During the two years passed by Brick Willock in dreary solitude,conditions about him had changed.The hardships of pioneer life which,fifty years ago,had obtained in the Middle States yet prevailed,in 1882,in the tract of land claimed by Texas under the name of Greer County;but the dangers of pioneer life were greatly lessened.As Lahoma made the acquaintance of the mountain-range,and explored the plain extending beyond the natural horseshoe,Willock believed she ran little danger from Indians.He,himself,had ceased to preserve his unrelaxing watchfulness;after all,it had been the highwaymen rather than the red men whom he had most feared--and after two years it did not seem likely that such volatile men would pre serve the feeling of vengeance.
With the wisdom derived from his experience with wild natures,he carefully abstained from any attempt to force Lahoma's friendship,hence it was not long before he obtained it without reserve.As she walked beside him,grave and alert,she no longer thought of his bushy beard and prodigious mop of harsh hair;and the daily exhibition of his strength caused him to grow handsome in her eyes because most of those feats were performed for her comfort or pleasure.In the meantime he talked incessantly,and to his admiration,he presently found her manner of speech wonderfully like his own,both fluent and ungrammatical.
He knew nothing of grammar,to be sure,but there were times when his mistakes,echoed from her lips,struck upon his ear,and though he might not always know how to correct them,he was prompt to suggest changes,testing each,as a natural musician judges music,by ear.Dissatisfied with his own standards,he was all the more impatient to depart on the expedition after mental tools,despite the dangers that might beset the journey.
His first task prompted by the coming of Lahoma,had been to partition off the half of the dugout containing the stove for the child's private chamber.Cedar posts set in the ground and plastered with mud higher than his head,left a space between the top and the apex of the ceiling that the temperature might be equalized in both rooms.Thus far,however,they did not stay in the dugout except long enough to eat and sleep,for the autumn had continued delightful,and the cove seemed to the child her home,of which the dugout was a sort of cellar.Concerning the stone retreat in the crevice she knew nothing.Willock did not know why he kept the secret,since he trusted Lahoma with all his treasures,but the unreasoning reticence of the man of great loneliness still rested on him.Some day,he would tell--but not just yet.