merville that her heart sank very low as she thought of how rough
Latimer might be.

"If you must go I must certainly go too, for I cannot let you out of my
care in places like this," he said in a tone as decided as her own.

For that one night she was lodged with a good woman who cleaned the
church and school, and who kept her awake for half the night telling her
gruesome stories of happenings in disease-stricken towns, such as
Latimer was at that moment supposed to be. But if she thought to
frighten Nealie into consenting to go back to Hammerville without
finding her father she made a very great mistake indeed.

Bad as had been the journey of the doctor and his escort when he rode
from Mostyn to Latimer through the fierce heat, the experiences of young
Dr. Plumstead and Nealie were still worse. Rockefeller had lost the
fine vigour displayed on the first part of the journey, and went at a
slow trot, hanging his head and stumbling so often that Dr. Plumstead
was forced into a pretty liberal use of the whip to keep the creature on
his feet at all.

There was a strong wind blowing to-day, but luckily it came from behind,
and so Nealie opened a big umbrella, which kept off some of the dust and
also acted as a sail and helped them along. Sun, wind, and dust seemed
to bring on a sort of fever in Nealie; her hands burned like coals of
fire, she had a lightheaded sensation, and saw so many visions during
the last miles of that trying journey that she could never after
determine which was real and which was fancy of all the incidents and
happenings of that long, weary day.

"Hullo, look at that smoke yonder; is it a bush fire, I wonder, or is it
possible they have been having a big blaze at Latimer?" said the doctor,
pointing with his whip to the crest of a long hill up which the track
wound its dusty way.

"Are we near to Latimer?" asked Nealie in a languid tone.

"I think we ought to be by this time, unless we have come wrong. But
what a hill! I fancy Rockefeller expects me to walk up here," said the
doctor, who was secretly very anxious concerning that smoke which was
hanging in a cloud about the crest of the hill.

"Shall I walk too?" she asked, wondering whether the act of walking
would tend to steady her wavering fancies, and to stop that horrible
tendency to light-headedness which bothered her so badly.

"I think not; you must be quite tired enough without adding to your
fatigue by scrambling along this dusty t