of doing so at ducks. A sixteen was 'of course a pop-gun. Kenneth had fifty brass shells which he reloaded. After lunch he became restless.

The beach, too, was empty of human life, except for two of Largo's men mending nets on the dry sand above high tide mark. Kenneth drew rein for a moment, taking in the cool air that breathed from the sea. He was in the act of turning his horse to the left for his customary canter on the hard sands when he heard his name called. He turned. A girl riding a palomino horse followed by two dogs had come upon him unheard through the soft sand. She was riding astride a stock saddle, and wore a divided coat over bloomers and boots. This was sufficiently startling at an epoch