uiringly, reproachfully. Billy
Louise sent him slowly forward and stirred up the huddled little bunch.
She read the brand on each one; read the story they shouted at her, of
bungling theft. She could not believe it. Yet she did believe it, and
she went hot with anger and disappointment and contempt. She sat and
thought for a minute or two, scowling at the cattle, while she decided
what to do.

Finally she swung Blue on the down-stream side and shouted the range
cattle-cry. The animals turned awkwardly and went upstream, as they
had been going before Billy Louise stopped them. Blue followed
watchfully after, content with the game he was playing. Where the
bluffs drew close again to the river, the cattle climbed to a narrow,
shelving trail through the rocks and went on in single file, picking
their way carefully along the bluff. Below them it fell sheer to the
river; above them it rose steeply, a blackened jumble, save where the
snow of the last storm lay drifted.

Billy Louise had never known there was a trail up this gorge. She eyed
it critically and saw where bowlders had been moved here and there to
make its passage possible. Her lips were set close together and they
still bore the imprint of her contempt.

She thought of Ward. Mentally she abased herself before him because of
her doubts. How had she dared think him a thief? Her brave buckaroo!
And she had dared think he would steal cattle! Her very remorse was a
whip to lash her anger against the guilty. She hurried the cattle
along the dangerous trail, impatient of their cautious pace.

When finally they clattered down to the level again, it was to plunge
into willow thickets whose branches reached out to sweep her from the
saddle. Blue went carefully, stopping now and then at a word from his
lady, to wait while she put a larger, more stubborn branch out of her
way. She could not see just where she was going, but she knew that she
was close upon the cattle, and that they seemed familiar with the
trail. Now and then she caught sight of a rough-haired rump and
switching tail in the thicket before her. Then the whip-like branches
would swing close, and she could see nothing but their gray tangle
reaching high above her head. She could hear the crackling progress of
the cattle close ahead, and the gurgling clamor of the river farther
away to her right. But she could not see the bluff for the
close-standing willows, and she did not know whether i