The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1916-05-04
waved contemptuons.

Iake care, Buck said Jess, as sh,
buttered her hot biscuit, that then
clothin'. Amt you aver heard of tn,
bitter bein' bit? You talk sheen 81
much I'd think your mouth d sc
wolly. What o say sounds like !:
was, anyway"
Il forgot, less" the young fellow
you was 50 partial to Cardross."
The girls eye flashed angrily. She
saw her aunt transtix Kilrain with 9
triumphant stare.
some folks tongues" the girl re-
marked in a tone of meaning, stays
home-only the words amt worth
corralin' an talllin' bout"
h turne sharply to her aunt
WHAT are you bobbin' our head SO
at father for, Aunt Agnes? You look
like a chicken what's chokin.'"
Agnes looked very like that. indeed,
as she swallowed her anger, for Kill
rain had laughed, and Buck had smiled.
n Jess own lips had twitched with
a wicked mirth.
Never mind her, Agnes" said
h1lrain, with clumsy intent to pacify,
Jess is always seem resemblances."
"'Tain't what l mind, Martin" Ag-
mes complained. It's what she don't
mind-an' that's nothin'. You'n come
TO grief yet. Jess kilrain, I'm fear
IN.
"P'raps,' assented Jess. IF I does, /
reckon III scramble through somehow.
What's the use of diggin' graves. Aunt
Agnes, when there amt no corpse to
bury? Now you sit still while | clear
the table an wash up. If Buck is goiu'
TO play his accordyum I want all the
dishes rattlin' roun' me I can get. an
a wall between
Buck played rather dismally after
thar. though he had a lonpL. of roaI--
ing a concertina talk, and, when ha
chose to sing, he had a voice. Tha lit
tie passage with Jess a
his ardor. He had not meant to be
disloyal to her.
And Jess did not mean to relent to-
ware him.
She more than half pee from
Cardross' warning that Buck had been
led to say something to him of her.
Resenting this, and, moreover, not
wishing to encourage his late lingering
that night, she did not, when she had
finished the dishes, return to the sit
ting room.
Going, instead, to her own room.
which occupied IN extension of the lit
tie house opposite to that which held
the kitchen, she began making her
preparations against that time when
Buck Brannon should have retired to
his own cabin, and her father and aunt
to their DON Nor did she have very
long to wait for this, and half an hour
after Buck had taken his departure,
the concertina having for some time
its dispirited music, the cottage
hushed NJ in darkness.
Yet for some time longer Jess wait
ed in her own u~nlighted room.
Perhaps an hour went by before the
girl rose and leisurely dressed herself
in riding clothes, slipping a pistol in
her belt when all was finished. No
~ u ~ ne thew. Nil ~ +I~ -
use of one any better than Jess Kilrain,
and use for it she might have this
Then, arming herself with a light
blacksnake of her fathers which she
had previously secured, she stepped out
from her room into the main portion
of the house.
The loo of her fathers room was
being his Invariable habit
but Jess Knew the soundness Of his
slumber, n she knew, too, where she
would find what h must have if she
was to carry out her plan. She felt nc
qualms of conscience in what she was
doing.
If she was abetting Cardross, she had
good reason to believe the result would
relieve her father, also, even should he
come to suspect her gency in the deed.
So, tiptoeing into his room, she
possessed herself of his keys
they lay on the table beside his
bed, his revolver guarding them to
profit. The man on the bed in
the first deep relaxation Of sleep, did
not stir.
Letting herself out of the house, Jess
went carefully onward toward the
carefully but not stealthily, for
he felt little fear that any of the out
would be sleeping less soundly than
her father.
She saddled and bridied her pony,
eading him thereafter over to the cor
-alsh where Cardross's sheep were
ocked in. Hitching him there behind
he gate, which she unlocked and threw
vide opeG, Jess walked in among the
sheep.
So secure against interruption did
she feel that the girl went about round
ng up the stupid animals with perfect
,almness, cracking her bl~acksnake soft
Y, and never once looking bout her to |
he dark masses of the silent cabins.
Had h looked she might have seen
moving shadow close to the outer side |
If the corral fence-a shadow that
'rept cautiously nearer until it paused
There it chung to the thicker obscurity
II a post, and watched the proceedings !
With a curious intentness.
Whatever might nave been the emo
of that silent witness Of Jess Kill
aims maneuyers, they did not lead
.N'A W SSGh IL SIop the E1Tl.t
she got the sheep started. head
for the gate. and SO out upon the
space beyond.
Pausing to close and lock the gate
them, she mounted her horse,
with little trouble carried the sheen
the barns to the un~obstructed
There, turing them south +!
ward. the click of their trotting feet
could be heard as she crowded them
her toward the Raccoon river
range.
Not until the last echo had died
away did that shadow by the post Of
corral fence turn around. Then
Buck Brannon stood erect and squared
his chest.
"a sheep is a sheep" he muttered.
Blass Cardross is a skunk but
amt Jess a queen? / just couldn't stop
heri"
Which. seeing how the queen had
~tyrannized over him. and why. was
gerry generous IN T,7cIr