flat to where the cabin window winked a welcome at them
through the storm.

CHAPTER III

A BOOK, A BANNOCK, AND A BED

Blue led the way straight to the low, dirt-roofed stable of logs and
stopped with his nose against the closed door. Billy Louise herself
was deceived by the whirl of snow and would have missed the stable
entirely if the leadership had been hers. She patted Blue gratefully
on the shoulder when she unsaddled him. She groped with her fingers
for the wooden peg in the wall where the saddle should hang, failed to
find it, and so laid the saddle down against the logs and covered it
with the blanket.

"Just turn your horse in loose," she directed the man shortly. "Blue
won't fight, and I think the rest of the horses are in the other part.
And come on to the house."

It pleased her a little to see that he obeyed her without protest; but
she was not so pleased at his silence, and she led the way rather
indignantly toward the winking eye which was the cabin's window.

At the sound of their feet on the wide doorstep, her mother pulled open
the door and stood fair in the light, looking out with the anxious look
which had lived so long in her face that it had lines of its own
chiseled deep in her forehead and at the sides of her mouth.

"Is that you, Billy Louise? Oh, ain't Peter Howling Dog with you?
What makes you so terrible late, Billy Louise? Come right in,
stranger. I don't know your name, but I don't need to know it. A
storm like this is all the interduction a fellow needs, I guess." She
smiled, at that. She had a nice smile, with a little resemblance to
Billy Louise, except that the worried, inquiring look never left her
eyes; as if she had once waited long for bad news, and had met everyone
with anxious, eager questioning, and her eyes had never changed
afterwards. Billy Louise glanced at her with her calm, measuring look,
making the contrast very sharp between the two.

"What about Peter?" she asked. "Isn't he here?"

"No, and he ain't been since an hour or so after you left. He saddled
up and rode off down the river--to the reservation, I reckon."

"Then the chores aren't done, I suppose." Billy Louise went over and
took a lantern down from its nail, turning up the wick so that she
could light it with the candle. "Go up to the fire and thaw out," she
invited the man. "We'll have supper in a few minutes."

Instead he reached out and took the lantern from her as soon as s