White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1929-04-12
CHAPTER x-Continued

Three Bar will make up the deficit"
Alden said. Its cheaper than paying
rewards. That's another reason
don't think Cal had hand in this
blacklist report"
The storekeeper grinned.
Surely not. Surely not. I'd never
suspect him of that" he said. "But
all the same it's working just as well
as If he really had"
The first warm days of spring had
drawn the frost from the ground. Bill
lie rode beside Harris down the lane
to the lower field. A tiny cabin stood
completed on every filing. Two men
were digging post holes across the val.
ley below the edge of the last falls
blowing and the mule teams were
steadily breaking out another strip.
"Almost year." she said, referring
to the commencement of the new
work.
"Just year today" Harris correct
ed, and he was thinking of the day
he had first met the Three Bar girl
"This i our anniversary, sort Of"
She nodded as she caught his mean
ing.
1.-THE anniversary of our partner.
ship" she said. "You told me there
were millions of miles of sage just
outside. And millions of cows-and
girls"
"Later l told you something else,"
nd
ever since The road to the outside is
closed. If ! was to start now I'd lose
the way"
She pointed down. the valley as a
drove of horses moved toward them
under the guidance of a dozen men.
The hands would start breaking out
the remuda the following day. The
spring work was on.
"Off to running start on another
year." he said. sand sure to hold our
lead. From today on out, you and
I'll be busy pair" he prophesied.
His prediction proved true. The
Three Bar was beehive Of activity
and 1t seemed that the hours bet :eep
dawn and dark were all too short for
the amour o. work Harris wished to
crowd into them.
The cowhands were breaking out
the horses in the corrals while the
acreage of plowed land in the lower
fields steadily increased.
The day that Evans led the men
out on the calf roundup, the mule
teams made their first trip across the
plowed land with the drill.
The fields were being seeded to al
falfa and oats so that the faster grow
ing grain might shade and protect the
tender shoots of hay. Before the g: ain
ripened 1t would be cut green for hay,
cured and stacked.
Early rains had moistened the
fields and they were family green with
tiny shoots of oats. These thickened
into rank velvety carpet while the
homesteaders were hauling hundred
loads of rocks to form d crude dam
across the stream below the take-out
The water was gradually raised till 1t
ran almost flush with the top of the
head gate. The gates we're lifted and
the diverted waters sped smoothly
down the new channel to carry life to
q portion of the sagebrush desert.
AS the tangible results of the work
became more apparent Harris Wig
ilance increased. There was now
more than plowed ground to work on
crops to be trampled at time when
they would not lift again to permit
of moving; fences to be wrecked so
that range stock might have free &C
cess to the fields. A single night could
upset the work of many months. But
as he stood with Billie at the mouth
of the lane he allowed none of his
thoughts to be reflected in his speech.
Billie Warren half-closed her eyes
and We've, the broad expanse of rip.
pling green in the bottoms How many
times she had stoou here in the past
with old Cal Warren while he visioned
this very picture which now un-
rolled before her eyes in reality; the
transformation of the Three Bar fiat
from desert waste to scene of
abundant fertility .nder the reclaim
ing touch of water.
1t was a quiet picture of farm life
If one looked only upon the blooming
fields and took no account of the raw,
barren foothills that flanked them
the gaunt, towering range behind. She
found 1t difficult to link the scene be-
fore her with the deviltry of few
months past The killing of Bangs
and Rifle Fosters consequent grim re-
taiation; the raid on Three Bar bulls
and the -tampede of her trail herd;
all those reemed part of some life so
long in the past as to form no part of
her present,
Nc man in the field ever strayed far
from the rifle which. was part of his
equipment. But even this Was an evi.
dence of vigilance which had met her
eye every day for months and had
ceased to impress.
They walked to the near edge of
the field and Harris dropped hand
on her shoulder and stood looking
down at her.
billie, don't you think it's about
time you were finding out what Judge
Cotton wants?" he asked. Hes been
right insistent on your going back to
confer with him."
The girl shook her head positively.
Two months before Judge Cotton had
written that he must advise with her
on matters of Importance and suggest.
e. tina she come on at once. Harris
had urged her to 60 and almost daily
referred t. 1t.
can't OF DOU chn CQfd NNof