The Ranch at the Wolverine

and make a smoke. His interest in the work had oozed steadily since sunrise, and left nothing but the back-breaking toil. He had found a nugget the size of a hazelnut in the second pan that m

quite suddenly and gave

I'm going visiti

hat he had yielded to his hunger to see the one person in the world for whom he felt any tenderness, he grudged every minute that separated him from her. He loosened the cinch with one or two yanks and left the saddle on Rattler, to save time. He turned him loose in the hay corral with the bridle off, rather than spend the extra minutes it would take to put him in a stall and carry him a forkful of hay. He thought he would not bother to start a fire and boil coffee; he would eat the sour-dough bread and fried rabbit hams he had taken with him for lunch, and he would start down the creek in half an hour. He imagined himself an extremely sensible young man and considerate of

r of his cabin and went wh

he door, and she jumped out at him, laughing, just a

what he ought to do; but his arms did not wait upon his paralyzed mental processes. They shot out of their own accord, caught Billy Louise, and brought her close against his p

, and laid themselves upon the parted, panting lips of

mind of a girl. She tried to pull herself free, and when she could make no impression upon the grip of those arms-they had

u-I-you haven't

the demand, and then he kissed her many times before he attempted to say

lips. "You know you belong to me, don't you? And I belong to you-body and soul. You know that, don't you? I've know

to know whether she wanted to laugh or cry. "W

nd kissed her again, gravely and very, very tenderly. "Oh, Wilhemina, you know-" he waited, gazing down with that intent look which ha

o give him a shake. "Is that why you've stuck yourself in thes

the little cabin like a man who has just wakened to his surroundings. "I knocked off work a little while ago, and I was going to see you. I couldn't stand it

to earth. She twisted herself free and went over to the stov

o wrinkle her nose at him and twist her mouth humorously. "The third thought is that if you don't behave, I shall go straight home and never be nice to you again. And," she added, getting back of the coffee-pot-which looked new-"the rest of my soul is one great big blob of question-marks. If you can eat and talk at the same time, you may tell m

er. When she pushed a box up to the table and sat down upon it, and rested her elbows on the oilcloth and looked straight at him

played my hand, anyway. I most humbly ask your pardon!" He bowed farc

lf to the potatoes, "when a young lady invades strange territory, and hides behind strange doors, and jumps out

test idea how to treat a guest. Charlie Fox would have died before he would help himself and set down the dish a

d ambiguously and handed her eve

een doing all this while." Billy Louise spoke lightly, even flippantly,

ing he knew beyond all doubt, and that was that he must be careful or he would see his air-castle blow up in small fragments and come down a hopeless ruin. He needed time to think, and Billy Loui

was watching Ward rather closely, perhaps to see how far she might trust his recovered inscrutability. "Why don't you show some human inqu

ve about a lady, would it?" Ward retor

bother about being just p

Ward asserted uncharitably. "My head isn't sw

ad or not," she revised hastily, "so mommie would stop worrying about you. Mommie has pestered the life out of m

glad to know that somebody takes an interest in me-as if I were a real human." Ward's

fore, then? You know mo

" Ward's look was dangerou

made love?" A dimple tried to show itself in her cheek and was sent about its business with a twist of her lips. "My pretend Ward was lovely; he liked me to pieces, but he never came right out and said so. He-he skated

ord that sounded

He knew just exactly how a girl likes to be made love to. And, anyway, you'

hav

ody'd ever dream of your doing. The first time, when I threw that chip, you pulled a gun on me-" The voice of

strange and hard in that face of set muscles, though the thin, bitter lips and quivering nostrils showed that the

they stare who watch from the dock while a loved one slips farther and farther away on a voyage

uise leaned over the table and caught at his nearest hand, which was a closed fist. With her own little fingers digging persistently into the tensed muscles, she pried the fist open. "Ward, behave yourself, or I'll go straight home!" She held his straightened fingers in her own

voice rose as if she were growing desperate. "I-I-like you-to pieces, Ward, and I'd-I'd rather marry you-than anyone else. But I don't want to think about that for a long while. I don't want to be engaged, or-or any different than the way we've been. It w

ith that gimlet gaze of his that made Billy Louise want to scream. "I see

t she resisted the temptation. She got up and went around to him, hesitated while she looked down at his set face, drew a long breat

he pressed her lips down upon his bitter ones

nderness she had seen so often there. He leaned his head against

be a bit polite for him to have any doubts of my feelings toward him, or my belief in him, or his belie

she set herself to restore a

. "And he's going to bring some water so I can wash the dishes, and then bring Blue so I can

then grew loose. He drew a

't you?" His eyes were like the e

a part of her. "But I don't want us to be anything but pals; not for a long while. It's so good, just being friends. And once we get away f

t, Wilhemina." Ward still looked

being such a good housekeeper! Why, you hadn't swept the floor, even, since goodness knows when. And I've made up a bundle of your dirty shirts and things that I found under the bed, and I'm going to take them home and let Phoebe wash them. She can do them this evening and have them ready for you to bring back to-morrow. When I was a kid and went to see Marthy and Jase, I used to promise them cookies with 'raisings' in the midd

your way, don't you?" He started for the door, stopped with his toes over the threshold, and looked back at her. "If I knew how to get what I want, as easily as you do," he said, "we'd be marr

necessary, but he came back whistling, and he