telligence lighting his face for the moment. "How did you come here?
Say, that water is fine!"

Dropping back among the pillows, the exhausted man slept; and Tabitha,
relieved of her responsibility, crept away to hold a quiet jubilation
with Tom before she, too, fell asleep, worn out by her tireless vigil.

Meanwhile the stranger busied himself with the neglected housework, and
soon the cottage took on a comfortable appearance again; Tom's spirits
began to rise and hope to sing in his discouraged heart once more.
Perhaps things were not as bad as they had seemed after all. At evening
the busy doctor drove up again, and was rejoiced to find both patient
and nurse still sleeping.

"There is a big storm brewing up in the mountains," he announced
jubilantly, "and we ought to have it a bit cooler here in a few hours.
Let them sleep as long as they will; both need it. Keep up your courage,
Tom; Simmons is a jewel and knows just what to do." He was gone again,
leaving Tom standing on the steps in the blackness of the night, singing
in his heart a hymn of thanksgiving.

The storm broke at length with terrible fury, and all night the heavy
thunder crashed from peak to peak as if threatening total destruction
to everything on the desert below; but when the hurricane had spent its
fury, the fearful heat was broken, and the whole world awoke refreshed
from its bath. In the sweet coolness of the early dawn, Mr. Catt opened
his eyes to consciousness for the first time since the day of the
accident, and his gaze fell upon the face of his strange nurse sitting
beside his bed.

"Decker Simmons!" he exclaimed in a weak, incredulous voice.

"Yes, Lynne. I have come back to face the music, but I have brought with
me every cent of your money and interest. Can you forgive the great
wrong I have done you?" His scarred face worked pathetically, and he
stretched out his hands somewhat hesitatingly, with entreaty in his
whole bearing.

The sick man looked steadily at him for a long moment, then clasped the
proffered hand weakly, and murmured, "I forgive!"

A deep silence fell over the room; then after a few moments of thought
too sacred for words, the invalid asked faintly, "Have you told Thomas
and Tabitha?"

"Yes."

He sighed contentedly, and still holding tightly to the hermit's hand,
drifted away into refreshing, health-giving slumber.

So it happened that a few days later when strength was flowing back into
the injured man's v