Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-06-07

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 very poor detective or
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
claim away over on Mill creek" he
had remarked. ''Pll look him up when
/ come back, though Seabeck says he's
all right"
Ward is all right" asserted Billy
Louise rather unwfsely.
Haven't a doubt of it. I 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 lazier in the middle, which
meant that the short summer was over
and that fall was getting ready tc
paint the wooded slopes with her gay
est colors and that one must prepare
for the siege of winter.
1t was some time in the latter par
of September that Billy Louise got W
in the middle of frosty night because
she heard her mother moaning. THAI
was the beginning. She sent John of
before daylight for the doctor, and be
fore the next night she stood with hel
lips pressed together and watched tn,
doctor count mommie's pulse and taxi
mommie'S temperature and drew in he
breath hardly when she saw how lon:
he studied the thermometer after
ward.
There was a month or so of goin,
to and fro on her toes and of watchin:
the clock with mind to medicine Civ
ing. There were nights and nights an,
nights when the cabin window winke,
like star fallen into the coulee fron
dusk to red dawn. Ward rode owe
once, stayed all night and went hom
in a silent rage because he could no
do a thing.
There was a week of fuctuatin
hope and time when the doctor sal
| mommie must go to hospital-Boist
since she had friends there And ther
was a terrible, nerve racking journe
to the railroad And when Ward rod
! next to the Wolverine ranch there wa
no Billy Louise to taunt or tempt hin
John Pringle and Phoebe told him
!, brief, stolid sentences of the later d.
velopments and gave him meal an
offered him a bed, which he declined.
When the suspense became maddel
ing after that he would ride down
the Wolverine for news. And the new
! was monotonously scant. Phoebe coul
read and write after a fashion, an
, Billy Louise sent her letter now an
: then, saying that mommie was abol
+ the same and that she wanted job
a to do certain things about the rancl
She could not leave mommie, she sal
n Ward gathered that she would not.
n Once when he was at the ranch
h wrote a letter to Billy Louise and to-
a her that he would come TO Boise
r there was anything he could do al
o begged her to let him know if 81
f needed any money. Beyond that
r worked and worked and tried to crow
r the lonesomeness out of his days al
d the hunger from his dreams with col
plete bone WEAKNESS. He did not e