n't come!--Go away!"

"I wanted to tell you----"

"Go away!"

He went outside, but continued stubbornly, gently.

"--I wanted to say to you, ma'am," said he, "you can lock this here
door on the inside. You come around, and you'll find a slat that drops
into the latch. Now, there's a nail on a string, fastened to that
latch. You can find that nail, and if you'll just drop that bar and
push the nail in the hole up above it--why, you'll be safe as can be,
and there can't _no_ one get in."

He stood waiting, fumbling at the button of the flash light. By
accident it was turned on again.

He saw her then sitting half upright in the bed, both her white arms
holding the clothing about her, the piled mass of her dark hair framing
a face which showed white against the background. Her eyes, unseeing,
were wide open, dark, beautiful. Sim Gage's heart stopped in his
bosom. She was a woman. She had come, of her own volition. They were
utterly alone.

CHAPTER X

NEIGHBORS

Sim Gage, hesitant at the door of his bare-floored tent in the cool
dawn, saw smoke arising from the chimney of Wid Gardner's house. From
a sense of need he determined to pay Wid a visit. His leg was doing
badly. He needed help, and knew it. He hobbled over to the cabin
door, where all was silent; knocked, and knocked again, more loudly.
She still slept--slept as she had not dreamed she could.

"Who's there?" she demanded at length. "Oh yes; wait a minute."

He waited several minutes, but at length heard her at the door. His
eyes fell upon her hungrily. She was fresher, her air was more eager,
less pitiful.

"Good morning, ma'am," said he. "I've come to get the breakfast." All
she could do was to stand about, wistful, perplexed, dumb.

"Now, ma'am," said he, after he had cooked the breakfast--like in all
ways to the supper of the night before--"I'm a-going to ask you to stay
here alone a little while to-day. You ain't afraid, are you?"

"You'll not be gone long? It's lonesome to me all the time, of
course." In reality she was terrified beyond words at the thought of
being left alone.

"I know that. But we got to get a dog and some hens for you. I just
thought I'd go over and see Wid Gardner, little while, and talk over
things."

"How is your knee now?" she asked. "It seemed to me you sounded rather
limpy, Mr. Gage."

"Is that what you want to call me, ma'am?" said he at last--"Mr. Gage?
It sounds sort of strange