,
for it would have brought him to the Hazelton cabin. But he succeeded in
forcing himself to go the other way, arguing that Nellie and her brother
might wish to be alone to consider the great good fortune that had come
upon them.

And so they did, though had Hollis appeared to them this morning as they
sat upon the porch he would have been assured of a royal welcome.
Indeed, during the early morning hours Nellie had cast many furtive,
expectant glances down the Coyote trail. When eight o'clock came and
Hollis did not appear she gave him up.

The dawn found her kneeling beside her brother's bed.

"Ed!" she said, leaning over him, waking him, her eyes alight with joy;
"Ed, he says you can be cured!"

He struggled and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Gosh, sis!" he said in an awed voice. "Then it's true! I was afraid I'd
been dreaming!"

"It is no dream," she returned ecstatically; "it is reality--beautiful
reality! Wasn't it simply _great_ of him to take such an interest
in us?"

"Us?" grinned Ed, noting her crimson, happy face. "Well, mebbe he did it
for _us_," he added subtly, "but I take it I've got a right to have
another opinion on that."

She fled from him without answering and a little later he heard her
singing as she prepared breakfast. After the meal Ed made a short trip
out into the basin to look after his cattle and then returned to the
cabin. Sitting on the porch he and Nellie devoted several hours to a
grave discussion of the situation. They discovered that it had a serious
side.

In the first place there was the dangerous nature of the operation. Here
Ed laughed away his sister's fears by assuring her that he had an
excellent constitution and that since the fall from the pony had not
killed him he was in no danger from the knife. If Nellie entertained any
doubt of this she wisely remained silent, though Ed could see that she
was not entirely reassured. He swept away her last objection to this
forbidding feature when he told her that he preferred taking the risk to
living in constant dread of a recurrence of an acute attack of his
malady--such as he had experienced when he had attacked Hollis in
Devil's Hollow.

There were many other things to be discussed--chiefly the care of the
cattle and the cabin during his absence in Chicago. He would not listen
to her suggestion to accompany him--he would prefer to have her remain
at the cabin. Or he would try to arrange with Hollis for her to stay at
the C