looked
desperate, no mistake, but, since there was no water in which to drown
herself, and no tree from which to hang herself, and the country was so
flat that there was nothing high enough for her to jump off of and break
her neck, he concluded there was no real cause for uneasiness.

It was Mr. Pantin's proud boast that he never yet had "held the sack,"
and now he thought complacently as he turned from the window, grabbed
the shovel and whisk and leaped for an ash that had dropped, that this
was an instance where he had again shown excellent judgment in not
allowing his warm heart and impulses to control his head.

CHAPTER VII

THE BLOOD OF JEZEBEL

The prognostication made by the citizens of Prouty that it was "gettin'
ready for somethin'" seemed about to be verified out on the sheep range
twenty miles distant, for at five o'clock one afternoon the wind stopped
as suddenly as it had arisen and heavy snow clouds came out of the
northeast with incredible swiftness.

Mormon Joe walked to the door of the cook tent and swept the darkening
hills with anxious eyes. Kate should have been back long before this. He
always had a dread of her horse falling on her and hurting her too badly
to get back. That was about all there was to fear in summer time, but
to-night there was the coming storm.

Kate's sense of direction was remarkable, but the most experienced
plainsman would be apt to lose himself in these foothills, with the snow
falling thick and the night so black he could not see his hand before
his face.

Mormon Joe shook his head and turned back to his task of peeling
potatoes. While he worked he reproached himself that he had not hunted
those horses himself; but she had been so insistent upon going. She did
not mind the wind, she had said, but then she did not "mind" anything,
when it came to that. What would have been hardships for another were
merely adventures to her.

At any rate, Kate was more comfortable now than she had been the year
before. He smiled a little as he recalled her delight in the sheep
wagon which he had given her to be her own quarters. He had had to
borrow the money at the bank in addition to what he already had borrowed
for running expenses, but his circumstances justified it. He was getting
ahead, not with phenomenal rapidity, but satisfactorily. With the
leases, and the land he owned, he was building the future upon a
substantial foundation. A few years more of economy and atte