While all this talking was going on, Jimmy was being slowly restored to life through the doctor’s skill, and the mother’s careful nursing.  Mrs. Britt now found the work of looking after two patients almost beyond her power of endurance.  It was then that Miss Arabella offered her assistance, and proved a veritable angel of mercy in her attention to Whyn, and doing what she could about the house.

During the weeks which followed the night of the great storm the scouts did not meet at Headquarters.  They knew that the captain had little or no heart for anything now but the care of his son.  They accordingly met from house to house, but most often at the rectory, where Mrs. Royal always made them welcome.  They were all greatly interested in the captain’s son, of whom they had heard so much, and they longed to see him.  Nearly every day Rod went to the Anchorage to see Whyn, and they talked very much about Jimmy.  The latter, however, he never saw, as no visitor was allowed in his room.

To the scouts the winter seemed very long, and delighted were they when spring at last set in.  The days lengthened rapidly, the snow disappeared, and the ice was fast weakening in the river.  It was a fine afternoon when Rod was making his regular visit to Whyn that he saw Jimmy.  He was sitting in a sunny spot right in front of the house.  His thick beard had been removed, and his face was very pale after his illness.  Rod recognised him in an instant, and it was with difficulty that he kept back a cry of astonishment.  With fast-beating heart he rushed into Whyn’s room, much to the girl’s surprise, for he was in the habit of entering quietly.

“Why, Rod, what’s the matter?” she inquired.

“You look half frightened to death.”

“It’s him, Whyn!” he exclaimed.  “I’m sure of it.”

“Who is it?  What do you mean?” the girl asked.  “Sit down, and be sensible.”

“He’s the very man who was knocked down and robbed in the city, Whyn.”

“What man?”

“Jimmy.  He’s out there.  His whiskers are all off, and I knew him the instant I got my eyes on him.”

“Does the captain know that?” Whyn questioned, after a moment’s thought.  “Isn’t it strange that Jimmy should have been helped twice by our troop?  How delighted Captain Josh will be.”

“You tell him, Whyn,” Rod suggested.  “He ought to know, but if I say anything it will seem like boasting.  It was only our good turn, and we are not supposed to say anything about what we do.”

Whyn had no scruples, however, and that very afternoon she spoke to the captain.  She told him all that Rod had said, how that he was sure that Jimmy was the very man who had been attacked and robbed.  The captain said very little, but later he had a long talk with his son, who, up to the present, had been very reticent about the past few years of his life.  Jimmy was sitting on a log near the shore when the captain spoke to him about the matter.  For a few moments the younger man remained very silent, as he whittled a piece of cedar wood with his sharp knife.