is
heart and vibrated through his prayer.

Ike's face never lost its impassive gravity. Whatever may have been his
feelings, he gave no sign of emotion. But the lad that kneeled on the
other side of Shock pressed his face down hard into his hands, while
his frame shook with choking, silent sobs. All that was holiest and
tenderest in his past came crowding in upon him, in sad and terrible
contrast to his present.

Immediately after the prayer Shock slipped out of the shack.

"I say, boss," said Ike, as he poked the fire, "he's a winner, aint he?
Guess he hits the sky all right, when he gets onto his knees. By the
livin' Gimmini! when that feller gits a-goin' he raises considerable of
a promotion."

"Commotion, Ikey," said The Kid gently. "Yes, I believe he hits the
sky--and he says he needs a Keeper."

"Well," said Ike solemnly, "I have a lingerin' suspicion that you're
correct, but if he needs a Keeper, what about us?"

XIII

THE PRESIDENT OF GUY'S, LONDON

Dr. Burton was never quite clear as to how he had found himself in the
early morning on the Loon Lake trail, with a man whom he had never seen
before, nor how, after he had discovered himself in that position, he
had been persuaded to continue his journey, much less to take up with
such enthusiasm the treatment of the cases to which he had been
summoned by that same stranger. Indeed, he did not come to a clear
consciousness of his sayings and doings until he found himself seated
at a most comfortable breakfast in the house of the Old Prospector,
with this same strange gentleman sitting opposite him. Even then,
before reaching a solution of the problem as to how he had arrived at
that particular place and in that particular company, to his amazement
he found himself interested in the discussion of the cases on hand.

With the Old Prospector he had little difficulty. Inflammatory
rheumatism, with a complication of pneumonia; in itself not necessarily
fatal, or even dangerous, but with a man of the Old Prospector's age
and habits of life this complication might any moment become serious.
He left some medicine, ordered nourishing food, perfect rest and quiet,
and was about to depart.

"How soon shall I be up, doctor?" enquired the Old Prospector.

"I wouldn't worry."

"A week?"

"A week! If you are on your legs in a month you may be thankful."

"Doctor," said the Old Prospector in a tone of quiet resolution, "it is
vitally important that. I sho