h one hand?" asked Billy Louise with quavering flippancy.

"Kiss me!"

"Ah--might catch the hookin'-cough," bantered Billy Louise, leaning a
bit closer.

"Kiss me!"

"Oh, well, I s'pose sick folks have to be humored." Billy Louise
leaned closer still. "Mighty few kissy places left," she observed with
the same shaky flippancy, a minute later. "Say, Ward, you look for all
the world like old Sourdough Williams!" Sourdough Williams, it may be
remarked, was a particularly hairy and unkempt individual who lived a
more or less nomadic life in the hills, trapping.

"You look like--" Ward groped foggily for a simile. Angel was
altogether too commonplace.

"Like the lady who's going to get busy right now, making you well.
What have you been doing to yourself? Never mind; I don't want you
talking yourself crazy again. Do you know you tried to shoot me up
when I came in? And you made me start in to write a record of my sins.
But that's all right, seeing you've got the hookin'-cough, I'll forgive
you this once. Lie still--and let go my hand. I want to put a wet
cloth on your head."

"Did I--"

"You did; and then some. Forget it. You've got a terrible cold; and
from the looks of things, you've had it for about six months." Her
eyes went comprehensively about that end of the cabin, with the
depleted cracker-box, the half-emptied boxes of peaches and tomatoes,
and the buckets that were all but empty of water. She was shocked at
the pitiful evidence of long helplessness. She did not quite
understand. Surely Ward's cold had not kept him in bed so long.

"Well, this is no time for mirth or laughter," she said briskly, to
hide how close she was to hysteria, "since it looks very much like 'the
morning after.' First, we've got to tackle that fever of yours." She
picked up a water-pail and started for the door. As she passed the
foot of the bunk, she confiscated the two revolvers and took them
outside with her. She had no desire to be mistaken again for Buck
Olney.

When she came back, Ward's eyes were wild again, and he started up in
bed and glared at her. Billy Louise laughed at him and told him to lie
down like a nice buckaroo, and Ward, recalled to himself by her voice,
obeyed. She got the wash-basin and a towel and prepared to bathe his
head. He wanted a drink. And when she held a cup to his lips and saw
how greedily he drank, a little sob broke unexpectedly from her lips.
She gritted her teeth afte