The Uphill Climb

d Quit Belie

irection he must take to reach the woman who was screaming inarticulately, her voice vibrant with sheer terror. The sound came from the little, brown cottage that seemed trying modestly to hide behind a dispirited row of young cottonwoods across a deep, narrow gully, and he ran headlong toward

moke told its own urgent tale and made words superfluous. S

arry Phenie-and she's asleep and can't walk anyway!" She rushed half across

I'll find Chester. You'd think, with all the men there are on

is own; the door opened, and he confronted the girl whom he had tried to befriend the day before. She had evidently just gotten out of bed, and into a flimsy blue kimono, which she was holding together at the throat with one

opped, and looked down at the girl, wondering what he should do with her. Since Kate had stated emphatically that she could not walk, it seemed scarcely merciful to deposit her on the ground and leave her to her own devices. She had closed her eyes, and she looked unpleasantly like a corpse

panting a good deal because of his two hundred and fifty pounds of excess fat and a pair of down-at-the-h

he lamented. "I got

ffectually of their burden of eggs. "You darned chump, what's eggs in a case like this?" he cried sharply

ile the smoke was stifling, the flames were as yet purely local. And, more fortunately still, that day happened to be Mrs. Mason's wash-day and two tubs of water stood in the kitchen, close to the narrow stairway which led into the loft. Three o

ed aloud, "I sure did

Kate, standing upon the stairs so that she could look into the loft, stopped suddenly and stared at Ford with some astonishment. Plainly, she had but then discovered that he was a st

of escape, approached her steadily, the empty bucket swinging in his ha

hed and there was a bruise on his forehead where, on the night of his marriage, he had hit the floor violently under the impact of two or three struggling male humans. Although they were five days old-six, some of them-these divers battle-signs were

kle is sprained dreadfully. So if you'll brin

onceal Ford's identity and his sins. From the way in which she had stared wincingly at his battered countenance, he realized that she did, indeed, have ideals. Ford grinned to himself, wondering if Ches didn't have to do his smoking altogether in the bunk-house; he judged her to be just the woman to wage a war on tobacco, and

ce. He was guilty of hoping that she would remain in that oblivious state for at least five minutes longer, but the

h, across the little bridge and on to the house, and deposited her gently upon her own bed. He had not spok

and one only: the tribute of feeling perturbed over her presence, and of going hot all over at the memory of her steady stare into his face. She was a qu

n that he was not to be trusted. He did not trust himself, and there was no reason why any man who knew him at all should trust him. Ches Mason was a good fellow; he meant w

his view of the matter, heard him through without a word, and did not

re hiring the same fellow that came out of the North with you-but you aren't. Why, damn it, there ain't a man I know that wouldn't give you the laugh if they kn

d's shoulders, so that they stood face to face, and he looked straight into Ford

d-and if there's a yellow streak in you, I never got a glimpse of it; and the yellow will sure come to the surface of a man when he's bucking a proposition like you and me bucked for two months. Y

muttered uneasily, and turned away. Mason's easy chuckl

de any cast-i

make any?" Mason

, Ches! How d

That's

want the darned j

amed horse. "I didn't think you'd dodge," he drawled, and th

I'd do would be to lick the stuffing out of you for being such a simple-mi

you won't g

Mason's arm so tight that Mason set his teeth, and he looked at him long, as if there was much that he would like to put into words and co

his forehead. "Gosh!" he whispered fervently. "That was nip and tuck-but I got him, thank the Lord!" Whereupon he blew

re down upon Ford in the corral, where he was industri

nnounced gleefully. "You've gone and done the heroic aga

won't come." Ford, to prove his sincerity, sat down upon the st

and-running. There ain't," he confided with a twinkle, "any use at all in trying to keep a secret from your wife; not," he qualified, "from a wife like Kate! So she knows the whole darned thing, and she's sore as the deuce because I didn't bring you up to the house right away when you came. She thinks you're sufferin' from them wo

ts of water on a barrel of burning rags," Ford belit

talk to about something besides dresses and the proper way to cure sprained ankles, and whether the grocer sent out t

rd snorted. "And

ued. She's laid up now-got bucked off, or fell off, or something y

ating each other as soon as we got in talking distance. She sent me to catch h

t. I went out to hunt her up-Kate got kinda worried about her-and she told me about you, and we did wait a little while. But it was getting cold, and she was hurt pretty bad and getting kinda wobbly, so I put her on my horse and brought her home. But she left a note for you, and I sent a man back aft

y. "I don't want to bump into her again; a lit

, if I go back without you-and she'll give me the dickens into the bargain. I want you to get acquainted with my kid-Buddy. He's down in the river field with the boys, but he'll be ba

of. I never met one in my life that didn't hand me a package of trouble so big I couldn't see a

ttle fussy, maybe, over some things-most all women are. But she's all righ

d over the word. "Yes, she is wha