eyes to see that this man was stricken low. All the supple
strength and gay virility were out of him. Three of the bullets had
torn through him. In her heavy heart the girl believed he was going to
die. While Yeager was out of the room she knelt down by the bedside,
unashamed, and asked for his life as she had never prayed for anything
before.

By this time his fever was high and he was wandering in his head. The
wild look of delirium was in his eyes, and faint weak snatches of
irrelevant speech on his lips. His moans stabbed her heart. There was
nothing she could do for him but watch and wait and pray. But what
little was to be done in the way of keeping his hot head cool with wet
towels her own hands did jealously. Jim and Aunt Becky waited on her
while she waited on the sick man.

About midnight the doctor rode up. All day and most of the night before
he had been in the saddle. Cuffs had found him across the divide, nearly
forty miles away, working over a boy who had been bitten by a
rattlesnake. But he brought into the sick room with him that manner of
cheerful confidence which radiates hope. You could never have guessed
that he was very tired, nor, after the first few minutes, did he know it
himself. He lost himself in his case, flinging himself into the breach
to turn the tide of what had been a losing battle.

CHAPTER XX

YEAGER RIDES TO NOCHES

Jim Yeager had not watched through the long day and night with Phyllis
without discovering how deeply her feelings were engaged. His
unobtrusive readiness and his constant hopefulness had been to her a
tower of strength during the quiet, dreadful hours before the doctor
came.

Once, during the night, she had followed him into the dark hall when he
went out to get some fresh cold water, and had broken down completely.

"Is he--is he going to die?" she besought of him, bursting into tears
for the first time.

Jim patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Now, don't you, Phyl. You got to
buck up and help pull him through. Course he's shot up a heap, but then
a man like him can stand a lot of lead in his body. There aren't any of
these wounds in a vital place. Chief trouble is he's lost so much blood.
That's where his clean outdoor life comes in to help build him up. I'll
bet Doc Brown pulls him through."

"Are you just _saying_ that, Jim, or do you really think so?"

"I'm saying it, and I think it. There's a whole lot in gaming a thing
out. What we've got to do is