ng after yourself."

But on returning from her cabin with what store she possessed of lint
and stimulants, she encountered a rebel, independent as ever. Molly
would hear no talk about saving her strength, would not be in any room
but this one until the doctor should arrive; then perhaps it would be
time to think about resting. So together the dame and the girl rinsed
the man's wound and wrapped him in clean things, and did all the little
that they knew--which was, in truth, the very thing needed. Then they
sat watching him toss and mutter. It was no longer upon Indians or
the sorrel horse that his talk seemed to run, or anything recent,
apparently, always excepting his work. This flowingly merged with
whatever scene he was inventing or living again, and he wandered
unendingly in that incompatible world we dream in. Through the medley of
events and names, often thickly spoken, but rising at times to grotesque
coherence, the listeners now and then could piece out the reference from
their own knowledge. "Monte," for example, continually addressed, and
Molly heard her own name, but invariably as "Miss Wood"; nothing less
respectful came out, and frequently he answered some one as "ma'am."
At these fragments of revelation Mrs. Taylor abstained from speech, but
eyed Molly Wood with caustic reproach. As the night wore on, short lulls
of silence intervened, and the watchers were deceived into hope that the
fever was abating. And when the Virginian sat quietly up in bed, essayed
to move his bandage, and looked steadily at Mrs. Taylor, she rose
quickly and went to him with a question as to how he was doing.

"Rise on your laigs, you polecat," said he, "and tell them you're a
liar."

The good dame gasped, then bade him lie down, and he obeyed her with
that strange double understanding of the delirious; for even while
submitting, he muttered "liar," "polecat," and then "Trampas."

At that name light flashed on Mrs. Taylor, and she turned to Molly; and
there was the girl struggling with a fit of mirth at his speech; but the
laughter was fast becoming a painful seizure. Mrs. Taylor walked Molly
up and down, speaking mmediately to arrest her attention.

"You might as well know it," she said. "He would blame me for speaking
of it, but where's the harm all this while after? And you would never
hear it from his mouth. Molly, child, they say Trampas would kill him if
he dared, and that's on account of you."

"I never saw Trampas," s