what must have been hell."

They reached the house and went in. No one was there, which fact
relieved Lenore.

"I'm glad mother and the girls won't see you," she said, hurriedly. "Go
up to your room. I'll bring bandages."

He complied without any comment. Lenore searched for what she needed to
treat a wound and ran up-stairs. Dorn was sitting on a chair in his
room, holding his arm, from which blood dripped to the floor. He smiled
at her.

"You would be a pretty Red Cross nurse," he said.

Lenore placed a bowl of water on the floor and, kneeling beside Dorn,
took his arm and began to bathe it. He winced. The blood covered her
fingers.

"My blood on your hands!" he exclaimed, morbidly. "German blood!"

"Kurt, you're out of your head," retorted Lenore, hotly. "If you dare to
say that again I'll--" She broke off.

"What will you do?"

Lenore faltered. What would she do? A revelation must come, sooner or
later, and the strain had begun to wear upon her. She was stirred to her
depths, and instincts there were leaping. No sweet, gentle, kindly
sympathy would avail with this tragic youth. He must be carried by
storm. Something of the violence he had shown with Glidden seemed
necessary to make him forget himself. All his whole soul must be set in
one direction. He could not see that she loved him, when she had looked
it, acted it, almost spoken it. His blindness was not to be endured.

"Kurt Dorn, don't dare to--to say that again!"

She ceased bathing his arm, and looked up at him suddenly quite pale.

"I apologize. I am only bitter," he said. "Don't mind what I say....
It's so good of you--to do this."

Then in silence Lenore dressed his wound, and if her heart did beat
unwontedly, her fingers were steady and deft. He thanked her, with moody
eyes seeing far beyond her.

"When I lie--over there--with--"

"If you go!" she interrupted. He was indeed hopeless. "I advise you to
rest a little."

"I'd like to know what becomes of Glidden," he said.

"So should I. That worries me."

"Weren't there a lot of cowboys with guns?"

"So many that there's no need for you to go out--and start another
fight."

"I did start it, didn't I?"

"You surely did," She left him then, turning in the doorway to ask him
please to be quiet and let the day go by without seeking those excited
men again. He smiled, but he did not promise.

For Lenore the time dragged between dread and suspense. From her window
she saw a motley cr