scious of a comforting smell of coffee and pork,
which came from the stove. He sat still, shivering, and blinking at
the girl, while the water trickled from his tattered clothing. He
fancied from the patter on the shingle roof, that it was raining
outside.

"I wonder if you would let me camp in the barn to-night," he said.

The girl's eyes had grown compassionate as she watched him, for there
was a suggestive greyness in his face. It was evident to her that he
was utterly worn-out.

"Go in there," she said, pointing to a door. "You will find some dry
clothes. Put them on."

Nasmyth staggered into a very small room, which had a rude wooden bunk
in it, and with considerable difficulty sloughed off his wet things
and put on somebody else's clothing. Then he came back and sank into a
deer-hide lounge at the table. The girl set a cup of coffee, as well
as some pork and potatoes, before him. He drank the coffee, but
finding, somewhat to his astonishment, that he could scarcely eat, he
lay back in his chair and looked at the girl deprecatingly with
half-closed eyes.

"Sorry I can't do the supper justice. I think I'm ill," he said.

Then his head fell back against the deer-hide lounge, and, while the
girl watched him with a natural consternation, he sank into sleep or
unconsciousness. She was not sure which it was, but he certainly
looked very ill, and, being a capable young woman, she remembered that
within the next hour, the weekly mail-carrier would strike a trail
which passed within a mile of the ranch. Rising, she touched Nasmyth's
shoulder.

"Stay there, and don't try to get up until I come back," she commanded
in a kindly tone.

Nasmyth, as she had half-expected, said nothing, and, slipping into
another room--there were three in the house--she returned, wearing
a jacket of coarse fur, and went quietly out into the rain. It was
dark now, but she had, as it happened, not long to wait for the
mail-carrier.

"I want you to call at Gordon's ranch, Dave," she told the man. "Tell
him he is to come along as soon as he can. There's a stranger here who
seems very ill."

The mail-carrier would have asked questions, but she cut him short.

"How long will it be before you can tell Gordon?" she asked.

"Well," answered the man reflectively, "I'm heading right back for the
settlement, but it's a league to Gordon's, anyway. He could be here in
two hours, if he starts right off, and, considering what the trail's
like, th