e, and wonder what he could do while at
the mission to help in any way. He was paying for his board, and by the
plan arranged between Douglas and Masters they were to provide medical
help or nursing if necessary. But Bauer had surprised everyone by his
wonderful response to nature's help and it looked now very much as if in
less than six months he would be on the road to full recovery. It was
now the last of June and the desert heat was pulsing over all the
strange land, but Bauer was drinking in health and beginning to yield to
the glamour of the place.
"Guide me, Oh, Thou Great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this desert land"--a
voice soared up close by, ringing down past Bauer, and he looked up
towards the Mission.
Down the slight elevation came a young woman with a group of children
following. As they came down near where he sat, Bauer saw it was Miss
Gray and half a dozen of her charges who had been left in her care while
Miss Clifford and one of the housemaids had driven over to the Canyon to
see a sick woman.
She came and sat down on the sand at the side of the old log and said in
a perfectly simple and friendly manner, free from all hint of
embarrassment:
"I saw you were all alone here, Mr. Bauer, and came down to see if there
was anything you needed. If you want to be alone, I'll go away."
"Why, no, I don't need anything, and I don't want you to go away, at
least not until I have tried to tell you what is not easy to say, what a
wonderful thing that you--that you actually saved my life from that
treacherous stream!"
"Oh, I was only too glad to do it, it wasn't any trouble at all, don't
think of such a thing," the young woman tried to speak lightly, thinking
she detected a note of unnecessary shyness in the German youth.
To her surprise Bauer burst out laughing.
"I beg pardon, Miss Gray, but that is just what Mr. Clifford said you
would say if I tried to thank you, and I couldn't help laughing, it
sounded so strange."
"What else did Mr. Clifford say?" asked the lifesaver, looking up
quickly at Bauer.
Bauer was so taken back he couldn't reply. Miss Gray laughed, the most
jolly, contagious laugh Bauer had ever heard.
"Never mind. But isn't Mr. Clifford a character? He's one of the rarest
fellows you ever saw. The most self sacrificing and self forgetful man I
ever knew. And the bravest. I wish you could have seen him in that
tangle with Tracker and the horses. I never expected he would get out
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