"I don't know any name for them except an Indian name. The Sioux, up
in their country, call them sky-eyes."
"Sky-eyes! Isn't that dear? sky-eyes."
"You are heated," continued Marie, looking at him, "you have walked a
long way. Where in all this desolate, desolate country could you find
flowers such as these?"
"Back a little way in a cañon."
"Are there many in a desert like this?"
"I know of none--at least within many miles--yet there may be others in
nearby hiding-places. The desert is full of surprises."
"You are so warm, are you not coming up to sit down while I get a bowl?"
"I will go forward, thank you, and see when we are to get away. Your
sister," he added, looking evenly at Marie as Gertrude stood beside
her, "asked this morning why there were no flowers in this country, and
while we were delayed I happened to recollect that cañon and the
sky-eyes."
"I think your stupid man the most interesting we have met since we left
home, Gertrude," remarked Marie at her embroidery after dinner.
"I told you he would be," said Mrs. Whitney, suppressing a yawn.
Gertrude was playing ping-pong with Doctor Lanning. "But isn't he
homely?" she exclaimed, sending a cut ball into the doctor's
watch-chain.
Louise returned soon with Allen Harrison from the forward car.
"The programme for the evening is arranged," she announced, "and it's
fine. We are to have a big campfire over near that butte--right out
under the stars. And Mr. Blood is going to tell a story, and while
he's telling it, Mr. Glover--oh, drop your ping-pong, won't you, and
listen--has promised to make taffy and we are to pull it--won't that be
jolly? and then the coyotes are to howl."
A little later all left the car together. Above the copper edge of the
desert ranges the moon was rising full and it brought the nearer buttes
up across the stretches of the night like sentinels. In the sky a
multitude of stars trembled, and wind springing from the south fanned
the fire growing on the plateau just off the right of way.
The party disposed themselves in camp-chairs and on ties about the big
fire. Near at hand, Glover, who already had a friend in Clem, the
cook, was feeding chips into a little blaze under a kettle slung with
his taffy mixture, which the women in turn inspected, asked questions
about, and commented sceptically upon.
Doctor Lanning brought his banjo, and when the party had settled low
about the fire it helped to keep alive the talk. Every few minutes the
taffy and the coyotes were demanded in turn, and Glover was kept busy
apologizing for the absence of the wolves and the slowness of his
kettle, under which he fed the small chips regularly.