n off my
head?"

She nodded in assent.

He frowned.

"Sorry," he said briefly. "Please answer me honestly. Have I mumbled
things and made a blasted fool of myself?"

It was still two days before he was allowed to talk to his own
satisfaction. Then, one afternoon in her rest hour, Alice Mellen let
him have his way and, seated by his cot, she answered tersely to a
raking fire of terse questions.

"How long have I been here?"

"Just a week."

"How did I get here?"

"Hospital train from Krugersdorp."

"What for?"

"You had a touch of fever. We could treat you better here." Her
replies were man-like in their brevity.

"Fever? I thought it was a Mauser bullet."

"It was. Your leg was not so bad; but the long ride and the exposure
to the storm--"

He interrupted her.

"What do you know about my ride?" he asked.

Her answer showed that the woman was not lost in the nurse.

"Everybody knows of your ride. Even in these days of plucky deeds,
we are proud of you."

He shook his head, though the color came into his cheeks, brown
beneath their pallor.

"It was nothing. I did my duty."

"So Kruger Bobs has informed us."

"Kruger Bobs? Is he here?"

This time, she laughed outright.

"I should say he was. For a week, he has been sitting exactly in the
path of the doctors, waiting for news. Twice he has been ordered
off; but he merely hitches over to the other end of the steps and
refuses to budge farther. We discovered him, the first night you
were here, by having the bead surgeon fall headlong over him, as he
went down the steps. Kruger Bobs doesn't show up well, on a dark
night."

Weldon clasped his hands at the back of his head.

"If I thought you were using American slang, Miss Mellen, I should
contradict you," he answered, with a touch of his old humor. "I can
remember at least one dark night when Kruger Bobs made an excellent
showing."

She nodded.

"We have bad a few Americans here before, Mr. Weldon. I think I
understand."

"How long have you been here?" he asked, after a pause.

"Ten weeks."

"And you like it?"

"Why else should I be here?"

"From a sense of duty."

"Is that what brought you out?"

"No. My coming was inevitable. It seemed a part of me that I
couldn't help."

"But you wished to come?" she queried.

"Of course. But that was only a Dart of it. I have wished to do
things before, and have done them. This was quite different. It all
seemed a part of Fate, and I w