Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-01-15
CHAPTER VII.
Each In His Own Trail.

@0Sb III tbs O"U
CINCE nothing in this world is abso
lutely immutable - the human
emotions least of all perhaps
Billy Louise did not hold changeless
her broken faith in Ward She saw it
broken into fragments before the evil
dence of her own eyes and the frag-
ments ground to dust beneath the
weight of what she knew Of his past
things he had told her himself. So she
thought there was no more faith in
him, and her heart went empty and
aching through the next few days.
But, since Billy Louise was human
and woman-not altogether because
she was twenty-she stopped after
awhile, gathered carefully the dust of
her dead faith, and, like God, she be-
gan to create. First she fashioned
doubts OF her doubt. How did she
know she had not made a mistake,
there at that corral? Other men wore
gray hats and rode dark bay horses:
other meo were slim and tall, and she
had only had glimpse, after all, and
the light was deceptive down there In
the shadows. When that first doubt
was nodded and she had breathed into
1t the breath of life so that 1t stood
sturdily before her she took heart and
created reasons, a whole company of
them, to tell her why she ought to give
Ward the benefit of the doubt. She
remembered what Charlie Fox had said
about circumstantial evidence. She
would not make the mistake he had
made.
So she spent other days and long,
wakeful nights. And since it seemed
impossible to bring her faith to life
again just as it had been, with the
glamOr of romance and the sweetness
of pity and the strength OF her own in
nocence TO make it a beautiful faith
indeed. she used all her innocence and
all her pity and little of romance and
created something even sweeter than
her untried faith had been. She had a
new element to strengthen it. She
knew that she loved Ward. She had
learned that from the hurt it had given
her TO lose her faith in him.
That was the record of the inner
Billy Louise which no one ever saw.
The Billy Louise which her itCle world
knew went her way unchanged except
in small details that escaped the no
tice of those nearest her A look in
her eyes for one thing; a hurt, ques-
tioning look that was sometimes re-
belliouS as well; droop of her mouth
also when she was off her guard; sad.
tired little droop that told of the weight
of responsibility and worry she was
carrying
Ward observed both the minute he
saw her on the trail. He had come
across country on the chance that she
might be riding out that way, and he
had come upon her unawares while
she and Blue were staring out over the
desert from the height they had attain
ed in the hills.
'Lo, Billr' he said when he was
quite close and held himself ready to
meet whatever mood she might pre-
sent
She turned her head quickly and
looked at him, and the hurt look was
still in her eyes; the droop still show
ed at her lips. Aud Ward knew they
had been there before she saw him.
''Wha's molla, Bill?" he asked in the
tUne that was calculated TO invite an
unburdening of her troubles.
"Oh, nothing In particular. Nom
mics been awfully sick, and I'm al
ways worried when I'm away from the
ranch for fear she'll have another spell
while I'm gone. This doctor sand she
might have any time. Were you head
ed for our place? If you are. come on.
was just starting back 1 don't dare
De away any longer" If that We're