ppeal; at
her first word he tried to rise and she had trouble in persuading him
to lie back again. She heard herself scolding, while she rearranged
the bandages so that they would cover both wounds, and he listened,
hot-eyed, without recognizing her. Yet when she bade him wait, until
she could bring the team, he nodded his comprehension; he was watching
for her return. And he came to his feet with a readiness that made her
heart leap with hope; but he fell twice before she lifted him, half
with her hands, half with her voice, to the seat.

She crawled in beside him, and the next moment she had to struggle
madly to prevent his returning to Big Louie.

"He will wait quiet until we come for him," she protested. "There
isn't room for Big Louie--and he won't mind----"

Her logic made an impression upon him, for he smiled. There was no
sequence in his acquiescence, however.

"I have always been afraid for him," he told her in reply, as
studiously grave as though he had been conscious of what he was saying.
"The others--they can take care of themselves. They are wrong ones
together. But Big Louie is only a child--but he won't mind--he'll
understand----"

She thought then that he had recognized her; she dared to hope that his
brain was clearing. But when the team went forward, nervously
unmanageable at first, then more decorous as they drew away from him
who would never feed them brown sugar again, the man beside her only
persisted vacantly with his topic.

"Big Louie never could find his way alone," he mused, "and that is
strange, too, for he was born in these hills. He was always getting
lost----" And with that he must not desert Louie! She had even more
trouble with him this time. "He will lose his head," he expostulated
mildly--his old, unfailing attitude of gentleness toward her. "He will
lose his head and waste his strength in running from things which do
not exist."

"Big Louie will find his way this time." She was whimpering again in
her helplessness. "He is--already home."

There she learned that her voice could control him when her arms
availed not at all against even his dead weight. And so she talked as
steadily as she was able while she drove. Once he lurched against her;
when he pulled himself together he was so sanely apologetic of a sudden
that she searched his face with hungry eyes. But he was talking now to
himself.

"I must not touch her!" he stated firmly. And then, drearily: "