orite
with the inhabitants of the Silent City, and now that he was so ill, all
the other squatters did what they could for his sorrowing daughter.

"Come in, Jake," invited Tess. "Mebbe Daddy'd like to see ye.... He
ain't up yet.... Wait a minute.... I'll ask 'im!"

Jake stayed her with a chuckle and a beckoning motion of his forefinger.

"First I'll give ye what I brung ye, Tess," he said, while he fumbled in
his pocket. "Here! Look! It air a letter with a big ship up in the
corner of it.... Ain't it cute?"

Tessibel held out a trembling hand for the square envelope Brewer
proffered her. How many times within the past weeks had she visualized a
ship as it took its rapid way to the other side of the world! How many
times had she seen her husband with Madelene Waldstricker on that
pictured steamer! Now here it was before her very eyes, more stately
even than her mind had portrayed it. She stared at the letter, her face
going very white.

"Ye don't seem to be tickled, brat," said the squatter, grinning.

"I air, though, Jake," she replied, "awful tickled.... Come on in an'
see Daddy!"

She slipped the letter into her pocket and led the way to the back room.

She bent over the bed and roused her father.

"Jake air here to see ye, Daddy," she said. "Sit down, Jake! He can't
talk very loud, but ye can see he air awful glad to have ye here....
Daddy dear, Jake Brewer air tryin' to shake hands with ye."

Orn's great hand lifted slowly.

"Glad to see ye, Jake," he mumbled. "I ain't the best this mornin'!"

"Ye'll get better with the goin' of the warm weather," consoled Jake.
"These days be hot now for the wellest of us."

"Yep," murmured Daddy Skinner, drowsily.

Tessibel left the two men alone, and went back to the kitchen. Her
throat was filled with longing, her lips drawn a little closer together.
She sat down near the door, looking out upon the lake. She dared not
open the letter then, not until Jake had gone and Daddy was asleep.

Brewer came out quietly, his cheerful manner subdued somewhat.

Tess got to her feet. She tried to smile, but the serious expression on
the squatter's face brought her quickly to his side.

"Jake," she murmured, quick-breathed, "ye think he air awful sick, eh?"

Brewer shifted his gaze out through the door. The sight of the girl's
pleading face hurt him.

"He ain't real pert; that air a fact," was his reply.

"We air doin' everythin' we can think of," Tess told him. "Mr. Yo