He perceived that she was in earnest. "All right--only it does no good,
and delays us. Every minute is valuable now. The outlook is owly."
The plain was getting gray as they came out of the door, and the woman
shrank and shivered with an instant chill, but Rivers tenderly tucked
the robe about her and leaped into the sleigh.
"Now boys, git!" he shouted to the humped and wind-ruffled team, and
they sprang away into the currents of powdered snow, which were running
along the ground in streams as smooth as oil and almost as silent.
The sleigh rose and fell over the ridges like a ship. Off in the west
the sun was shining through a peculiar smoky cloud, gray-white, vapory,
with glittering edges where it lay against the cold, yellow sky. Every
sign was ominous, and the long drive seemed a desperate venture to the
woman, but she trusted her lover as a child depends upon a father. She
nestled close down under his left arm, clothed in its shaggy
buffalo-skin coat, a splendid elation in her heart. She was at last with
the strong man to whom she belonged.
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