or himself in the tool shack. I'll put a canteen of
water and a blanket in there and by morning he'll be ready for
conversation."

"But he won't be. Drink makes him terribly sick. His stomach is very
bad. That's why I always say it's stomach trouble. He ought to be taken
care of to-night."

"He'll stay where he is and by himself," said Roger, grimly. "When I
have a temper fit the next time, you can do the same by me. Lord, I'm
glad Elsa is here! You lie quiet while I go milk."

When he had put the milk away he found that Charley had braided her hair
but was still very white and shaken. Dick's shouts and curses floated in
at the open door. Roger tied the little bundle of night things she had
made up to the saddle and helped her to mount. She swayed dizzily and he
put a strong, steadying arm about her. They made their way very slowly
and Roger heaved a sigh of relief when they were finally beyond ear
shot of poor Dick.

Elsa met them a short distance from the camp. "Hello, Charley," she
said. "Felicia has just fallen asleep."

Roger nodded and at the living-tent door, helped Charley from the
saddle. "Get this patient to sleep too, Elsa, if you can."

Elsa's eyes filled with tears as she looked at Charley. "You poor dear,"
she said, "come and let me take care of you."

One touch of a woman's sympathy, after her starved years, was too much
for Charley. She burst into deep drawn sobs. Elsa, motioning Roger away,
put her arm about the girl and led her into the tent.

Roger paced up and down in the sand for a while, listening to the low
despairing sobs from the tent. Then he unsaddled Peter and put a huge
bottle of water to heat. He had heard somewhere that women took great
comfort in a cup of tea.

Roger passed rather a restless night. He had put Elsa's cot which she
never had used, in the living tent so that Elsa could be close to her
two patients, and himself put in the night in Gustav's shack which was
built against the kitchen tent.

It was early July and the summer's heat was at its height. Three times
between midnight and dawn Roger scratched a match and looked at the
thermometer. It never registered below 118 deg.. Even the night wind did not
rise. The silence of the desert was complete as though torridity had
overwhelmed every other aspect of nature. The stars were magnificent and
for an hour or so, hoping to find the air outside cooler, Roger put a
blanket on the work bench near the condenser and lay ther