then satisfying myself
that the milking process was not finished, slipped off my clothes and
splashed about.

I had just time to get back in my clothes when through the doorway came
the pair, each carrying a porcelain pannikin full of milk.

There was no shadow of fear or horror on her face. It was the old Ruth
who stood before me; nor was there effort in the smile she gave me. She
had been washed clean in the waters of sleep.

"Don't worry, Walter," she said. "I know what you're thinking. But
I'm--ME again."

"Where is Yuruk?" I turned to Drake bruskly to smother the sob of
sheer happiness I felt rising in my throat; and at his wink and warning
grimace abruptly forebore to press the question.

"You men pick out the things and I'll get breakfast ready," said Ruth.

Drake picked up the teakettle and motioned me before him.

"About Yuruk," he whispered when he had gotten outside. "I gave him a
little object lesson. Persuaded him to go down the line a bit, showed
him my pistol, and then picked off one of Norhala's goats with it. Hated
to do it, but I knew it would be good for his soul.

"He gave one screech and fell on his face and groveled. Thought it was
a lightning bolt, I figure; decided I had been stealing Norhala's stuff.
'Yuruk,' I told him, 'that's what you'll get, and worse, if you lay a
finger on that girl inside there.'"

"And then what happened?" I asked.

"He beat it back there." He grinned, pointing toward the forest through
which ran the path the eunuch had shown me. "Probably hiding back of a
tree."

As we filled the container at the outer spring, I told him of the
revelations and the offer Yuruk had made to me.

"Whew-w!" he whistled. "In the nutcracker, eh? Trouble behind us and
trouble in front of us."

"When do we start?" he asked, as we turned back.

"Right after we've eaten," I answered. "There's no use putting it off.
How do you feel about it?"

"Frankly, like the chief guest at a lynching party," he said. "Curious
but none too cheerful."

Nor was I. I was filled with a fever of scientific curiosity. But I was
not cheerful--no!

We ministered to Ventnor as well as we could; forcing open his set jaws,
thrusting a thin rubber tube down past his windpipe into his gullet and
dropping through it a few ounces of the goat milk. Our own breakfasting
was silent enough.

We could not take Ruth with us upon our journey; that was certain; she
must stay here with her brother. She would