him,
and poor pay they often brought him, except as love of his fellow-men
rewarded his spirit.

During the long days and nights that followed Dorothy scarcely left
Wade's bedside, for to her mother now fell the burdens of the ranch
household. From feeling that she never would be equal to the task of
caring for so many people, Mrs. Purnell came to find her health greatly
improved by her duties, which left her no opportunity for morbid
introspection.

Santry, too, was in almost constant attendance upon the sick man, and
was as tender and solicitous in his ministrations as Dorothy herself. He
ate little and slept less, relieving his feelings by oaths whispered
into his mustache. He made the ranch hands move about their various
duties as quietly as mice. Dorothy grew to be genuinely fond of him,
because of their common bond of sympathy with Wade. Frequently they sat
together in the sickroom reading the newspapers, which came out from
town each day. On one such occasion, when Santry had twisted his mouth
awry in a determined effort to fold the paper he was reading without
permitting a single crackle, she softly laughed at him.

"You needn't be so careful. I don't think it would disturb him."

The old fellow sagely shook his head.

"Just the same, I ain't takin' no chances," he said.

A moment afterward he tiptoed over to her, grinning from ear to ear, and
with a clumsy finger pointed out the item he had been reading. An
expression of pleased surprise flooded her face when she read it; they
laughed softly together; and, finding that he was through with the
paper, she put it away in a bureau drawer, meaning to show that item
some day to Gordon.

Under the care of Dr. Catlin who rode out from Crawling Water each day,
and even more because of Dorothy's careful nursing, the wounded man was
at last brought beyond the danger point and started on the road to
health. He was very weak and very pale, but the one danger that Catlin
had feared and kept mostly to himself, the danger of blood-poisoning,
was now definitely past, and the patient's physical condition slowly
brought about a thorough and complete recovery.

"Some of it you owe to yourself, Wade, as the reward of decent living,
and some of it you owe to the Lord," Catlin told him smilingly. "But
most of it you owe to this little girl here." He patted Dorothy on the
shoulder and would not permit her to shirk his praise. "She's been your
nurse, and I can tell you it is