But how she
thanked him when she found him really setting forth! She insisted on
his taking a guide, as much for his own security as to carry some
additional comforts to the prisoners, and she committed to him two
little notes, one to each boy, written through a mist of tears. Yes;
tears, unusual as they were with her, were called forth as much by
the kindness she met with as by her sick yearning after the two
lonely boys. And when she knew the doctor was on his way, she could
yield to Armine's signs of entreaty, lie back in her chair and sleep,
while Reeves watched over him.
When the doctor, by a strong man's determination, had made his way up
the pass, he found matters better than he had dared to expect. The
patient was certainly not worse, and the medicine had kept him in a
sleepy, tranquil state, in which he hardly realised the situation.
His young attendant was just considering how to husband the last
draught, when the welcome, dripping visitor appeared. The patient
was not in bad spirits considering, and could not but feel himself
reprieved by the weather. He was too sleepy to feel the dulness of
his present position, and even allowed that his impromptu nurse had
done tolerably well. Johnny had been ready at every call, had rubbed
away an attack of pain, hurt wonderfully little in lifting him, and
was "not half a bad lot altogether"—-an admission of which doctor and
nurse knew the full worth.
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