ER XXV

Light shone before Duane's eyes--thick, strange light that came and
went. For a long time dull and booming sounds rushed by, filling all.
It was a dream in which there was nothing; a drifting under a burden;
darkness, light, sound, movement; and vague, obscure sense of time--time
that was very long. There was fire--creeping, consuming fire. A dark
cloud of flame enveloped him, rolled him away.

He saw then, dimly, a room that was strange, strange people moving about
over him, with faint voices, far away, things in a dream. He saw again,
clearly, and consciousness returned, still unreal, still strange, full
of those vague and far-away things. Then he was not dead. He lay stiff,
like a stone, with a weight ponderous as a mountain upon him and all his
bound body racked in slow, dull-beating agony.

A woman's face hovered over him, white and tragic-eyed, like one of his
old haunting phantoms, yet sweet and eloquent. Then a man's face bent
over him, looked deep into his eyes, and seemed to whisper from a
distance: "Duane--Duane! Ah, he knew me!"

After that there was another long interval of darkness. When the light
came again, clearer this time, the same earnest-faced man bent over him.
It was MacNelly. And with recognition the past flooded back.

Duane tried to speak. His lips were weak, and he could scarcely move
them.

"Poggin!" he whispered. His first real conscious thought was for Poggin.
Ruling passion--eternal instinct!

"Poggin is dead, Duane; shot to pieces," replied MacNelly, solemnly.
"What a fight he made! He killed two of my men, wounded others. God! he
was a tiger. He used up three guns before we downed him."

"Who-got--away?"

"Fletcher, the man with the horses. We downed all the others. Duane, the
job's done--it's done! Why, man, you're--"

"What of--of--HER?"

"Miss Longstreth has been almost constantly at your bedside. She helped
the doctor. She watched your wounds. And, Duane, the other night, when
you sank low--so low--I think it was her spirit that held yours back.
Oh, she's a wonderful girl. Duane, she never gave up, never lost her
nerve for a moment. Well, we're going to take you home, and she'll go
with us. Colonel Longstreth left for Louisiana right after the fight. I
advised it. There was great excitement. It was best for him to leave."

"Have I--a--chance--to recover?"

"Chance? Why, man," exclaimed the Captain, "you'll get well! You'll pack
a sight of lead all your life. B