She got the boots off and felt his feet; she stooped over them until for an instant she laid her cheek against a bare foot.  It was like ice.  She recalled how he had ministered to her.  She heated a blanket and wrapped it about his feet and ankles.  She heated other blankets and put them about him.  The canvas at the cave’s mouth had been torn down; she got it back into place to make it warmer for him.  She put fresh wood on the fire.  She hastened the coffee boiling all that she could by placing bits of dry wood close all about the pot.

She knelt at King’s side; she got an arm under his shoulders and managed to lift him a little; she rolled up a blanket and put it under his head.  Then she brought the cup of black coffee and with a spoon got some of it between his teeth.  She spilled more than went into his mouth but she was rewarded by seeing the throat muscles contract as involuntarily he swallowed.  Thus, patient and determined and very, very gentle with him, she got several spoonfuls of coffee down him.  Thereafter she let him lie back again while she sought to plan cool-thoughtedly just how she must care for him, just what she could do for him.  She knew little of nursing and yet knew instinctively that his condition was precarious, that he must be kept warm and still, that what strength remained in him must be saved by proper nourishment. Proper nourishment!

There were scraps of food left; Brodie and his men, in their gold fever, had not so much as thought to gather up the few bits of scanty provisions.  She began taking careful stock; she found a scrap of bread that had been knocked to the floor and kicked aside; she picked it up and, carrying a torch with her, began seeking any other fallen morsels.  In this search she came once to the hole in the floor through which Brodie and the others had gone down into Gus Ingle’s treasure-chamber.  And at its side she found something which at this moment was a thousand times more precious in her staring eyes than if it had been so much solid gold.  It was a great hunk of fresh meat.  Instantly she knew how it had come here.  King had killed his bear!  That was why he had returned to-night.  He had brought it here; had missed her; had dropped it here.  And then?  She understood now, too, how he had come so unexpectedly into the lowest cave.  He had gone down through this hole and had known a passage-way which led on down.  She stood by the hole, bending over it, listening, wondering if any man stirred down there.  But that was but for a moment.  She caught up the bear meat, carrying it in both arms, and hurried back to her fire.

Though she knew little more of cookery than of nursing, she set about the very sensible task of making a strong broth.  The proper nourishment that had seemed so impossible a moment ago was now ready at hand.

“God is good,” she whispered, a sudden new gush of love and reverence in her heart.  “He will help me now.”