Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-01-31
CHAPTER XIV.
Billy Louise Gets a Surprise.

FRIGHTENED, worried, sick al
II heart because her crowding doubts
and suspicious had suddenly de-
veloped into black certainty just when
she had thought them dead forever,
Billy Louise rode up the narrow
rocky gorge. She had come to have a
vague comprehension Of the tempta.
ton Ward must have felt. She had
come to accept pityingly the possibility
that the canker Of old influences had
eaten more deeply than appeared on
the surface. She had set herself
stanchly beside him as his friend, who
would help him win back his self.
respect. She felt sure that he must
suffer terribly with that keen, analyti.
cal mind Of his, when he stopped to
think at all. He had no warped ethics
wherewith to ease his conscience. She
knew his ideas of right and wrong
were as uncompromising as her own,
and II he stole cattle, he did it with
his eyes wide open to the wrong he
was doing. And yet
"That's bad enough, but to try and
fasten evidence on someone else!"
Billy Louise gritted her teeth over the
treachery Of it. She believed he had
done that very thing. How could she
help It? She had seen the corral and
had seen Ward ride away from it in
the dusk Of the evening; or she be-
lieved she had seen him, which was
the same thing. And she knew what
lay behind him. Was his version of
the past after all the correct one?
Might not the paragraph she had
burned been nothing more than the
truth?
Billy Louise fought for him; fought
with her stern, youthful judgment
which was so uncompromising. It takes
years of close contact with life to
give one a sure understanding Of hu-
man weakness and human endeavor.
At the ford, when Blue would have
crossed and taken the trail home, Billy
Louise refined him impulsively the
other way. Until that instant she had
not intended to seek Ward, but once
her fingers had twitched the reins
against Blues neck, she did not hest
tate; she did not even argue with her
self. She just glanced up at the sun,
saw that It was not yet noon-so much
may happen in two or three hours!-
and sent Blue up the hill at lope.
She did not know what she would
do or what she would say when she
saw Ward.
The two mares fed dispiritedly at
the lowest corner of the field, their
hair rough with exposure to the win
ter winds and the storms, their RIBS
showing. With all the hay he had put
up, Ward might at least keep his
horses in better shape, Billy Louise
censured, as she passed them by.
Farther along, Billy Louise heard a
welcoming nicker and turned her head.
Here came Rather, thin-fanked and
rough-coated, .trotting down shallow
gulley to meet Blue. The two horses
chummed together whenever Ward
was at the Wolverine. Billy Louise
pulled up and waited till Rather
reached her. He and Blue rubbed
noses, and Blue laid back his ears and
shook his head with teeth barred, in
playful pretense Of anger. Rather
kicked up his heels in disdain at the
threat and trottsd alongside them.
Billy Louise rode with puckered eye
brows. Ward might neglect his stock.
but he would never neglect Rather
like this. And he must be at home.
since here was his horse. Or else .. {.
p She struck Blue suddenly with her
rein-ends and went Gathering up the
trail where the snow lay in shaded,
crusty patches trimmed with dirt. The
trail was untracked save by the loose
stock. Where was Ward? What had
happened to him? She looked again
at Rather. There was no sign Of re-
cent saddle marks along his side, no
telltale imprint of the cinch under his
belly. Where was Ward?
Blind, unreasoning terror filled Billy
Louise. She struck Blue again and
plunged into the icy creek crossing
near the stable. She stopped there
lust long enough to see how empty
md desolate it was, and how the
horses and cattle had huddled against
its sheltering wall out Of the biting
winds; and how the door was shut
and fastened so that they could not
get in. She opened 1t and looked in,
md shut it again. Then she turned
and ran, white-faced, to the cabin.
Where was Ward? What had hap