Excerpt from The Spoilers of the Valley AS the girl drank in the delights of the peaceful pan orama spreading away right from her very feet, she was aroused sharply from her meditation. She heard, or fancied she heard, a distant Shot, followed by the sound of excited voices and the barking of dogs. She went to the door, threw it open fearlessly and peered down the hill but all was silent again save for this barking which travelled farther and farther away all the time, being caught up and carried along in a desultory fashion by the dogs of all the neighbouring houses and ranches. She stood for a moment, looking about her, then, Shivering Slightly with the cold, She threw a kiss to the Valley, closed the door again and turned slowly toward her bedroom. Her fingers were upon the lamp to turn down the light, when three Short peremptory raps at the back door caused her to start nervously. She took up the lamp and tiptoed into the kitchen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.