xtreme; and his bed a pile of
hemlock boughs spread with a woollen blanket. He lay for some time
trying to think where he was and what had happened to him, and idly
watching the bent figure of a man sitting just outside the doorway of
the hut. The man was smoking and a little boy was playing in the sand at
his feet.

Jim couldn't see anything interesting in these two strangers nor in the
cabin itself and, with a feeling of great weakness, closed his eyes once
more, and for many hours of sound, refreshing sleep. When for the third
time he awoke his senses had returned and only the weakness remained. He
tried to speak and after several efforts succeeded in asking, audibly:

"Where am I?"

At sound of his voice the man outside rose and came to the boy, nodding
his head in satisfaction but in silence.

"Where--am--I?" asked Jim, again.

The man shook his head. By his appearance he was Mexican, but he wore an
Indian costume of buckskin, once gaily decorated and fringed but now
worn and very dirty. His straight black hair hung low over his forehead
and his hands looked as if they had never seen water. His face was not
ugly, neither was it kind; and he seemed more stolid than stupid.

"Where--am--I? Who are you?" again demanded Jim, trying to get up, but
instantly sinking back from utter weakness.

There was no answer; but, after a long contemplation of his guest, the
Mexican crossed to a little stove, wherein a few sticks were burning.
From a rusty coffee pot which stood upon it, he poured some liquid into
a tin cup and brought it to the lad.

Jim tried to sit up and take the cup into his own hand but he could not;
so, with unexpected gentleness, the man slipped his arm under his
patient's shoulders and raised him to a half-sitting posture. Then he
held the cup to Jim's lips, who drank eagerly, the muddy coffee seeming
like nectar to his dry, parched throat.

The drink refreshed him but he was still too weak to rise, or even care
to do so. Dozing and waking, wondering a little over his situation yet
mostly indifferent to everything, the hours passed.

Jim's interest was next aroused by the man's dressing of his arm. He did
this with real skill, removing the big leaves of some healing plant,
with which it had been bound, and replacing these with fresh ones,
confining them in place by long strips of split reeds.

The soft, cool leaves were wonderfully comforting and with the easing of
the pain serious thoughts came