Her lips moved; she was repeating to herself--

"No more worry, no more trouble, no more tears."

She was bewildered with the problems which confronted her, frightened by
the overwhelming odds against her, tired of thinking, sick to death of
the humiliation of her position. She stopped the guttural, wheedling
voice with a quick, vehement gesture.

"Give me time to think--give me until to-morrow morning."

"What time to-morrow morning?"

"At ten o'clock,"--there was desperation in her face--"at ten to-morrow
I will tell you 'yes' or 'no.'"

She was clutching at a straw, clinging to a faint hope which had not
entirely deserted her: she might yet get a letter from Van Lennop, just
a line to let her know that he cared enough to send it; and if it came,
a single sentence, she knew well enough what her answer to Dubois would
be.

"Until to-morrow." The old Frenchman bowed low in clumsy and
unaccustomed politeness, but gloating satisfaction shone from his
deep-set eyes, small and hard as two gray marbles.

XX

AN UNFORTUNATE AFFAIR

Billy Duncan was in a bad way, so it was reported to the men upon the
works, and the men to show their sympathy and liking for the
fair-haired, happy-go-lucky Billy Duncan made up a purse of $90 and sent
it to him by Dan Treu, the big deputy-sheriff, who also was Billy
Duncan's friend.

"It'll buy fruit for the kid, something to read, and a special nurse if
he needs one," they told the deputy and they gave the money with the
warmest of good wishes.

Dan Treu took their gift to the hospital, and Billy Duncan burst into
tears when he saw him.

"Oh, come, come! Buck up, Billy, you're goin' to pull through all
right."

"Dan! Dan! Take me out of here--take me away! Quick!"

The deputy looked his surprise.

"What's the matter, Billy? What's wrong?"

"Everything's wrong, Dan, everything!" His voice was shrill in his
weakness. "I'm goin' to croak if you don't get me out of here!"

Dan Treu bent over him and patted his shoulder as he would have
comforted a child.

"There, there, don't talk like that, Billy. You're not goin' to croak.
You're a little down in the mouth, that's all." He glanced around the
tiny room. "It looks clean and comfortable here; you're lucky to have a
place like this to go to and Doc's a blamed good fellow. She'll pull you
through."

"But she ain't, Dan--she ain't anything that we thought. Lay here sick
if you want to find her out. She thinks we do