“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said gently, but seeing some look of pleading in his eyes, she put the empty bowl and spoon on the little table and sat down on the floor near the bed.  He smiled, and then, closing his eyes, fell asleep—­outside the borders of the land of visions, and with the music of a woman’s voice haunting the last moments of his consciousness.

After the fever had once broken, his return to strength was rapid.  Although accompanied by delirium, and though running its full course of weeks, the “mountain fever” is not as intense as typhoid.  The exhaustion of the vital forces is not as great, and recuperation is easier.  In two days Bennington was sitting up in bed, possessed of an appetite that threatened to depopulate entirely the little log chicken coop.  He found that the tenancy of the camp had materially changed.  Mrs. Lawton and Miss Fay had moved in, bag and baggage—­but without the inquisitive Maude, Bennington was glad to observe.

Mrs. Lawton, in the presence of an emergency, turned out to be helpful in every way.  She knew all about mountain fevers for one thing, and as the country was not yet blessed with a doctor, this was not an unimportant item.  Then, too, she was a most capable housekeeper—­she cooked, marketed, swept, dusted, and tyrannized over the mere men in a manner to be envied even by a New England dame.  Fay and the Leslies had also taken up their quarters in the camp.  Old Mizzou and the Arthurs had gone.  The old “bunk house” now accommodated a good-sized gang of miners, who had been engaged by Fay to do the necessary assessment work.  Altogether the camp was very populous and lively.

After a little Bennington learned of everything that had happened during the three weeks of his sickness.  It all came out in a series of charming conversations, when, in the evening twilight, they gathered in the room where the sick man lay.  Mary—­as Bennington still liked to name her—­occupied the rocking chair, and the three young men distributed themselves as best suited them.  It was most homelike and resting.  Bennington had never before experienced the delight of seeing a young girl about a house, and he enjoyed to the utmost the deft little touches by which is imparted that airily feminine appearance to a room; or, more subtly, the mere spirit of daintiness which breathes always from a woman of the right sort.  He felt there was added a newer and calmer element of joy to his love.

During the first period of his illness, then, Jim Fay and the Leslie brothers had worked energetically relocating the claims, while Mrs. Lawton and Miss Fay had taken charge of the house.  By the end of the first day the job was finished.  The question then came up as to the disposition of the prisoners.