The Monticellonian., 1918-02-22

In Out of This."
 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- wardness.
 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 ise 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 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, I 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. We'll 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 a 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"
 Il think I'd better wait for you" she said primly. 'There are bad places where the trail goes close to the bluff. and the lava rock will be slippery with this snow. and it's getting dark so fast that stranger might go over"
 If that's the case the sooner you are past the bad places the better. I'm 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 q little quirk of amusement at his
 
 You go on. l don't want q guide. s 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 want9" she asked mildly. I'd a lot rather lead you past those places than haya yau pO oyer thp edge - Sha sai id 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.
 "Blues a dandy horse on bad trails and in the dark" she observed com-