mina, but Billy Louise had given him all he wanted, that morning.)
She went straight to a corner of the hay corral and stopped with her
hands clutching the top wire.

"Ward Warren, for heaven's sake, what are you doing?" You couldn't
have told from her tone that she had been crying, a mile back, from
sheer anxiety, or that she "loved him to pieces." She sounded as if
she did not love him at all and was merely disgusted with his actions.

"I'm trying to sink my loop on this damned buzzard-head of a horse,"
Ward retorted glumly. "I've been trying for about an hour," he added,
grinning a little at his own plight.

"Well, it's a lucky thing for you he won't let you," Billy Louise
informed him sternly, stooping to crawl under the bottom wire. "You've
got about as much sense as--" She did not say what. "Give me that
rope, and you take yourself and your crutches out of the corral, Mr.
Smarty. I just had a hunch you couldn't be trusted to behave yourself."

"Brave Buckaroo got lonesome," Ward said, looking at her with eyes
alight, as he hobbled slowly toward her. "You'll have to open the gate
for me, William. Rattler'll make a break for the open if he sees a
crack as wide as your little finger."

By then he was near enough to reach out an arm and pull her close to
him. "Oh, William girl, I'm sure glad to see you once more. I got
scared. I thought maybe I just dreamed you were here; so I tackled--"

"You tackled more than you could handle," Billy Louise finished with
her lips close to his. "You haven't got any sense at all. You might
have known I'd come the very first minute I could."

"I know--I know."

"And you ought to know you mustn't try to ride Rattler, Ward. What if
he'd pitch with you?"

"In that case, I'd pile up, I reckon. Say, William, a broken leg does
take a hell of a time to get well. But all the same, I'll top old
Rattler, all right. I'd top anything rather than spend another night
in that jail."

"You'll ride Blue," Billy Louise told him calmly "I'm going to ride
Rattler myself."

"Yes, you are--not!"

"Do you mean to say I can't? Do you think--"

"Oh, I guess you can, all right, but--"

"Well, if I can, I'm going to. If you think I can't handle a measly
old skate like that--"

"He's been running out for nearly two months, Wilhemina--"

"And look at his ribs! If you'll just kindly go in the house while I
saddle--"

"I'll kindly stay right here, lady-girl. You don't know