All at once the entire landscape
was changed. It was not the desert, but civilization which swept about
us. A transfiguration had been wrought by one figure, fair to look upon.
I could see that this was no newcomer in the world of the out-of-doors,
however. She was turned out in what one might have called workmanlike
fashion, although neat and wholly feminine. Her skirt was short, of good
gray cloth, and she wore a rather mannish coat over a blue woolen shirt
or blouse. Her hands were covered with long gauntlets, and her hat was a
soft gray felt, tied under the chin with a leather string, while a soft
gray veil was knotted carelessly about her neck as kerchief. Her face
for the time was turned from us, but I could see that her hair was dark
and heavy, could see, in spite of its loose garb, that her figure was
straight, round and slender. The swift versatility of my soul was upon
the point of calling this as fine a figure of young womanhood as I had
ever seen. Now, indeed, the gray desert had blossomed as a rose.
I was about to ask some questions of Belknap, when all at once I saw
something which utterly changed my pleasant frame of mind. The tall
figure of a man came from beyond the line of wagons--a man clad in
well-fitting tweeds cut for riding.
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