h first felt Jim's heart and pulse, and found that there was still
life left, even before it could be done by the doctor from headquarters,
who had come to visit a sick man at the post.

For hours they worked with snow upon the frozen limbs to bring back life
and consciousness. Consciousness came at last with half delirium, half
understanding; as, emerging from the passing sleep of anaesthetics, the eye
sees things and dimly registers them before the brain has set them in any
relation to life or comprehension.

But Jim was roused at last, and the doctor presently held to his lips a
glass of brandy. Then from infinite distance Jim's understanding returned;
the mind emerged, but not wholly, from the chaos in which it was
travelling. His eyes stood out in eagerness.

"Brandy! brandy!" he said, hungrily.

With an oath Sewell snatched the glass from the doctor's hand, put it on
the table, then stooped to Jim's ear and said, hoarsely: "Remember--Nancy.
For God's sake, sir, don't drink!"

Jim's head fell back, the fierce light went out of his eyes, the face
became grayer and sharper. "Sally--Nancy--Nancy," he whispered, and his
fingers clutched vaguely at the quilt.

"He must have brandy or he will die. The system is pumped out. He must be
revived," said the doctor. He reached again for the glass of spirits.

Jim understood now. He was on the borderland between life and death, his
feet were at the brink. "No--not--brandy, no!" he moaned. "Sally--Sally,
kiss me," he said, faintly, from the middle world in which he was.

"Quick, the broth!" said Sewell to the factor, who had been preparing it.
"Quick, while there's a chance." He stooped and called into Jim's ear:
"For the love of God, wake up, sir. They're coming--they're both
coming--Nancy's coming. They'll soon be here." What matter that he
lied?--a life was at stake.

Jim's eyes opened again. The doctor was standing with the brandy in his
hand. Half madly Jim reached out. "I must live until they come," he cried;
"the brandy--ah, give it! Give it--ah, no, no, I must not," he added,
gasping, his lips trembling, his hands shaking.

Sewell held the broth to his lips. He drank a little, yet his face became
grayer and grayer; a bluish tinge spread about his mouth.

"Have you nothing else, sir?" asked Sewell, in despair.

The doctor put down the brandy, went quickly to his medicine-case, dropped
into a glass some liquid from a phial, came over again, and poured a
little