Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-05-03
CHAPTER XIV.
30
eIIIy LouIse sets su,prise.

TRIGHTENED, worried, sick at
heart because her crowding doubts
and suspicious had suddenly de-
weloped into black certainty just when
she had thought them dead forever,
Billy Louise rode up the narrow,
rocky gorge. She had come to have a
vague comprehension of the tempta-
Gion Ward must have felt. She had
come to accept pityingly the possibility
that the canker of old influences had
eaten more deeply than appeared on
The surface. She had set herself
stanchly beside him as his friend, who
would help him win back his self
respect. She felt sure that he must
suffer terribly with that keen, analyti-
cal mind of his, when he stopped to
think at all. He had no warped ethics
~herewith to ease his conscience. She
knew his ideas Of right and wrong
were as Incorporating as her own,
aud If he stole cattle, he did it with
his eyes wide open to the wrong he
was doing. And yet
"That's bad enough, but to try and
Gasten evidence on someone else E!
Billy Louise gritted her teeth over the
freachery of it. She believed he had
done that very thing. How could she
help it? She had seen the corral and
mad seen Ward ride away from 1t in
4ha dusk of the evening; or she be-
iieyed she had seen him, which was
che same thing. And she knew what
aay behind him. Was his version OF
the past after all the correct one?
Might not the paragraph she had
burned been nothing more than the
truth?
Billy Louise fought for him; fought
with her stern, youthful Judgment
which was so uncompromising 1t takes
years of close contact with life to
give one a sure understanding of hu-
man wec71ess and human endeavor.
At the ..rd, when Blue would have
crossed and taken the trail home, Billy
Louise reined him impulsively the
other way. Until that instant she had
mot intended to seek Ward, but once
her fingers had twitched the reinS
against Blues neck, she did not hest
tate; she did not even argue with her.
self. She just glanced up at the sun.
saw that it was not yet noon-sO much
enay happen in two or three hours -
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
alair 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
dnorses in better shape, Billy Louise
scensured, 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 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 dlsdain at the
threat and trotted alongside them.
Billy Louise rode with puckered eye
6rows. 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,
acrusty 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, 20
&elltale imprint of the cinch under bis
belly. Where was Ward?
Blind, unreasoning terror flied 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 1t was, and how the
horses and cattle hal huddled against
dts shsltering 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 SAut it again. Then she turned
and ran, white-faced, to the cabin
Where was Ward? What had hap
penesi to Ward7 Thief or honest man
4reacherous or true-what had hap
penei to him2
Billy Lcuise saw the doorstep banked
over with old, crusted snow. Her
heart gave slmp and stopped STILL
She felt her knees shake under her
Her face seemed to pinch together, the
9lesh clinging close to the bones. Her
whole being seemed to contract with
the deadly fear that gripped her. 1t
was like thGt chill morning when she
bad crept out of her cot and gone over
TO mommie's bed and had lifted NOM
mie's hand that was hanging down. :.
She came to herself; she was run
aing up tho creek, away from the
cabin. Running and stumbling over