s, her face half turned to the door.

And yet what she took so tragically was nothing but failing health. What
was not a fact the night of her admission to Dallas, was almost come to
pass. The few days of great cold and hunger in February, coupled with
long confinement in the dirt-floored house, were having their effect.
She was on the verge of illness.

Lancaster, whenever he noticed her dejection, was inclined to pooh-pooh
it. "She looks as ef she'd jes' been slapped," he declared, "an' is
expectin' another lammin' any minnit. Ef she'd cry, she'd shore weep
lemon-juice." Again, he reckoned that she had picked up "some notion."
Jealous and suspicious as he was, however, he got no nearer to the
truth.

But Dallas--she was misled far more than either Marylyn or their father.
She fought away from the idea that her sister might be breaking
physically, and tenderly as a mother yearned over her. Anxious-eyed, she
noted the pallor of the childlike face, the melancholy expression that
had come to be habitual. She fretted over the spareness of the younger
girl, who ate only when she was urged. If, sated with sleep, Marylyn
moved in the night, Dallas aroused on the instant and hovered beside
her.

At last, thoroughly alarmed, the elder girl determined to follow out the
idea that had occurred to her in mid-winter. What did it matter how hard
and hateful the duty would be? What did her own hidden feelings matter?
She would appeal to Lounsbury in her sister's behalf.

But time passed without bringing her the opportunity, and it was borne
in upon her finally that Lounsbury meant to remain away, perhaps until
he was bidden to come. Undaunted, she made plans to waylay him on the
coulee road. Resting the Sharps across her arm, she set out, morning or
afternoon, on a long jaunt.

But Lounsbury was not met. On one such ramble, however, an incident
occurred that was far-reaching, if not fatal, in its results. She was
going, homeward slowly, when she saw, approaching, an ambulance from
Brannon, drawn by a four-mule team. She started timidly aside; then
paused. The vehicle was filled with ladies. A half-dozen, who were
talking and laughing merrily, occupied the lengthwise seats of the
carriage. One sat beside the driver. Dallas put herself in their path,
and waited.

How often she had watched these same ladies canter out of post on their
horseback rides, officers attending them; or seen them make a rollicking
walking-party to the b