The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1917-12-20


queer little vicious click that had al
ways been her habit when she felt
thwarted and constrained to yield to
circumstances and Strengthened herself
in the saddle.
"Looks like a storm" the fur coated
one observed, with a perfectly trans
parent attempt to tighten the awk-
wa-dneSs.
Billy Louise tilted her chin upward
and gazed at the gray sweep of clouds
moving sullenly toward the mountains
at her back. She glanced at the man
and caught him looking intently at her
face.
He did not look away Immediately,
as he should have done, and Billy Lou
Use felt little heat wave Of embar-
rassment, emphasized by resentment.
Are you going far?" he queried in
the same tone he had employed before.
''Six miles," she answered shortly,
though she tried to be decently civil.
I've about eighteen" he said.
Looks like we'll both get caught out
in a blizzard"
Certainly he had pleasant enough
voice, and, after all, it was not his
fault that he happened to be at the
crossing when she rode out of the
gorge. Billy Louise, in common JUS
tice, laid aside her resentment and
looked at him with a hint Of smile
at the corners of her lips.
That's what we have to expect when
We travel in this country in the win
ter" she replied. Eighteen miles will
take you long after dark"
"Well, was sort of figuring on put
ting up at some ranch if it got too bad
There's ranch somewhere ahead on
the Wolverine, isn't there?"
Yes" Billy Louise bit her lip, but
hospitality is an unwritten law of the
West, law not to be lightly broken.
That's where live. Well be glad to
have you stop there Of course"
The stranger must have felt and ad-
mired the unconscious dignity Of her
tone and words, for he thanked her
simply and refrained from looking too
intently at her face.
Fine siftings of snow, like meal flung
down from a gigantic sieve, swept into
their faces as they rode on. The man
turned his face toward her after long
silence. She was riding with bowed
head and face half turned from him
and the wind alike.
You'd better ride on ahead and get
in out OF this" he said curtly. Your
horse is fresh. It's going to be worse
and more of it before long. This
cayuse of mine has had thirty miles
or so of rough going"
81 think I'd better wait for you," she
safJ primly. There are bad places
where tia trail goes close to the bluff,
and the lavA rcck will be slippery with
this snow, and i:'s getting dark so fast
that a stranger might go ever"
"If that's the case the so0neS you
are past the bad places the better. IslE
all right. You drift along"
Billy Louise Speculated briefly upon
the note Of calm authority in his voice
He did not know evidently that she
was more accustomed to giving COM
mands than to Obeying them. Her lips
gave little quirk Of amusement at his
mistake.
''You go on. I don't want a guide"
He tilted his head peremptorily toward
the blurred trail ahead.
Billy Louise laughed little. She did
not feel in the least embarrassed now.
do you never get what you don't
wantT she asked mildly. "I'd q lot
rather lead you past those places than
have you go over the edge" she said.
because nobody could get you up or
even go down and bury you decently.
/. wouldn't be a bit nice. It's much
simpler to keep you on top"
He said something. but Billy Louise
could not hear what it was. She sus-
pected him Of swearing. She rode on
In silence.
"Blue's a dandy horse on bad trails
and in the dark" she observed Gem