en nurses must have some rest, you know."

"Ye first," said Dannie. "I'll be all richt when I get food. Since ye
mention it, I believe I am almost mad with hunger."

The nurse handed him another bowl of broth. "Just drink that, and drink
slowly," she said, as she left the room.

Dannie could hear her speaking softly to Mary, and then all was quiet,
and the girl came out and closed the door. She deftly prepared food for
Dannie, and he ate all she would allow him, and begged for more; but
she firmly told him her hands were full now, and she had no one to
depend on but him to watch after the turn of the night. So Dannie lay
down on the cot. He had barely touched it when he thought of Jimmy, so
he got up quietly and started home. He had almost reached his back door
when it opened, and Jimmy came out. Dannie paused, amazed at Jimmy's
wild face and staring eyes.

"Don't you begin your cursed gibberish again," cried Jimmy, at sight of
him. "I'm burning in all the tortures of fire now, and I'll have a
drink if I smash down Casey's and steal it."

Dannie jumped for him, and Jimmy evaded him and fled. Dannie started
after. He had reached the barn before he began to think. "I depend on
you," the nurse had said. "Jimmy, wait!" he called. "Jimmy, have ye any
money?" Jimmy was running along the path toward town. Dannie stopped.
He stood staring after Jimmy for a second, and then he deliberately
turned, went back, and lay down on the cot, where the nurse expected to
find him when she wanted him to watch by the door of Mary Malone.

Chapter VII

THE APPLE OF DISCORD BECOMES A JOINTED ROD

"What do you think about fishing, Dannie?" asked Jimmy Malone.

"There was a licht frost last nicht," said Dannie. "It begins to look
that way. I should think a week more, especially if there should come a
guid rain."

Jimmy looked disappointed. His last trip to town had ended in a sodden
week in the barn, and at Dannie's cabin. For the first time he had
carried whiskey home with him. He had insisted on Dannie drinking with
him, and wanted to fight when he would not. He addressed the bottle,
and Dannie, as the Sovereign Alchemist by turns, and "transmuted the
leaden metal of life into pure gold" of a glorious drunk, until his
craving was satisfied. Then he came back to work and reason one
morning, and by the time Mary was about enough to notice him, he was
Jimmy at his level best, and doing more than he had in years to try to
interest