New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-03-15

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 mothers precarious health
which kept Billy Louise always on the
alert and always trying to hide hel
fears. She must be quick to detect the
first symptoms Of Il return attack OF
the illness, and she must not let bel
mother suspect that there was danger
of a return. That much the doctor had
made plain to her
Besides that, there was an nn1ercur-
rent of gossip and rumors OF cattle
stealing whenever a 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 often enough to let his PERSONAL
ty fight those doubts. She saw him
just once In the next two months and
then only for an hour or so.
a mar rode up II 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 a
coarse, loose Tipped mouth and a 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 a good deal aft
or that. Once she rode out early with
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, aud 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
fully-trust Billy Louise for that-and
she decided that the stock inspector
was either a very poor detective or a
very good actor. He did not, for in
stance. mention any corral hidden in a
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.
There's a fellow holding down a
claim away owe on Mill creek he
had remarked. I'm look him up when
l come back, though Seabeck says he's
all right"
Ward is all right" asserted Billy
Louise rather unwisely.
Haven't a doubt Of it. l thought
maybe he might have seen something
that might give us a 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 a month and grew nippier at each
end and !azier 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
cOlors and that one must prepare
for the siege of winter.
1t 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-
the next night she stood with her
lips pressed together and watched the
doctor count NOMINEES pulse and take
temperature and drew In her
breath hardly when she saw how long
he studied the thermometer after
There was a month or so of going
to and fro on her toes and of watching
the clock with a mind to medicine Civ
ing. There were nights and nights and
nights when the cabin window winked
ike a star fallen into the coulee from
dusk to red dawn. Ward rode over
once, stayed all night and went home
a silent rage because he could not
DO a thing.
There was a week Of f%luctuating
hope and a time when the doctor said
must go to a hOspital-Boise,
she had friends there. And there
was a terrible, nerve racking journey
the railroad. And when Ward rode
lext to the Wolverine ranch There was
10 Billy Louise to taunt or tempt him.
John Pringle and Phoebe told him in
brief, stolid sentences of the later de-
and gave him a meal and
,ffered hin a bed. which he declined.
When the suspense became madden.
ng after that he would ride down to
he Wolverine for news. And the news
vas monotonously scant. Phoebe could
cad and write after a fashion, and
BILLY Louise sent her a letter now and
hen, saying that mommie was about
he same and that she wanted John
o do certain things about the ranch.
,ne could not leave mommie, she said.
Ward gathered that she would rct.
Once when he was at the ranch he
wrote a letter to Billy Louise and told