But he was not going to ride; her command had settled that.
For a long time he sat in the chair, looking out over a great stretch of flat country which was rimmed on three sides by a fringe of low hills, and behind him by the cottonwood.

The sun had been up long; it was swimming above the rim of distant hills--a ball of molten silver in a shimmering white blur.

The cabin was set squarely in the center of a big clearing, and about an eighth of a mile behind him was a river--the river that he had been following when he had been bitten by the rattler.
He knew from the location of the cabin that he had not gone very far out of his way; that a ride of an eighth of a mile would bring him to the Two Diamond trail.

And he could not be very far from the Two Diamond.

Yet because of an order, issued by a girl, he was doomed to delay his appearance at the ranch.
He had seen no man about the cabin.