The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1918-02-01

] w lOlt DelnG seemed 10 contIutl WIN
the deadly fear that gripped her. II
was like that chill morning when she
had crept out of her cot and gone over
to mommle's bed and had lifted NOM
mics hand that was hanging down. :.
She came to herself; she was run
ming up the creek, away from the
cabin. Running and stumbling over
rocks, and getting tripped with her
riding skirt. She stopped, as soon as
she realized what she was doing; she
stopped and stood with her hands
pressed hard against each side OF her
face, forcing herself to calmness again
or at least to sanity. She had to go
back. She told herself so, many times.
SO Billy Louise went back to the
cabin, slowly, with shaking legs and
Il heart that fluttered and stopped.
huttered and jumped and stopped, and
made her stagger as she walked. She
reached the doorstep and stood there
with her palms pressing hard against
her cheeks again. you've got TO do
II. You've got, to !" she whispered to
herself cOmmandingly.
She never doubted that Ward was
inside. She thought she would find
him dead-dead and horrible. perhaps.
No othe: solution seemed to fit the
J circumstances. He was in there, dead.
1t took courage to open that door,
but Billy Louise had courage enough
TO open it, and to step inside and close
the door after her. She did not look
at anything in the cabin while she did
1t, though. She kept her eyellds down
so that she only saw the floor directly
in front of the door. She had a sense
of relief that 1t looked perfectly nat
ural, though dusty.
"Throw up your hands !" came
hoarsely from the bunk. Billy Louise
gasped and pulled her gun, and
dropped crouchng to the floor. Also
she looked up.
From her crouching position she
looked into Wards fever-wld eyes.
He was sitting up in the bunk, and he
was pointing his big forty-five at her
relentlessly. Get up from there" he
ordered sternly. Don't try any game
like that on me, Buck Olney! Get up
and go over and sit in that chair. I've
got few things to say to you"
Billy Louise somehow grasped the
truth, up to a certain point. Ward was
sick; so sick he didn't know her.
She thought she would better humor
him. She got up and went and sat in
the chair as he directed.
Ward, keeping the gun pointing her
way, sneered at her in way that
made the soul of Billy Louise crimple
She faced him big-eyed, too amazed
at the change in him to feel any fear
that he would harm her. He had whis-
kers two inches long. She wouldn't
have known him except for his hair
and that was terribly tousled; and his
eyes, though they were wild and angry.
His voice was hoarse, and while he
glared at her. he coughed with a hard,
crOupy resonance.
$50 you came back, did yuh?" he
asked grimly at last "WelI, you didn't
get a chance to plug me in the back.
How long did you lay up there on the
bluff this time waiting to catch me
when wasn't looking? I've been wish
ing I'd left that rope so it would have
hung you, you - (Billy Louise
listened round-eyed to certain man.
sized epithets strange to her ears.)
Il suppose you and Foxy and that
halfbreed have been fixing up some
more evidence, huh? You figure that
I can't catch 'em this time and work
the brands over, so they'll stand Yes,
and I'll get railroaded to the pen.
Well, you've Qverplayed your hand,
old-tlmer. let you fellows down easy,
last time. l don't reckon Foxy object |
ed much to those few / turned back to
him, and don't reckon you did any |
kicking when you found I'd cut the
rope so it wouldn't hold your rotten
carcass. You can't let well enough |
alone, though. You thought you'd raise
me, did you? You thought you'd come |
back and try another whack at me be-
hind my back. You knew hanged well
wasn't the kind of man that would
jump the country. You knew you'd
find me right here, attending to my
business like I've always done.
''But you've overplayed your hand.
This time I'm going to get you-and
Foxy and the breed along with you. 1t
was a rotten trick, running Yes over
Seabeck's brand. If 1 hadn't caught
you in the act, you'd have planted
them cattle where all HI couldn't
have saved me when they were found.
If l hadn't caught you at it and run
NIX monograms over the whole cheese,
I'd have been up against it for fair
So now you're going to get what's COM
ing to yuh. won't take any chances
On your not trying it again. I'm going
to protect myself right.
"You throw that gun on the bed"
(Billy Louise did so, her eyes still
upon Wards flushed face.) "Now, get