CHAPTER XXI.
The Last Climb That first visit of Aaron King and Conrad Lagrange to the old home of Sibyl Andres was the beginning of a delightful comradeship.
Often, in the evening, the two men, with Czar, went to spend an hour in friendly intercourse with their neighbors up the canyon.

Always, they were welcomed by Myra Willard with a quiet dignity; while Sibyl was frankly delighted to have them come.

Always, they were invited with genuine hospitality to "come again." Frequently, Brian Oakley and perhaps Mrs.
Oakley would be there when they arrived; or the Ranger would come riding into the yard before they left.

At times, the canyon's mountain wall echoed the laughter of the little company as Sibyl and the novelist played their fantastical game of words; or again, the older people would listen to the blending voices of the artist and the girl as, in the quiet hush of the evening, they sang together to Myra Willard's accompaniment on the violin; or, perhaps, Sibyl, with her face upturned to the mountain tops, would make for her chosen friends the music of the hills.
Not infrequently, too, the girl would call at the camp in the sycamore grove--sometimes riding with the Ranger, sometimes alone; or they would hear her merry hail from the gate the other side of the orchard as she passed by.

And sometimes, in the morning, she would appear--equipped with rod or gun or basket--to frankly challenge Aaron King to some long ramble in the hills.
So the days for the young man at the beginning of his life work, and for the young woman at the beginning of her womanhood, passed.