The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1918-01-17

| one CuuuSeu Sllll more III lle next lWO
months, however. There was the strain
of her mother precarfOus health
/ which kept Billy Louise always on the
alert and always trying to hide her
fears. She must be quick to detect the
/ first symptoms of q return attack OF
the Illness, and she must not let her
mother suspect that there was danger
of return. That much the doctor had
made plain to her
Besides that, there was an undercur.
rent Of gossip and rumorS Of cattle
stealing whenever man stopped at
the ranch. 1t worried Billy Louise in
spite of her rebuilt belief in Ward
Doubt would seize her sometimes in
spite of herself, and she did not see
Ward 0sten enough to let his PERSONAL
ty fight those doubts. She saw him
just once In the next two months and
then Ouly for an hour or so.
A man rode up one night and stayed
with them until morning, after the
open handed custom of the range land.
Billy Louise did not talk with him very
much He had shifty eyes and
coarse, loose Tipped mouth and thick
neck, and, girl-like, she took a violent
dislike to him. But John Pringle told
her afterward that he was Buck Olney,
the new stock inspector, and that he
was prOwling around to see if he could
find out anything.
Billy Louise worried good deal aft
| or 10 nnnn oh
the intention of going.to Wards claim
to warn him. But three miles of saner
thought changed her purpose. She
dared not leave her mother all day, for
one thing, and for another she could
scarcely warn Ward without letting
him see that she felt he needed warn
ing, and even Billy Louise Shrank from
what might follow.
The stock inspector stopped again OH
his way back to the railroad Billy
Louise was so anxious that she smOth'
cred her dislike and treated him nice
ly, which thawed the man to an alarm
ing amiability. She questioned him art
fully-trust Billy Louise for that-and
she decided that the stock inspector
was either very poor detective or a
very good actor. He did not, for in
stance, mention any corral hidden in
blind canyon away back in the hills,
and Billy Louise did not mention 1t,
either. He had not found any worked
brands, he said And he did not appear
to know anything further about Ward
than the mere fact of his existence.
There's a fellow holding down u
claim away over on Mill creek" he
had remarked. 'I'll look him up when
come back, though Seabeck says he's
all right
Ward is all right" asserted Billy
Louise rather unwisely.
: Haven't a doubt of it. / thought
maybe he might have seen something
that might give us a clew." Perhaps
the stock inspector was wiser than she
E gave him credit for being. He did not
at any rate pursue the subject any fur
ther until he found an opportunity to
talk to Mrs. Macdonald herself. Then
he artfully mentioned the fellow on
Mill creek, and because she did not
know any reason for caution he got all
the information he wanted and more.
{ for mOmmie was in one of her gar
rulous humOrs.
After that the days drifted quietly
for month and grew nippier at each
end and lazier in the middle, which
and that fall was getting ready to
=" paint the wooded slopes with her gay
e est colors and that one must prepare
e for the siege of winter.
! 1t WAS some time in the latter part
4 of September that Billy Louise got up
+ in the middle of frosty night because
she heard her mother moaning. That
was the beginning. She sent John off
e before daylight for the doctor, and be.
fore the next night she stood with her
lips pressed together and watched the
doctor count mommie's pulse and take
IL mommie'S temperature and drew in hel
" breath hardly when she saw how long
he studied the thermometer after.
/ ward.
! There was month or so of going
i to and fro on her toes and Of watching
j the clock with a mind to medicine Civ
4 ing. There were nights and nights and
= nights when the cabin window winked
like star fallen into the coulee from
dusk to red dawn. Ward rode Ovel
once, stayed all night and went home
in a silent rage Because he could moi
do thing.
There was a week of fiuCtuating
hope and a time when the doctor sai(
mommie must go to hospital-Boise
since she had friends there. And there
was a terrible, nerve racking journey
to the railroad. And when Ward rode
, next to the Wolverine ranch there wa:
no Billy Louise to taunt or tempt him
John Pringle and Phoebe told him il
brief, stolid sentences of the later de
velOpments and gave him a meal anC
offered him a bed. which he declined.
When the suspense became madden
ing after that he would ride down t.
the Wolverine for news. And the new'
was monotonously scant Phoebe coult
read and write after a fashion, ant
Billy Louise sent her letter now ant
then, saying that mommie was abou
the same and that she wanted JohI
, to do certain things about the ranch
She could not leave mommie, she said
Ward gathered that she would not.
Once when he was at the ranch b
wrote letter to Billy Louise and toll
v her that he would come to Boise i
III there was anything he could do ant
at begged her to let him know if sh
10 needed any money. Beyond that b
re worked and worked and tried to crow
ID the lonesomeness out of his days an
n. the hunger from his dreams with CON
,e plete bone WEAKNESS. He did not e1
ar nect an answer to his letter-at leas