d for. I prayed, oh,
how I prayed! But it seemed as if my prayers were to be of no avail,
until at length the answer came in the report of your gun. Then I sent
the child to find you. And oh, sir. I do thank you for coming. I do
thank my Heavenly Father for sending you. And you will care for my baby?
You will take him far from here, where he may grow to be a good and
useful man? You will, won't you, sir? Promise me. Promise me you will."

"But you mustn't die," answered poor Phil, who was so bewildered by the
perplexities of the situation that he knew not what to say. "I have two
companions who will know what to do for you, and we will stay until you
get stronger. What does it all mean, anyway? Are you wounded? Did that
Indian attack you?"

"He was my husband, my Jim," whispered the woman, again opening her
eyes, which had closed wearily after her recent effort at talking. "He
died for me, and I am dying for him."

Here she was interrupted by a terrible fit of coughing, and a gush of
blood from some internal hemorrhage.

After a few minutes she continued: "He shot a moose, and with its last
strength it charged on him. When he did not come home I went in search
of him. I found them lying together. Jim still breathed. Somehow I
managed to bring him home on my back. But he was dead when I got him
here, and the strain had been too great for me. I had burst a blood
vessel, and had barely strength to crawl to the bed. That was two days
ago. I should have died that first night, but fought with death for
Nel-te's sake. Now I can go, and I am glad, for I am so weary--so
weary."

This pitiful story was told in whispers, with many pauses and many
struggles for breath. When it was finished the great pleading eyes again
closed, and the woman lay so still that Phil thought she must be dead.
He tried to feel of her pulse, but started at the touch of her hand, for
it was like ice. The chill of it seemed to reach his very heart, and he
shivered in the deadly cold of the room.

"I can at least make a fire," he thought, and he began to search for
matches. There were none, and finally bethinking himself of the blaze he
had left in the woods he set forth to fetch fire from it. In a few
minutes he returned with a couple of burning brands. Then he brought in
wood, and, after a little the great fireplace was filled with leaping
flames.

Nel-te came to him and begged for water. Phil had noticed several times
that the child was eating s