arvester. "If I keep this up that long, she is safe. Go and rest
until I call you."

He again bent over the Girl, one hand on her left wrist, the other over
her heart, his eyes on her lips, watching the depth and strength of her
every breath. Regularly he administered the medicine he was giving her.
Sometimes she took it half asleep; again she gave him a smile that to
the Harvester was the supreme thing of earth or Heaven. Toward the end
of the long vigil, in exhaustion he slipped to the floor, and laid his
head on the side of the bed, and for a second his hand relaxed and he
fell asleep. The Girl awakened as his touch loosened and looking down
she saw his huddled body. A second later the Harvester awoke with a
guilty start to find her fingers twisted in the shock of hair on the top
of his head.

"Poor stranded Girl," he muttered. "She's clinging to me for life, and
you can stake all you are worth she's going to get it!"

Then he gently relaxed her grip, gave her the last dose he felt
necessary, yielded his place to Doctor Carey and staggered up the hill.
As the sun peeped over Medicine Woods he stretched himself between the
two mounds under the oak, and for a few minutes his body was rent with
the awful, torn sobbing of a strong man. Belshazzar nosed the twisting
figure and whined pitifully. A chattering little marsh wren tilted on a
bush and scolded. A blue jay perched above and tried to decide whether
there was cause for an alarm signal. A snake coming from the water to
hunt birds ran close to him, and changing its course, went weaving away
among the mosses. Gradually the pent forces spent themselves, and for
hours the Harvester lay in the deep sleep of exhaustion, and stretched
beside him, Belshazzar guarded with anxious dog eyes.

CHAPTER XVIII. THE BETTER MAN

In the middle of the afternoon the Harvester arose and went into the
lake, ate a hearty dinner, and then took up his watch again. For two
days and nights he kept his place, until he had the Girl out of danger,
and where careful nursing was all that was required to insure life
and health. As he sat beside her the last day, his physical endurance
strained to the breaking point, she laid her hand over his, and looked
long and steadily into his eyes.

"There are so many things I want to know," she said.

The Harvester's firm fingers closed over hers. "Ruth, have you ever been
sorry that you trusted me?"

"Never!" said the Girl instantly.

"Then su