His work
stood always first, while, - she blushed to own it even to herself, -
she had sometimes entirely forgotten her own.
At the end of the third week they had seen almost everything he
considered essential and at times she sensed in his manner, even when he
was least aware of it, a kind of repressed impatience. She knew what it
meant and shivered. Presently he would leave her, and life would become
again the same dull round of work. Only one spot of real importance
remained unvisited, - the cavern bower above the Bay of Moons. Of this
he had spoken frequently, and well she knew he held it the climax of his
search.
But for reasons best known to herself Miss Hastings put off from day to
day this final expedition until Blair began to chaff at the delay.
"That's really the one place I came to see!" he told her more than once.
"After I've been there I think I can go."
"But we've planned Middle Ranch for today," she would answer evasively,
or, "This is the best time to see Orazaba; it's so clear this morning.
That's the mountain, you know, where the Indians carved out their ollas.
Some of them are still there, only half cut away. It would be too bad
for you to miss that."
At length, however, there came a day when excuses would do no longer.
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