Bitlis

“ Does he think his life is worth juggling for? An unlodged stone trips jerkily down the hillside, and some bats blacken the air over his head. Betty is so safe, and so sure, and so ready that he will let the idiot come into her face.
A hand shows through the bushes at the gate of the corral. Billy is forced to turn; it is some one who knows the run of the land. A black figure thrusts through the branches and Betty throws out her ball of death. ”

“ There were men of them rude in virtue as well as strength, and men of them branded with a shifting eye and hunted step. Billy had always had his pleasure with a gun in his hand until these wondrous twelve months of his knowledge of Rudy. That that slight person had no acquaintance with the manner of his former life was due to the respect in which Billy held her. For himself, he couldn't get rid of a troublesome pride when he called up the men—the brakemen, and engineers, and inflated conductors—who had backed away from the steel-ringed mouth of his Colt, his Betty. ”

“ Equally vivid were the flashing eyes of Alice Greggory as she had opened the door at the last.
“For,” as Billy explained to Bertram that evening, after she had told him the story of the morning's adventure, “you see, dear, I had never been really turned out of a house before!”
“I should think not,” scowled her lover, indignantly; “and it's safe to say you never will again. The impertinence of it! But then, you won't see them any more, sweetheart, so we'll just forget it.” ”

“ Miss Cornelia watched his impassive progress, wondering if the Oriental races ever felt terror—she could not imagine all Lizzie’s banshees and kelpies producing a single shiver from Billy. He set down the tray and was about to go as silently as he had come when Miss Cornelia spoke to him on impulse.
“Billy, what’s all this about the cook’s sister not having twins?” she said in an offhand voice. She had not really discussed the departure of the other servants with Billy before. ”

“ It was not till they were entering the grim old door of the grim old house that they thought again of Billie's new discovery—the trunk that jingled.
"Goodness! how could we ever have forgotten it?" cried Billie as she, with Violet and Laura, fairly flew up the stairs, leaving the bewildered boys to follow them.
"Now what's up?" asked Teddy, as he came into the room where the girls had left their treasure. "So many things are happening all at once that it's enough to make a fellow's brain reel."
"It all depends on the brain," said Billie, looking up at him with a twinkle in her eye. ”

“ Then Billy went ashore. He turned the ring three times on his finger and said aloud: “I wish that all things may be as they were before I set out on my adventure.”
No sooner said than done. Billy found himself a boy of proper size. Peter dropped his arms to his side and became a wooden sailor. The bag and spurs and the stick disappeared; only the wishing ring remained of all the magic presents he had received.
Then Billy picked up the ship and stuck it under his arm, and went home to his mother. When he found her, she was counting the gold pieces the Mining Mariner had sent her. ”

“ Let's play—"
"But I want to play get the animals out of the ark," insisted Billy.
"And I say," Betty argued, "that you don't know whether you like to play Grace Darling or not until you try it. Who's going to be captain of the shipwrecked boat, you, Billy, or Gerald? Now, this rug is the Northumberland coast."
"No, sir," shouted Billy, "it's Mt. Ararat."
"Why, children, what's going on?" asked Aunt Florence, who was passing the doorway.
"We all want to play different things," explained Betty.
"Why don't you make signal-flags, like the ones on the chart?" suggested Aunt Florence. ”

“ Billy gave a shout. "Oh, look, Betty! look, Gerald! There's Antoine at the gate, and he's afraid of Hero. He doesn't dare pass him."
"He's calling you, Billy; go get your dog." Gerald laughed as he spoke.
"'Both in safety and in doubt, always keep a good lookout,'" mocked Billy. "He's scared to death. Look at him back up when [Pg 49] Hero walks toward him. 'Should there not be room to turn, stop your ship and go astern.' If Antoine was a boat, he could play Hero was an iceberg. Hey, Bet?"
At last Antoine saw the children.
"If we don't stop laughing," warned Betty, "he'll go away. ”

“ Billy sent the place over to a hotter climate, and turned on his heel to shake off its dust just as the restless eyes of a high-headed roan brought him to a halt.
It was then that he had heard a voice he felt he would never forget.
"There is room," it called.
Billy Owen had gone on looking over the roan. He was not the man to waste Sunday in church.
"Father's to preach on fighting," he heard it again. "There are fights that he stands by." ”

“ It had occurred to him suddenly that perhaps it would not be unalloyed bliss to take this young namesake of William's home with them.
It was not until an hour later, when Billy, Aunt Hannah, and the Henshaws had reached the hotel where they were to spend the night, that the Henshaw brothers began really to get acquainted with Billy. She seemed then more like their own Billy—the Billy that they had known.
“And I'm so glad to be here,” she cried; “and to see you all. America IS the best place, after all!”
“And of America, Boston is the Hub, you know,” Bertram reminded her. ”

“ Bertram's jaw dropped.
“Why, Billy, you don't mean that Will, or you either, would try again for that trumpery teapot!”
“Of course not,” flashed Billy, heatedly. “It isn't the teapot—it's that dear little Mrs. Greggory. Why, dearie, you don't know how poor they are! Everything in sight is so old and thin and worn it's enough to break your heart. The rug isn't anything but darns, nor the tablecloth, either—except patches. It's awful, Bertram!” ”

“ Aunt Florence became white as the daisies, as she stared at Betty, while terror seized Billy.
"It's the sunbonnet girls," gasped Betty; "what do you s'pose is the matter? What is the matter?" she demanded of the flying maidens.
"Indians, Indians, run quick, run, run! I tell you they're after us!"
One glance toward the lake was enough for Betty. She saw canoes being drawn up on the beach, and Indians coming straight toward them. The child was never more frightened [Pg 21] in her life. Forgetting Billy, she and Aunt Florence fairly flew over the rough ground. Billy, poor fellow! ”

“ You know how flighty and unreliable you can be sometimes, Billy, and I don't say that to mean anything against you, either—that's your way. You're just as temperamental in your art, music, as Bertram is in his. You're utterly unsuited to him. If Bertram is to marry anybody, it should be some quiet, staid, sensible girl who would be a help to him. ”

“ My name is Rose Belser, and I'm from Brighting," mentioning a town several miles the other side of North Bend.
"We're awfully glad to know you," Billie answered, with her own particular friendly smile. "I'm Beatrice Bradley, and these are my two chums, Violet Farrington and Laura Jordon. We're from North Bend."
"Glad to know you," said Rose Belser with a quick little nod of her black head. Then she curled herself on the foot of Billie's bed and proceeded to make herself at home.
"I've been staying here for the summer," she told them. "It's an awful place to spend the summer, you know. ”

“ For notwithstanding his unfortunate fear of a gunshot, Billy had always been a great lover of a uniform. As a youngster he would follow the soldiers every parade day, not for the glory of marching in step to the music of the band, but for the chance it gave him to throw back his shoulders, puff out his small chest, and blow on his tin pipe-whistle in adoring imitation of the bugler. He thought there was nothing in the world so important as the bugler. ”

“ Let's walk faster. I don't believe you'll want to stay long, auntie, after you get to the fort."
"I agree with you, Betty, this is a lonesome walk. I almost wish we'd stayed at home."
"Let's turn around and go back," suggested Billy.
"Oh, I must find some beads," Aunt Florence insisted. "Do you ever see Indians around here nowadays?"
"Oh, just tame ones," Billy was honest enough to say.
"You must be brave children," the young [Pg 10] lady remarked, as she followed Betty through the gloomy forest.
"We're used to it," Betty sung over her shoulder, and Billy knew she was laughing. ”

“ It can't be—it really can't be. I—I don't love you—that way, Bertram.”
The man paled a little.
“Billy—forgive me for asking, but it's so much to me—is it that there is—some one else?” His voice shook.
“No, no, indeed! There is no one.”
“It's not—Calderwell?”
Billy's forehead grew pink. She laughed nervously.
“No, no, never!”
“But there are others, so many others!”
“Nonsense, Bertram; there's no one—no one, I assure you!”
“It's not William, of course, nor Cyril. Cyril hates women.” ”

“ Did it come in canoes?"
Antoine shrugged his shoulders. "No, Betty, the dog she bring our mail in those day."
"Dogs!" exclaimed Billy. He was sure there was a story coming.
[Pg 59]
"What do you mean?" inquired Gerald, seating himself in Billy's rocker, while Betty drew her footstool close beside him. "Antoine, what do you mean?"
"Just what I'm say. Dog, she bring our mail in the old day. Did you never hear of a traineau?"
"Yes," admitted Betty. "I have read of traineaus, but I never expected to see any one who ever saw one. Do tell me all about them." ”

“ For at once the little house perched on the hillside became the Mecca for many of the Henshaws' friends who had known Billy as William's merry, eighteen-year-old namesake. There were others, too, whom Billy had met abroad; and there were soft-stepping, sweet-faced old women and an occasional white-whiskered old man—Aunt Hannah's friends—who found that the young mistress of Hillside was a charming hostess. There were also the Henshaw “boys,” and there was always Calderwell—at least, so Bertram declared to himself sometimes. ”

“ Alice Greggory, Billy saw frequently. Billy and Aunt Hannah were great friends with the Greggorys now, and had been ever since the Greggorys' ten-days' visit at Hillside. The cheery little cripple, with the gentle tap, tap, tap of her crutches, had won everybody's heart the very first day; and Alice was scarcely less of a favorite, after the sunny friendliness of Hillside had thawed her stiff reserve into naturalness.
Billy had little to say to Alice Greggory of Arkwright. Billy was no longer trying to play Cupid's assistant. ”

“ He may be a regular thief for all we know, and if he is he ought to be in prison where he belongs. Every once in a while," her voice lowered and she looked over her shoulder nervously, "I dream about him, and when I do he always has a mask or something over his eyes, but his codfish mouth is always there sort of grinning at me——"
"Billie!" cried Laura and Vi in the same voice, and Laura got up suddenly, sat on her pillow, and regarded Billie with startled eyes. ”

“ Britling.
"But it makes work for the servants."
"Do they complain?"
"No."
"Things will adjust themselves. And it is amusing that he should do such a thing...."
And now Billy had disappeared, and Herr Heinrich was on the verge of tears. It was so ungrateful of Billy. Without a word.
"They leave my window open," he complained to Mr. Direck. "Often I have askit them not to. And of course he did not understand. He has out climbit by the ivy. Anything may have happened to him. Anything. He is not used to going out alone. He is too young. ”

“ Bertram rallied his wits to respond to the challenge.
“No heart, Miss Billy? Now isn't that just a bit hard on us—right at first?”
“Not a mite, if you take it the way I mean it,” dimpled Billy. “Hearts that are all right just keep on pumping, and you never know they are there. ”

“ As to the artist himself, Bertram's face showed drawn lines and his eyes sombre shadows, but his words and manner carried a stolid indifference that to Billy was at once heartbreaking and maddening.
“But, Bertram, why don't you do something? Why don't you say something? Why don't you act something?” she burst out one day.
The artist shrugged his shoulders.
“But, my dear, what can I say, or do, or act?” he asked.
“I don't know, of course,” sighed Billy. “But I know what I'd like to do. I should like to go out and—fight somebody!” ”

“ He came up here with canoes full of beads and things to trade with the Indians for furs. On the way he was warned again and again to go back if he didn't want to be killed. He probably would have been killed long before he got here if he hadn't put on the clothes of a Canadian voyageur."
"They're the ones," interrupted Billy, "that used to paddle the canoes and sing 'Row, brothers, row,' and—"
"She knows that," sniffed Betty; "even our baby knows that much. Well, auntie, when Alexander Henry got here, the Canadians were bad to him and tried to scare him. ”

“ He wondered if Betty's orange was anywhere near as good. Later in the evening Gerald went out on the beach with his father to see if there were any boats in sight to be reported. While he was gone, Betty prepared to eat her orange.
"Come on, Billy," she suggested, "get your rocker, and we'll eat our oranges while mamma undresses the baby. I'm glad it is a chilly night, so we had to have a fire in the grate."
A wistful expression crept into Billy's face. "I gave my orange to Antoine to take to 'Phonse," was his reply in sorrowful tones. ”