The rock was black, and shining like the topmost crags of an Alpine mountain where snow and ice have polished the bare stone.

Beyond and across the river lay the boundless steppe--a sheet of virgin snow.
Etta stood looking over this to the far horizon, where the white snow and the gray sky softly merged into one.

Her first remark was characteristic, as first and last remarks usually are.
"And as far as you can see is yours ?" she asked.
"Yes," answered Paul simply, with that calm which only comes with hereditary possession.
The observation attracted Steinmetz's attention.

He went to another window, and looked across the waste critically.
"Four times as far as we can see is his," he said.
Etta looked out slowly and comprehensively, absorbing it all like a long, sweet drink.

There was no hereditary calmness in her sense of possession.
"And where is Thors ?" she asked.
Paul stretched out his arm, pointing with a lean, steady finger: "It lies out there," he answered.
Another of the little incidents that are only half forgotten.