s
poor old Marthy in it, too. She just worships Charlie and would do
anything--even steal for him."

Seabeck meditated for a mile, and Billy Louise watched him uneasily
from the tail of her eye. To tell the plain truth, she was in a panic
of fear at what she had done. It had looked so simple and so
practicable when she had planned it; and now when the words were out
and the knowledge had reached Seabeck and was beyond her control, she
could not think of any good reason for telling him.

Last night, when she lay curled up by the stove under Ward's wolf-skin
coat, this seemed the only possible way out: To tell Seabeck and trust
to his kindness and generosity to refrain from pushing the case. To
have Charlie Fox give back what he had stolen or pay for it--anything
that would satisfy Seabeck's sense of justice--and let him start
honestly. She had thought that Seabeck would be merciful, if she told
him in the right way; but now, when she stole a glance at his bent,
brooding face, she was frightened. He did not look merciful, but stern
and angry. She remembered then that stealing cattle is the one crime a
cattleman finds it hard to forgive.

Billy Louise might have spared herself some mental anguish if she could
have known that Seabeck was brooding over the wonder of a woman's love
that pardons and condones a man's sins. He was wishing that such a
love as Billy Louise's had come to him, and he was wondering how a man
could be tempted to go wrong when such a girl loved him. He was
laboring under a misapprehension, of course. Billy Louise had
permitted him to misunderstand her interest in the matter. If he had
known that she was pleading solely for Marthy--poor, avaricious, gray,
old Marthy--perhaps his mercy would have been less tinged with that
smoldering resentment which was directed not so much at the wrongdoer,
as at fate which had cheated him.

"I'm glad you came and told me this," he said at last. "Very glad,
indeed, Miss MacDonald. Certain steps have been taken lately to push
this--wipe out this rustling and general lawlessness, and if you had
not told me, I'm afraid the mills of justice would have ground
your--friends. Of course the law would be merciful to Mrs. Meilke. No
jury would send an old woman like that-- By the way, that breed they
have had working for them--he is in the deal, too, I take it."

"Yes, of course. They had to have someone to help. Marthy can't do
any riding." Billy Louise