Then he broke off and again his eyes, like Norton’s, asked their question.  This time she answered it, speaking slowly and thoughtfully.

“Mr. Brocky Lane, I congratulate you on three things, your physique first, your luck second, and third, your nerve.  They are a combination that is hard to beat.  I am very much inclined to the belief that in a month or so you’ll be about as good as new.”

Norton expelled a deep breath of relief; he realized suddenly that whatever this gray-eyed, strong-handed girl had said would have had his fullest credence.  Brocky’s grin grew a shade less strained.

“When you add to that combination,” he muttered, “a sure-enough angel come to doctor a man. . . .”

“Growing delirious again,” laughed Virginia.  “Give him a little brandy, Mr. Norton.  Then a smoke if he’s dying for one.  Then we’ll try to get a little sleep, all of us.  You see, I had virtually no sleep on the train last night and to-day has been a big day for me.  If I’m going to do your friend any good I’ve got to get three winks.  And, unless you’re made out of reinforced sheet-iron, it’s the same for you.  You can lie down close to Mr. Lane so that he can wake you easily if he needs us.  Now,” and she rose, still smiling, but suddenly looking unutterably weary, “where is the guest-chamber?”

She did not tell them that not only last night, but the night before she had sat up in a day coach, saving every cent she could out of the few dollars which were to give her and her brother a new start in the world; there were many things which Virginia Page knew how to keep to herself.

“This way,” said Norton, taking up the lantern.  “We can really make you more comfortable than you’d think.”

At the very least he could count confidently on treating her to a surprise.  She followed him for forty or fifty feet toward the end of the cave and to an irregular hole in the side wall, through this, and into another cave, smaller than the first, but as big as an ordinary room.  The floor was strewn with the short needles of the mountain pine.  As she turned, looking about her, she noted first another opening in a wall suggesting still another cave; then, feeling a faint breath of the night air on her cheek she saw a small rift in the outer shell of rock and through it the stars thick in the sky.

“May you sleep well in Jim Galloway’s hang-out,” said Norton lightly.  “May you not be troubled with the ghosts of the old cliff-dwellers whose house this was before our time.  And may you always remember that if there is anything in the world that I can do for you all you have to do is let me know.  Good night.”

“Good night,” she said.