The Arizona copper camp. [volume] (Ray, Ariz.) 1910-1920, 1918-03-09


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 a 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 trotted 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
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
just long enough to see how empty
and desolate it was, and how the
horses and cattle had huddled against
it's sheltering wall out Of the biting
winds; and how the door was shut
and fastened so that they could not
get in. She opened it and looked In,
and shut it again. Then she turned
and ran, white-faced, to the cabin.
Where was Ward? What had hap
pened to Ward? Thief or honest man,
treacherous or true-what had hap
pened to him?
Billy Louise saw the doorstep hcAked
over with old, crusted snow. Her
heart gave a jump and stopped still.
She felt her knees shake under her.
Her face seemed to pinch together, the
flesh clinging close to the bones. Her
whole being seemed to contract with
the deadly fear that gripped her. 1t
was like that chill morning when she
had crept out of her cot and gone over
to mommie'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
heart that fluttered and stopped,
fiuttered 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
it. You've got tot" she whispered to
herself commandingly.
She never doubted that Ward was
inside. She thought she would find
him dead-dead and horrible, perhaps.
No other solution seemed to fit the
circumstances. He was in there, dead.
It took courage to open that door,
but Billy Louise had courage enough
to open 1t, and to step inside and close
the door after her. She did not look
ut anything in the cabin while she did
1t, though. She kept her eyelids down
so that she only saw the floor directly
In front of the door. She had 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 creuching to the floor. Also
she looked up.
From her crouching position she
looked into Wards fever-wild eyes.
He was sitting up in the bunk, and he
was pointing his big forty-fye at her
relentlessly. sect up from there u 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 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