Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/165

Rh fast. Ahead of them in the distance of a broad curve, the cliffs were proud in saffron, or tender in mauve and lilac. Alongside the dogs pattered busily, their ears flat back, their tongues out, fairly laughing up at their humans. The horses, still fresh, were dancing forward with a proud half-hesitating step, begging for another run. Kenneth came to with a start.

"We must have come an awful way!" he exclaimed. "And look how the tide is coming in!" He reined in his horse with a sudden dismay. "We'll never get back in time to get around that point!" he cried.

She looked at him with tolerant amusement.

"Have you just thought of that?" she rallied him. "You must get into terrible scrapes when you have nobody to take care of you. See where those trees show on top? There's a trail up a little barranca there. We'll take that up to the mesa. It's not far from town then 'cross country. You see we've been going on a big curve and now we can cut straight across."

The barranca trail proved to be sketchy and scrambly. It led them through stiff chaparral to an oak dotted mesa, like a park. When they topped the rise they seemed to leave the fresh, damp, cool sea world, and to return to the California summer. Tepid air and warm faint odours enveloped them. A still peace replaced the tingling life of the beach. Across the rich, brown meadow came liquid and sleepy the note of a belated lark. Across the distance the great ramparts of the Sur slumbered, wrapped in tinted veils.

They talked volubly from this time on. The girl seemed to possess an astonishing local knowledge of things that grew or moved out of doors. Finding that Kenneth was genuinely interested she took the delight of a child in pointing out to him common or curious things. Kenneth, in the large way of the foreign and uninformed, had concluded that with the passing of the brilliant scarves laid in acres over the hills California's flower season had passed completely. This girl showed him the indigo larkspur that had taken the place of the golden primroses; therentstemon [sic] and blue phacelias that stood where of late had