CHAPTER XV
THE FLAME IN THE VALLEY
"The coyote is a coward, so his bite is the nastiest."
THE next day when Douglas went down to the ranch to help out with a day's work for which John had asked him, Judith obviously avoided him. Douglas made no attempt to enforce a tête-à-tête until mid-afternoon. Then he followed Jude into the empty cow stable.
"Jude, I can't bear to have you think I'm not fair about Inez. If that's what you are sore about."
Judith laid carefully back the eggs she had taken out of the manger. Her face was set when she turned to him. "It doesn't matter much, I suppose, whether you are fair to Inez or not. She can take care of herself. What I'm angry about is your being so stupid with me, always picking at me about the things that don't count and so wrapped up in your own ideas that you can't see what I really need, and why I am so terribly restless."
Douglas leaned against the door-post, his face eager, his breath a little quickened. Now, at last, perhaps he was to win past the threshold and gaze upon Judith's inner solitude. But he would not crowd her.
"What is it that makes you so restless, Judith?" he asked gently.
"Well, it certainly isn't lack of religion and it certainly isn't lack of marrying," she retorted. "Those are the
