But there was no awkwardness, now, when he again swung to his seat.

The young man was in reality a natural athlete.

His work had already taken the soreness and stiffness out of his unaccustomed muscles, and he seemed, as the Dean had said, a born horseman.

And as he rode, he looked about over the surrounding country with an expression on independence, freedom and fearlessness very different from the manner of the troubled man who had faced Phil Acton that night on the Divide.

It was as though the spirit of the land was already working its magic within this man, too.