ween the Two Forks, probably in the Reserve. For a time there
probably won't anything happen. You mustn't be scared--we're just
taking the proper precautions now. This is very valuable Government
property."

"Are we at the dam here?" asked Mary Gage. "I can hear the water--it's
very heavy, isn't it?"

"It never stops. We don't hear it, because we're used to it--I don't
think it will bother you very long. We'll try to make you comfortable."

He turned, offering her his arm, on which he placed her hand. He was a
trifle surprised to see that Sim Gage without a word had passed to the
other side of his wife, also giving her an arm. He walked along slowly
and gravely, limping, silent as he had been all the afternoon, but made
no sign of his own discomfort, indeed did not speak at all.

"Both of you are fit for the hospital. Well, all right, it may be a
good place for you after all." As he spoke, frowning, Doctor Barnes
stood back and allowed Annie to lead Mary Gage into the vacated rooms
of the chief engineer.

"Doc, what did you mean when you said that there just now?" asked Sim
Gage, when they turned back from the door. "About her and the
hospital?"

"I've brought her down here, Sim," said Doctor Barnes directly,
"principally because, with her consent and yours, I want to see if I
can't do something for her eyes."

"Her eyes! Why--what do you mean?"

"There's one chance in a hundred that she'll see again."

Doctor Allen Barnes, his face unshaven, dirty, haggard, a man looking
neither major nor physician now, turned squarely to the man whom he
addressed. "I don't know for sure," said he, "but then, it may be
true."

"Her eyes?-- Her eyes!"

Doctor Barnes felt on his arm as savage a grip as he ever had known.
Sim Gage's face changed as he turned away.

"Good God A'mighty! If she could _see_!" His own face seemed suddenly
pale beneath its grime.

CHAPTER XXX

BEFORE DAWN

A day passed, two, and three. Nothing came to break the monotony at
the big dam. Donkey engines screamed intermittently. Workmen still
passed here or there with their barrows. Teams strained at heavy loads
of gravel and cement. The general labor in the way of finishing
touches on the undertaking still went on under the care of the foremen,
monotonously regular. No one knew that Waldhorn, chief engineer, was a
prisoner under guard.

Mary Gage was more ignorant than any prisoner of what went on about
her. A ha