About noon
Sometimes , as they rode along , he quietly talking as the day before , pointing out some object of interest , or telling her some remarkable story of his experiences , she would wonder if she had not been entirely mistaken ; heard wrong , maybe , or made more of the words than she should have done . She grew to feel that he could not have meant her at all . And then turning suddenly she would find his eyes upon her with a light in them so tender , so yearning , that she would droop her own in confusion and feel her heart beating wildly with the pleasure and the pain of it . About noon they came to a rain-water hole near which were three Indian hogans . Brownleigh explained that he had come this way , a little out of the shortest trail , hoping to get another horse so that they might travel faster and reach the railroad before sundown . The girl 's heart went suddenly heavy as he left her sitting on Billy under a cottonwood tree while he went forward to find out if any one was at home and whether they had a horse to spare . Of course she wanted to find her friends and relieve their anxiety as soon as possible , but there was something in the voice of the young missionary as he spoke of hastening onward that seemed to build a wall between them .