s.

The Doctor looked at her keenly.

"Here, never mind him; he can take care of himself well enough; better
than he can of you, by the looks of it. Sit down, now; yes, right here
on the grass, and drink this."

He gave her a draught from his flask, standing over her threateningly
when she hesitated at the entire contents of the cup cover.

"Take it all," he insisted, "every drop. It's the only thing on earth
that's health to its enemies and death to its friends."

Sydney leaned back wearily against a jutting rock and closed her eyes.
Her head swam, and she resigned herself to the Doctor's commands with
the blessed feeling of relief that a woman has when responsibility
falls from her own upon some man's shoulders.

A whoop from the chestnuts made her open her eyes.

"Is it Bob?"

"Yes, leading Johnny." Doctor Morgan raised his voice. "Come down here.
You're a pretty feller to carry a girl to ride," he continued, as Bob
tied the horse to one of the chestnuts and sprang down the slope. "No
girl in my time ever shook me like that. Where did she lose you?"

Bob answered nothing to his father's gibes, but bent anxiously over
Sydney.

"You are not hurt, de--Sydney? Just awfully done up? I ought not to
have let you come. It's been too hard a ride. It's all my fault," he
went on, accusingly, while the Doctor nodded his head in agreement, and
Sydney tried in vain to interrupt.

"No, indeed, Bob, you were not to blame at all. I made you promise, and
I couldn't have forgiven you or myself if I hadn't been here when----"

She fell back against the rock, and the Doctor broke in, by way of
diversion,--

"Where's Gray Eagle?"

"Down at the tobacco barn. He got wild and balked the steep part of the
trail, so I tied him to a tree and left him to kick it out."

"You walked up, then?"

"Yes, and found Johnny gluttonously eating blackberry-vines on the
other side of the bald. That scared me to death, for I thought he'd
made way with Sydney in some mysterious fashion,--perhaps eaten
her,--and was indulging in dessert! Where's your enemy?"

The Doctor glanced quickly at Sydney, and frowned at Bob.

"Gone home," was all he would say.

They lifted the girl on to her horse, and Bob guided him down to the
very foot of the mountain. At the tobacco barn the Doctor untied Gray
Eagle, subdued by his enforced loneliness, and led him behind them.

"Bob will stay to luncheon at Oakwood, it's so late," said Sydney to
him as the