It may be remarked that the floor was much whiter at this line of
demarcation, and under the fresh chalk-line appeared the faint evidences
of one recently effaced.

Without apparently heeding this potential ceremony, Ruth remained
leaning against the doorway, looking upon the night, the bulk of whose
profundity and blackness seemed to be gathered below him. The vault
above was serene and tranquil, with a few large far-spaced stars; the
abyss beneath, untroubled by sight or sound. Stepping out upon the
ledge, he leaned far over the shelf that sustained their cabin,
and listened. A faint rhythmical roll, rising and falling in long
undulations against the invisible horizon, to his accustomed ears told
him the wind was blowing among the pines in the valley. Yet, mingling
with this familiar sound, his ear, now morbidly acute, seemed to detect
a stranger inarticulate murmur, as of confused and excited voices,
swelling up from the mysterious depths to the stars above, and again
swallowed up in the gulfs of silence below. He was roused from a
consideration of this phenomenon by a faint glow towards the east, which
at last brightened, until the dark outline of the distant walls of the
valley stood out against the sky. Were his other senses participating in
the delusion of his ears? for with the brightening light came the faint
odor of burning timber.

His face grew anxious as he gazed. At last he rose, and re-entered the
cabin. His eyes fell upon the faint chalk-mark, and, taking his soft
felt hat from his head, with a few practical sweeps of the brim he
brushed away the ominous record of their late estrangement. Going to the
bed whereon Rand lay stretched, open-eyed, he would have laid his hand
upon his arm lightly; but the brother's fingers sought and clasped his
own. "Get up," he said quietly; "there's a strange fire in the Canyon