ed, and was no longer righteous judge, but simply neighbor.

"Where is she?" she demanded imperiously of Wid Gardner, whom she found
standing outside the door.

Wid nodded toward the interior of the half-ruined cabin. As she passed
in she saw Doctor Barnes, sitting on a box, quietly watching the pale
face of a woman, young, dark-haired, flushed, her eyes heavy, her hands
spread out piteously upon the blanket covering of the rude bunk bed.
Karen's first quick glance assured her that this young woman was all
that Nels Jensen had called her--a lady. She looked so helpless now
that the big ranchwoman's heart went out to her in spite of all.

"You'd better get right out, Doctor," said she; and that gentleman
followed her orders, exceeding glad to welcome a woman in this
womanless wreck of a home.

Doctor Barnes stood outside, hands in pocket, for a time looking across
the meadows lined with their banks of willows, silvering as usual in
the evening breeze. "Come here," said he at length to the three men.
They all followed him to one side.

"Now, Gage," said he, "I want you to tell me the truth about how this
woman came out here."

Wid Gardner, taking pity on his friend, told him instead, going into
all the details of the conspiracy that had now proved so disastrous.
Doctor Barnes frowned in resentment when he heard.

"She's got to go back East," said he, "as soon as she's able to travel."

"That's what I think," said Sim Gage slowly. "It's what I told her.
But she always said she didn't have no place to go back to. She could
stay here as long as she liked, but now I ain't got much."

"But it can't run on this way, Gage," said Doctor Barnes. "That girl's
clean as wheat. Something's got to be done about this."

"Well, good God A'mighty!" said Sim Gage, "ain't that what I know? If
only you'll tell me what's right to do, I sure will do it. In one way
it ain't just only my fault she come out here, nor it ain't my fault if
she don't go back."

Doctor Barnes engaged for some time in breaking up bits of bark and
casting them from his thumb nail. "Have you ever had any talk with her
about this?" said he.

"Some," said Sim honestly; "yes, some."

"What was it?"

"She told me, when she answered that ad, she was getting plumb
desperate, account of her eyes. She was out of work, and she was
broke, and she didn't have no folks on earth, and she'd lost all her
money--her folks used to be rich, I reckon, like enou