nd airy as his own?
There's a door between, and when it's open they can see each other. When
I left Jord the door was open, and he was staring in at Aleck, who was
still sleeping off the anesthetic, and a big tear was running down
Jord's cheek. He can't stir himself, but that doesn't seem to bother him
any. He's going to suffer a lot of pain with his back, but he'll suffer
ten times more looking at that bandaged shoulder of Aleck's."

* * * * *

It was four days later that Ellen saw King. She was prepared to find
him, as Burns had called him, "game," but she had not known just all
that term means among men when it is applied to such a one as he. If he
had been receiving her after having suffered a bad wrench of the ankle
he could not have treated the occasion more simply.

"This is mighty good of you," he said, reaching up a well-developed
right arm from his bed, where he lay flat on his back without so much as
a pillow beneath his head. His hair was carefully brushed, his bandages
were concealed, his lips were smiling, and altogether he was, except for
his prostrate position, no picture of an invalid.

"I've just been waiting to come," she said, returning the firm pressure
of his hand with that of both her own.

"And meanwhile you've kept me reminded of you by these wonderful
flowers," he said with a nod toward the ranks on ranks of roses which
crowded table and window sills.

"Oh, but not all those!" she denied. "I might have known you would be
deluged with them. Daisies and buttercups out of the fields would have
been better."

"No, because those you sent look like you. Doctor Burns won't grudge me
the pleasure of saying now what I like to his wife--and it's the first
time I've really dared tell you what I thought."

"What a charming compliment! But I'm going to send you something much
more substantial now--good things to eat, and books to read, if I can
just find out what you like--and even games to play, if you care for
them."

"I'll be delighted, if they're something Aleck and I can play together.
You see when that door is open we aren't far apart, and it won't be
long, Doctor Burns says, before he'll be walking in here to keep me
company--till he gets out."

"He is doing well, I hear. I'm so glad."

"Yes, that husky young constitution of his is telling finely--plus your
husband's surgery. My poor boy!" He shut his lips upon the words, and
kept them closely pressed toge