nts here who are at the crisis
of their disease. You may be wanted to save a life any minute now."

"I thought that with your prescription you were to be the AEsculapius."

"No, I'm only going to save the reputation of AEsculapius by giving him
a prescription got from a quack to give to a goose."

"Come, come, no names. You are incorrigible. I believe you'd have your
joke on your death-bed."

"I should if you were there. I should die laughing," Kitty retorted.

"There will be no death-bed for you, miss. You'll be translated--no,
that's not right; no one could translate you."

"God might--or a man I loved well enough not to marry him."

There was a note of emotion in her laugh as she uttered the words. It
did not escape the ear of the Young Doctor, who regarded her fixedly
for a moment before he said: "I'm not sure that even He would be able to
translate you. You speak your own language, and it's surely original. I
am only just learning its alphabet. No one else speaks it. I have a
fear that you'll be terribly lonely as you travel along the trail, Kitty
Tynan."

A light of pleasure came into Kitty's eyes, though her face was a little
drawn. "You really do think I'm original--that I'm myself and not like
anybody else?" she asked him with a childlike eagerness.

"Almost more than any one I ever met," answered the Young Doctor gently;
for he saw that she had her own great troubles, and he also felt now
fully what this comedy or tragedy inside the house meant to her. "But
you're terribly lonely--and that's why: because you are the only one of
your kind."

"No, that's why I'm not going to be lonely," she said, nodding towards
the corner of the house where John Sibley appeared.

Suddenly, with a gesture of confidence and almost of affection, she laid
a hand on the Young Doctor's breast. "I've left the trail, doctor-man.
I'm cutting across the prairie. Perhaps I shall reach camp and perhaps
I shan't; but anyhow I'll know that I met one good man on the way. And
I also saw a resthouse that I'd like to have stayed at, but the blinds
were drawn and the door was locked."

There was a strange, eerie look in her face again as her eyes of soft
umber dwelt on his for a moment; then she turned with a gay smile to
John Sibley, who had seen her hand on the Young Doctor's chest without
dismay; for the joy of Kitty was that she hid nothing; and, anyhow, the
Young Doctor had a place of his own; and also, anyhow, Kitty did what
s