"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.

"We've waited long enough," he declared that morning over their coffee,
"Besides, I may have to go now in a few days."

And although at his words the sunshine of her new world faded suddenly
away, yet the little teacher kept a brave front. She even laughed
carelessly.

"Men are so impatient," she teased, "But we'll go today."

Nevertheless, it was not until the rose of sunset rested among the hills
that at last they found themselves on the crest of the tall cliff which
commanded so wide a stretch of the ocean and the shimmering valleys
below.

"It reminds one of the Bay of Naples," observed Blair, pausing to scan
the rocky coastline against which, far beneath them, the foaming
breakers threw themselves. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked
far out to sea. "What a wonderful place for a watch tower it would have