she could feel it in the air. It was
something more than an accident to Hartigan. There was the indefinable
shadow of shame about it. The oppression became unbearable and on
leaving Sunday-school, she went down to the doctor's house. He had just
got in from a case near Fort Ryan and was eating a belated meal. Belle
went straight to the point:

"Dr. Carson, I want you to take me at once to Bylow's Corner."

"Why?"

"There's something wrong. Mr. Hartigan is in serious trouble. I don't
believe that he has fallen from his horse as they say. I want to know
the truth."

Her face was pale, her mouth was set. The doctor looked keenly at her a
moment and then, comprehending, said:

"All right, I will"; and in ten minutes the mudstained buckboard with a
fresh horse in it was speeding over the foot of Cedar Mountain on the
trail to Bylow's.

* * * * *

While Belle was fretting under the delay and marshalling her forces for
the trip to the Corner, Hartigan lay in the quiet Bylow cabin and under
the influence of cold water, coffee, and a more collected mind,
gradually acquired some degree of composure. He had risen and dressed
and was sadly musing on the wreck of all his life which that one fiery
sip had brought about, when the thought of Blazing Star came to him. He
went eagerly to the stable and as he rubbed the animal down he found
help in the physical action. He hammered the currycomb on a log to clean
it before putting it in the box, then gazing to the eastward along the
trail that climbed around the shoulder of Cedar Mountain, he saw a
buckboard approaching. In the Black Hills one identifies his visitor by
his horse, and Jim recognized the Carson outfit. Sitting beside the
doctor was a woman in a light-coloured dress with a red parasol raised
above her. It smote him as no man's fist had ever done. He turned into
the stable, put saddle and bridle on Blazing Star, swung to the seat,
gave rein to the willing beast and, heading away from Cedar Mountain on
the Deadwood Trail, went bounding, riding, stricken, too hard hit and
shamed to meet the eyes of the woman whose praise he had come to value
as the best approval he might hope to win.

The doctor's buckboard came to the door, tied up, and the two occupants
went in.

"Where is your patient, Mrs. Bylow?"

The woman pointed to the bedroom door, went to it, knocked, opened it,
and finding the room empty said:

"He was here a few minutes