someone is in there who is hurt pretty badly.'

Somebody I know?' Aurora clutched Mary Kyley's arm, and stared into her
face with a sudden new fear.

'Yes, deary, somebody you know.'

It's Jim!'

Mary Kyley nodded her bead, and mopped her tears. 'Yes, it's Jimmy Done.'

Aurora paled to her eyes, her lips tightened to thin purple lines across
her white teeth, and she fought with Mary for a moment, seeking to make
her way into the tent; but Mrs. Kyley was a powerful woman, and in her
grasp, when she was really determined, Aurora was as a mere child.

'For God's sake, let me see him!' said the young woman.

'You mustn't be a fool, Aurora,' the washerwoman said firmly. 'I can't
let you go blundering in on to a sick man--and this one is a very sick
man.'

'He's dying!'

'No, no; he'll not die easily--he's tough stuff; but he's got two ugly
wounds, and we'll have to handle him fine and gently. Pull yourself up,
Aurora dear.' She wound her strong arms fondly about the girl and kissed
her cheek, and, with a restraining arm still about her, led her into the
tent.

Jim Done lay on Mary Kyley's comfortable white bed. His face was ghastly.
Aurora uttered a little cry of pain and terror at the sight of him. There
was blood upon the sheets and the pillows, and Wat Ryder, working in his
shirt-sleeves, was deftly closing a gaping scalp wound with horsehair
stitches.

Ryder had carried Jim straight to Kyley's tent, and Mrs. Ben received the
wounded man with open arms.

'We may be followed,' he said. 'I've brought him out of the thick of it.
Keep watch, please, and give me warning if you see anything of the
troopers. May I use your bed?'

'My bed! Yes, and my blood and bones if they're any good to you.'

'Your eyes can do me better service. I'm a done man if the police lay a
hand on me, and Jim here needs attention.'

'Then, go to work with an easy mind.'

So Mary kept watch while Ryder worked over Jim with the quickness and
decision of a surgeon. It was not the first time by many that he had
dealt with ugly wounds.

'Don't neglect the watch,' he said, a minute after Aurora's entrance.

Mary looked at Aurora. The girl was now apparently quite composed; she
had cast aside the shawl, and was hastily tying on an apron. So Mrs.
Kyley slipped out again, quite reassured.

'It would be better, perhaps, if I held his head,' said Aurora.

'Yes,' answered Ryder shortly.

She seated herself on the bed, and took Done's hea