In this Carley lost something of a shirking fear that her loss and grief were patent to all eyes.
That afternoon she mounted the most spirited of the mustangs she had purchased from the Indians.

To govern him and stick on him required all her energy.

And she rode him hard and far, out across the desert, across mile after mile of cedar forest, clear to the foothills.

She rested there, absorbed in gazing desertward, and upon turning back again, she ran him over the level stretches.

Wind and branch threshed her seemingly to ribbons.