our that caused the boy to
start off his seat and almost capsize the cup, "did I not forbid you to
enter my hut or to touch me?"

At first Cormac looked alarmed, but, seeing that a decided change for
the better had taken place in his patient, his brow smoothed and he
laughed softly.

"How dared you to disobey me?" exclaimed Bladud again in stern tones.

"I dared because I saw you were unable to prevent me," returned the lad,
with a quiet smile. "Besides, you were too ill to feed yourself, so, of
course, I had to do it for you. Do you suppose I am so ungrateful to
the man who saved my life as to stand aside and let him die for want of
a helping hand? Come, now, be reasonable and let me give you this
drink." He approached as he spoke.

"Keep off!--keep off, I say," shouted the prince in a voice so resolute
that Cormac was fain to obey. "It is bad enough to come into my hut,
but you _must not_ touch me!"

"Why not?--I have touched you already."

"How! when?"

"I have lifted your head many a time to enable you to drink when you
could not lift it yourself."

A groan escaped Bladud.

"Then it is too late! Look at this," he cried, suddenly uncovering his
arm.

"What is that?" asked the boy, with a look of curiosity.

"It is--leprosy!"

"I am not afraid of leprosy!"

"Not afraid of it!" exclaimed the prince, "that may well be, for you
have the air of one who fears nothing; but it will kill you for all
that, unless the Maker of all defends you, for it is a dread--a
terrible--disease that no strength can resist or youth throw off. It
undermines the health and eats the flesh off the bones, renders those
whom it attacks horrible to look at, and in the end it kills them. But
it is possible that you may not yet have caught the infection, poor lad,
so you must keep away from me now, and let not a finger touch me
henceforth. Your life, I say, may depend on it."

"I will obey you as to that," replied Cormac, "now that you are
beginning to recover, but I must still continue to put food and water
within your reach."

"Be it so," rejoined the prince, turning away with a slight groan, for
his excitement not less than the conversation had exhausted him. In a
few minutes more he was asleep with an expression of profound anxiety
stereotyped on his countenance.

It was not long after the fever left him that returning strength enabled
Bladud to crawl out of his hut, and soon after that he was able to
ramble throu