g unless there were considerable noise. I came home the
next forenoon--I was over to Seabeck's--and the bars were in place
then. Aunt Martha had not been up the gorge, nor had anyone come to
the ranch while I was gone. So you see, Miss Louise, here's a very
pretty mystery!"

He laughed, but Billy Louise saw by his eyes that he did not laugh very
deeply, and that he was really worried. "I must have made a mistake
and bought mountain sheep instead of calves," he said and laughed
again. "They couldn't have gone through those bars or over them; and I
did have a spark of intelligence and looked along the river for tracks,
you know. They had not been near the river, which has soft banks along
there. They watered from the little creek that comes down the gorge.
Miss Louise, do you have flying cattle in Idaho?"

"You think they were driven off, don't you?" Billy Louise asked a
question with the words, and made a statement of it with her tone,
which was a trick of hers.

Charlie Fox shook his head, but his eyes did not complete the denial.
"Miss Louise, I'd work every other theory to death before I'd admit
that possibility! I don't know all of my neighbors so very well, but I
should hesitate a long, long time--"

"It needn't have been a neighbor. There are lots of strange men
passing through the country. Did you look for tracks?"

"I--did not. I didn't want to admit that possibility. I decline to
admit it now." The chin of Charlie Fox squared perceptibly, so that
Billie Louise caught a faint resemblance to Marthy in his face. "I saw
a man accused of a theft once," he said. "The evidence was--or
seemed--absolutely unassailable. And afterward he was exonerated
completely; it was just a horrible mistake. But he left school under a
cloud. His life was ruined by the blunder. I'd have to know
absolutely before I'd accuse anyone of stealing those calves, Miss
Louise. I'd have to see them in a man's corral, with his brand on
them--I believe that's the way it's done, out here--and even then--"

"Where have you looked?" There were reasons why this particular
subject was painful to Billy Louise. "And are you sure they didn't get
out of that pasture and wander on down the Cove, among all those
willows? It's a perfect jungle, away down. Are you sure they aren't
with the rest of the cattle? I don't see how they could leave the
Cove, unless they were driven out." She caught a twinkle of amusement
in his eyes a