"You must have some lightning method of saddling, Mr. Seabeck," she smiled over her shoulder at him when he came up.
"We learn to do things quick when we've handled cattle a few years," he admitted. He had a diffident manner of receiving compliments which pleased Billy Louise and gave her confidence a needed brace. She was not a skilled coquette; she was too honest and too straightforward for that. Still, nature places certain weapons in the hands of a woman, and instinct shows her how to use them. Seabeck, from his very unaccustomedness to women, seemed to her particularly pliable. Billy Louise took her courage in both hands and went straight to the point.
"Mr. Seabeck, I've always heard that you're an awfully square man," she said. "Daddy seemed to think that you could be depended on in any kind of a pinch. I hope it's true. I'm banking a lot on your squareness to-day."
"Why, I don't know about my being any better than my neighbors," he said, with a twinkle of humor in his eyes, which were a bright, unvarying blue. "But you can bank on my doing anything I can for you, Miss MacDonald. I think I could be even better than square--to help a plucky little girl who--"
"I don't mean just the ordinary squareness," Billy Louise put in quietly. "I mean bigness, too; a bigness that will make a man be more than square; a bigness that will let him see all around a thing and judge it from a bigger viewpoint than mere justice--"
"Hm-mm--if you could trust me enough to--"
"I'm going to, Mr. Seabeck. I'm going to take it for granted you're bigger than your own squareness. And if you're not--if you're just a selfish, weak, letter-perfect, honest man, I'll--feel like--thrashing you." Without a doubt that was the Billy of her which spoke.
"I'll take the thrashing if you think I need it," he promised, looking at her with something more than admiration. "What have you done, Miss MacDonald? If I can help you hide the body--"
"There!" Billy Louise dared to wrinkle her nose at him--and I don't know which of her did it. "I knew you'd play up like a good sport. But what if it isn't a body? What if--what if you found some of your cattle with--with a big D--run over your brand?" She had a perfectly white line around her mouth and nostrils then, but she faced him squarely.
"Hm-mm!" Seabeck gave her a quick, sidewise glance and pulled thoughtfully at the graying whiskers that pointed his chin. "I would have been glad to lend you money, or help you in any way."