The Monticellonian., 1918-03-22

billy Louise had changed her in those TWO weeks.
 She changed still more in the next two months. however. There was the strain of her mother precarious 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 q return. That much the doctor had made plain to her
 Besides that, there WAS an undercHr- rent of gossip and rumors of cattle stealing whenever q man stopped at the ranch. II worried Billy Louise in spite of her rebuilt belief in Ward. Doubt would seize her sometimes iH spite of herself. and she did not see Ward often enough to let his personali- ty fight those doubts She saw him just once in the next two months and then only for all hour or so.
 X 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 q violent dislike to him. But John Pringle told her afterward that he was Buck 0lney. the new stock inspector, and that he was prowling around to see if he could find out anything.
 Billy Louise worried good deal aft CT that. Once she rode out early with the intention of going to Wards claim to warli 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 on 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 fu1ly-trust Billy Louise for that-and she decided that the stock inspector WAS either a very poor detective or J very good actor. He did not, for in- stance. mention any corral hidden in q blind canyon away back in the hills. and Billy Louise did not mention it. 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.
 "fheres q fellow holding down a claim away over oil Mill creek he had remarked. I'll look him up when l come back, though Seabeek says he's all right
 Ward is all right" asserted Billy Louise rather unWisely.
 Haven't a doubt of it. I thought maybe he might have seen something that might give Us Il clew.' Perhaps the stock inspector was wiser than she 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 meant that the short summer was over and that fall was getting ready to paint the wooded slopes with her gay est colors and that one must prepare for the siege of winter
 It was some time in the latter part of September that Billy Louise got up in the middle of a frosty night because she heard her mother moaning. That was the beginning. She sent John off 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 mommie's temperature and drew in her breath hardly when she saw how long he studied the thermometer after ward
 There was a month or so of going
  the clock with a mind to medicine giy- ing There were nights and nights and nights when the cabin window winked like a star fallen into the eoulee from dusk to red dawn. Ward rode over once, stayed all night and went home in silent rage because he could not do a thing
 There was a week of fluctuating hope and time when the doctor said mommie must go to q hospital-Boise since she had friends there And there was terrible. nerve raeking journey to the railroad. And when Ward rode next to the Wolverine ranch there was no Billy Louise to taunt or tempt him. John Pringle and Phoebe told him in brief. stoid sentences of the later de xelopments and gave him meal and offered him q bed. which he declined.
 When the suspense became madden ing after that he would ride down to the Wolverine for news. And the news was monotoneusly scant Phoebe could read and write after fashion. and Billy Louise sent her l letter now and then. saving that mommie was about the same and that she wanted John to do certain things about the ranch. Sne could not leave mommie. she said. Ward gathered that she would not.
 Once when he was it the ranch he wrote letter to Billy Louise and told