n the Cove; and Charlie has
worked like a perfect slave; and he was trying to get a start so
he--could--get married--"

"Hm-mm!" Rumors had reached Seabeck, thanks to Billy Louise's dropped
lashes upon a certain occasion, which caused him to believe he saw
further light.

"And if you're going to be horrid--"

"Will the--lady he wants to marry give him another chance?"

"Don't you think she ought to--if she l-loves him?" Billy Louise
studied the skyline upon the side farthest from Seabeck.

"You say he wants to pay for the cattle and--"

"He'll do anything he can to make amends," said Billy Louise, with
conviction. "He'll take his medicine and go to jail if you insist,"
she added sorrowfully. "It will ruin his whole life, of course, and
break a couple of women's hearts, but--"

"It's a bad thing, a mighty bad thing, when a man tries to get ahead
too fast."

"It's a good thing when he learns the lesson without having to pay for
it with his whole future," Billy Louise amended the statement.

Seabeck smiled a little behind his fingers that kept tugging at his
whiskers.

"Did Charlie Fox send Miss Portia--"

"He doesn't know I had any intention of coming," Billy Louise assured
him quickly and with perfect truth. "They'll both be awfully surprised
when they find it out"--which was also perfectly true--"and when they
see you ride up, they'll think you've got the sheriff at your back. I
haven't a doubt they--"

"There are a few points I'd like to clear up, if you can help me,"
Seabeck interrupted. "All this rustling that has been going on for the
past year and a half: are Fox and the Meilke woman mixed up in that? I
want," he said, "to help the young man--and her. But if they have been
operating on a large scale, I'm afraid--"

"I believe Charlie must have been influenced in some ways by bad
acquaintances," Billy Louise answered more steadily than she felt.
"But his--rustling--has been of a petty kind. I won't apologize for
him, Mr. Seabeck. I think it's perfectly awful, what he has done. But
I think it would be more awful still not to give him a chance. The
other rustling is some outside gang, I'm sure. If Charlie was mixed up
with them, it's very slightly--just enough to damn him utterly if he
were arrested and tried. He isn't a natural criminal. He's just weak.
And he's learned his lesson. It's up to you, Mr. Seabeck, to say
whether he shall have a chance to profit by the lesson. And there'