ur work in the
Kootenai country is over. Your fortune is made."

CHAPTER XIV.

NEW-COMERS.

Many days went by after that before more time was given to the hunting of
gold in that particular valley of the Kootenai lands; for before another
day broke, the squaw spoke at the door of Overton's tent and told him the
girl was sick with fever, that she talked as a little child babbles and
laughs at nothing.

He went with her, and the face he had seen so pale in the moonlight was
flushed a rosy red, and her arms tossed meaninglessly, while she
muttered--muttered! Sometimes her words were of the gold, and of flowers.
He even heard his name on her lips, but only once; and then she cried out
that he hurt her. She was ill--very ill; he could see that, and help must
be had.

He went for it as swiftly as a boat could be sped over the water. During
the very short season of waiting for the doctor and Mrs. Huzzard, he wrote
to Lyster, and secured some Indians for work needed. If the doctor thought
her able for the journey, he meant to have her brought back in a boat to
Sinna Ferry, where she would have something more substantial than canvas
walls about her.

But the doctor did not. He was rather mystified by her sudden illness, as
there had been no forewarnings of it. That it was caused by some shock was
possible; and that it was serious was beyond doubt.

The entire party, and especially Mrs. Huzzard, were taken aback by finding
a newly arrived, self-imposed guardian at the door of Tana's tent. It was
the blanket-draped figure of old Akkomi, and his gaily painted canoe was
pulled up on the bank of the creek.

"I heard on the wind the child was sick," he said briefly to Overton. "I
come to ask if you needed help."

But Overton looked at him suspiciously. It was impossible that he could
have heard of her illness so soon, though he might have heard of her
presence there.

"Were any of your people here at nightfall yesterday?" he asked. The old
fellow shook his head.

"No, none of my people," he said briefly; then he puffed away at his pipe,
and looked approvingly at Mrs. Huzzard, who tried to pass him without
turning her back to him at all, and succeeded in making a circuit bearing
some relation to progress made before a throne, though the relationship
was rather strained. His approving eyes filled her with terror; for, much
as she had reveled in Indian romances (on paper) in her youth, she had no
desire to take any