" She began hesitatingly; and
hesitation was not by any means a mental habit with Billy Louise.

"I mean just what I said." Charlie's manner was becoming more natural,
more confident. "I've been riding through the hills a good deal, and
I've seen a few things. And I've an idea the fellow got a little
uneasy." He saw her wince a little at the word "fellow," and he went
on, with an impulsive burst of confidence. "Miss Louise, have you
ever, in your riding around up above Jones Canyon, in all those deep
little gulches, have you ever seen anything of a--corral, up there?"

Billy Louise held herself rigidly from starting at this. She bit her
lips so that it hurt. "Whereabouts is it?" she asked, without looking
at him. And then: "I thought you would go to any length before you
would accuse anybody."

"I would. But when, they deliberately try to hand me the blame--and
I'm not accusing anybody--anybody in particular, am I? The corral is
at the head of a steep little canyon or gulch, back in the hills where
all these bigger canyons head. Some time when you're riding up that
way, you keep an eye out for it. That," he added grimly, "is where
Peter and I ran across these cattle; right near that corral."

The heart of Billy Louise went heavy in her chest. Was it possible?
Doubts are harder to kill than cats or snakes. You think they're done
for, and here they come again, crowding close so that one can see
nothing else.

"Have you any idea at all, who--it is?" She forced the words out of
her dry throat. She lifted her head defiantly and looked at him full,
trying to read the truth from his eyes and his mouth.

Charlie Fox met her look, and in his eyes she read pity--yes, pity for
her. "If I have," he said, with an air of gently deliberate evasion,
"I'll wait till I am dead sure before I name the man. I'm not at all
sure I'd do it even then, Miss Louise; not unless I was forced to do it
in self-defense. That's one reason why I brought the cattle down here.
I didn't want to be placed in a position where I should be compelled to
fight back."

Billy Louise ran her gloved fingers down the barrel of her gun, and
stuck the weapon back in its holster. "I killed Surbus, Marthy," she
said dully. "I had to. He came at me."

Marthy turned heavily toward the spot which Billy Louise indicated with
her downward glance. She had not seen the dog lying there half hidden
by a berry bush. Marthy gave a grunt of dismay a