walked in he asked her if she
knew it was Frontier Day, and reminded her that just a year ago she
had shot against Henry de Spain and beaten the most dangerous man and
the deadliest shot on the mountain divide in her rifle match. How he
had grown in the imagination of Sleepy Cat and Music Mountain, she
said to herself--while the doctor talked to her uncle--since that day
a year ago! Then he was no more than an unknown and discomfited
marksman from Medicine Bend, beaten by a mountain girl: now the most
talked-of man in the high country. And the suspicion would sometimes
obtrude itself with pride into her mind, that she who never mentioned
his name when it was discussed before her, really knew and understood
him better than any of those that talked so much--that she had at
least one great secret with him alone.

When leaving, the doctor wished to send over from his office medicine
for her uncle. Nan offered to go with him, but the doctor said it was
pretty late and Main Street pretty noisy: he preferred to find a
messenger.

Nan was sitting in the sick-room a little later--B-19 in the old wing
of the hospital, facing the mountains--when there came a rap on the
half-open door. She went forward to take the medicine from the
messenger and saw, standing before her in the hall, de Spain.

She shrank back as if struck. She tried to speak. Her tongue refused
its office. De Spain held a package out in his hand. "Doctor Torpy
asked me to give you this."

"Doctor Torpy? What is it?"

"I really don't know--I suppose it is medicine." She heard her uncle
turn in his bed at the sound of voices. Thinking only that he must not
at any cost see de Spain, Nan stepped quickly into the hall and faced
the messenger. "I was over at the doctor's office just now," continued
her visitor evenly, "he asked me to bring this down for your uncle."
She took the package with an incoherent acknowledgment. Without
letting her eyes meet his, she was conscious of how fresh and clean
and strong he looked, dressed in a livelier manner than usual--a
partly cowboy effect, with a broader Stetson and a gayer tie than he
ordinarily affected. De Spain kept on speaking: "The telephone girl in
the office down-stairs told me to come right up. How is your uncle?"

She regarded him wonderingly: "He has a good deal of pain," she
answered quietly.

"Too bad he should have been hurt in such a way. Are you pretty well,
Nan?" She thanked him.

"Have you got over b