ead and smiled. "No, thank you," he said, half
amused. "I seldom take anything before luncheon."

"But, say--we'd like to fix it with ye--what's the damage, Doc'?" and
half a dozen rough hands went into their trousers pockets. But Sperry
only waved his hand in an embarrassed way in protest, and added:

"Of course not--what I have done for one of you men, I would do for
anybody. I shall see him in the morning"--and he strode out of the
shanty.

By this time the little Frenchman's eyes were closed, and he was
breathing heavily--he was dead drunk.

"Goll! warn't that an awful hooker ye give him, Freme?" asked
the trapper. He turned to the sufferer, now that the doctor had
disappeared, and drew an extra blanket tenderly over him.

"Wall, he ain't no home'path," replied the Clown with a grin; "'sides,
I presume likely he needed all he could git down him."

* * * * *

The days that followed were full of joy to Alice. Never had Thayor
seen her in so merry a mood. Le Boeuf's broken arm had somehow
changed Thayor's attitude toward his guest--so much so that the
man's personality no longer jarred on him. He concluded that whatever
suspicions he had had--and they were never definite--were groundless.
Alice was simply bored in New York and Sperry amused her. That was the
secret of his success with his women patients; she was bored here, and
again Sperry amused her! Why not, then, give her all the pleasure
she wanted? With this result fixed in his mind, his attitude to the
"Exquisite" changed. He even sought out ways in which his guest's stay
could be made happy.

"You must see the trout pond, doctor," he would say. "Ah! you don't
believe we've got one--but we have; you must show it to the doctor, my
dear"--at which her eyes would seek her friend's, only to be met with
an answering look and the words:

"Delighted, my dear Mrs. Thayor," as he dropped a second lump of sugar
in his cup. Whereupon the two would disappear for the day, it being
nearly dusk before they returned again to camp; Alice bounding into
the living room radiant from her walk, her arms full of wild flowers.

There came a day, however, when Sperry, with one of his sudden
resolves, preferred the daughter's company to the wife's. What had
influenced his decision he must have confided to Alice--that is, his
version of it--for when he asked Margaret to come for a walk, and had
received the girl's answer, "I'm afraid we haven't t