4

“Then I’d ride like forty devils
  Just to catch upon my face
All the kisses which the tempest
  Pressed upon me in the race. 
How I thought of poor old daddie,
  Whom, perhaps, I’d see no more
If I went clear back to your place,
  While he hurried on before! 
I could hardly bear the burden
  When I’d think of—­both of you;
But that fire you set a-burning,
  One night told me what to do—­
I would see and ask you, Billy,
  If you wouldn’t go with me
Where we both could be with daddie,
  Way out West, where he must be.

5

“Then at last the night that loved me,
  Turned its pent-up furies loose,
Roaring out on me its anger
  And unpitying abuse. 
How the rain beat down upon me! 
  How the lightning burned its track
Through the clouds of storm and thunder
  As I reached your sod-walled shack! 
All was dark within, and quiet,
  When I rapped upon the door. 
Then I saw the flash of matches
  And the lamplight on the floor;
Heard you stomp your heavy boots on,
  Heard you walk and draw the bar,
But the door, when thrown wide open,
  Showed Jim Johnson standing thar.

6

“‘What you doing here?’ I shouted,
  When I saw his hateful leer;
’Tell me what this means, Jim Johnson. 
  Where is Billy?  Ain’t he here?’
He was standing on the doorstep,
  And the light that shone within
Seemed to twist his wrinkled features
  In a sort of wonder-grin. 
‘Well! well!  Nancy! sure’s I’m livin’! 
  Out there in the pouring wet! 
Sure I’ll care for you, Miss Nancy,
  I’ll protect you, don’t you fret! 
I’m a friend that you can count on,
  Does me good to see your face! 
Come in, gal, and dry your garments,
  You have struck the very place!’

7

“You don’t blame me, do you, Billy,
  If I did go in and stay,
Warming by your stove and fire,
  Just to hear what he would say? 
I will try to tell his story
  As he told it, if I can,
Putting in what I remember
  Of his ‘interesting plan.’ 
’Now, then, gal, I heard you calling
  As you stood there in the dark,
On a fellow, named Bill Truly,
  But you shot ’way off the mark. 
Billy ain’t here now, and further,
  He won’t be here, you can bet;
Anyhow, that’s what he told me
  Two weeks past, when we last met.

8

“’When your folks all skipped the country
  I decided I’d move, too;
Thought perhaps you’d get in trouble
  And I’d try to help you through;
So I got beyond the posse,
  Rode like fire upon your track,
Found your dad, and you not with him,
  So I turned and came right back. 
Riding home along the Solomon,—­
  For the truth I pledge my word—­
I met Billy with his horses
  Three miles east of Mingo’s Ford. 
Stopped and shook my hand and told me
  He was so far on his way
To a ranch ’way up in Utah,
  Where he’d made his plans to stay.