Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-05-04
waved contemptuous.

sheep don't turn out wolves in Sleeps
clothin'. Amt you ever heard of the
bitter bein' bit? You talk sheep Sc
muc I'd ttink your mout d get
wolly. What you say sounds like It
was, anyway"
answered, somewhat abashed, that
you was so partial to C~ardross."
The girls eyes flashed angrily. She
saw her aunt transfix kilrain with a
triumphant stare.
Some folks tongues" the girl re-
marked. In a tone Of meaning, stays
as silly as some sheep, an as far from
corralin' an talkin' bout"
She turned sharply to her aunt.
What are o bobbin' you 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,
and Jess own lips had twitched with
a wicked mirth.
Never mind her, Agnes" said
kllrain, with clumsy intent to pacify.
Jess is always seem reseInblances."
faint what l mind, Martin" Ag-
mes complained. It's what she don't
mind-an' that's nothin'. You'll come
to grief yet. Jess kilrain, I'm fear
in
"P'r'aps," assented Jess. IF 1 does, 1
reckon I'll scramble through somehow.
WHAT'S the use of diggin' graves, Aunt
Agnes, when there int no corpse to
bury? Now you sit still while l clear
the table an wash up. If Buck Is goin'
to play his accordyum 1 want all the
dishes rattlin' roun' me l can get, an
a wall between"
Buck played rather dismally after
fhof fhoI,rl L0 Md r. ,.I.
ing a concertina talk, and, when he
chose to sing, he had a voice. That lit
tie passage with Jess had dampened
his ardor. He had not meant to be
disloyal to her.
And Jess did not mean to relent to-
ward him.
She more than half suspected 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 an extension of the lit
tie house opposite to that which held
the kitchen, she began making her
preparations against that time when
Buck BTannon should have retired to
his own cabin. n her father and aunt
to their rooms. 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
ceased it's dispirited music, the cottage
was hushed and in darkness.
Yet for some time longer Jess wait
in her w unlighted 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
of them all on the Loop knew the
use of one any better than Jess Kilrain.
use for it she might nave this
night.
Then, arming herself with a light
blacksnake of her fathers which she
previously secured, h stepped out
from her room into the main portion
of the house.
The door of her fathers room wa
being his lnvariable habit
but Jess knew the s%oundness of his
slumber, and she knew, too, where she
would find what she must have if she
was to carry out her plan. She felt no
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, wen should he
to suspect her agency in the deed.
So. tiptoeing into his room, she
noiselessly possessed herself of his keys
where they lay on the table beside his
bed, his revolver guarding them to
small profit. The man on the bed in
the first deep relaxation of sleep, did
stir.
Letting herself out OF the house, Jess
carefully onward toward the
carefully but not stealthily, for
felt little fear tina any Of the out
pt% ,N,,J h. Hrlnntniy,~ lass ~, :, II, %l,D =,
her father.
She saddled and bridled her pony,
him thereafter over to the cor
ralsh where Cardross's sheep We're
locked in. Hitching him there behind
he gate, which she unlocked and threw
wide open, Jess walked in among the
sheep.
So secure against interruption did
feel that the girl went about round
ing up the stupid animals with perfect
cracking her blacksnake soft
ly, and never once looking about her to
he dark masses Of the silent cabins.
Had she looked she might have seen
4 moving shadow close to the outer side
Of the corral fence-a shadow that
notionless on a line with herself.
There it chung to the thicker obscurity
Of a post, n watched the proceedings
a curious intentness.
Whatever might have been the emo
OF that silent witness of Jess Kill
rains maneuvers, they did not lead
possessor to seek to stop the girl.
h got the sheep started, head
I'D for the gate, n so oLt upon the
open space beyond.
Pausing to close and loSk the gate
behind them, she mounted her horse.
and with little trouble carried the sheep
the barns to the unobstructed
There, turing them south
ward, the click of their t.otting feet
could be heard as she crowded them
before her toward the Raccoon river
range.
Not until the last echa had died
away did that shadow by the post Of
the corral fence turn around. Then
Buck Brannon stood erect and squared
chest.
"A sheep is a sheap," he muttered.
IAN Blass Cardross Is a skunk. hut
amt Jess a queen? I just couldn't stop
Which. seeing how the queen had
over him. and why, was
very generous in Buck.
Cardross started from his sleen.
by the sharp crack OF several
pistol shots, followed by the s~currying
of many feet across the lawn
before his house. Rushing to his win
dow, he looked out and caught a
glimpse. Of numbering sheep, and.
by another more distant shot.
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