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"I don't know anything, except that she can't lie this way much longer." His harsh voice faltered and his stern mouth trembled. He laid the hands back, went to the window and stood there till the room grew dusky and the lamp was brought in. As Nellie closed the door after her, the doctor came to the hearth, and said sharply "I would not be in your place for John Jacob Astor's fortune."
And they were constantly saying the strangest things with an air of perfect calm. "How much did you pay for the excess luggage?" an untidy young woman asked of an old man. "Oh! Thirteen pounds," answered the old man, carelessly. And not long before Nellie had scarcely escaped ten days in the steerage of an Atlantic liner.
He would gladly have resigned and gone at once, but that would have been resigning under virtual charges: he had to stay, and his wife had to stay with him, and Nellie with her. By this time Nellie Travers did not want to go. She had but one thought now, to make amends to Mr. Hayne for the wrong her thoughts had done him. It was time for Mr.
"White girl make noise Yellow Elk kill!" he hissed into his fair captive's ear, and drew his hunting knife. The tramp of feet came closer. A detachment of foot soldiers were moving through the woods. Soon they came within sight of the pair. As they came closer Nellie saw they were Government troops. A prisoner was between them a man. It was Jack Rasco.
"An Injin! Yes, an out-and-out Cherokee. You see he calls himself Dorman Low Dorman. That's only French for 'Sleeping Water, his Injin name! 'Low Dorman." "You mean 'L'Eau Dormante," said Nellie. "That's what I said. The chief called him 'Sleeping Water' when he was a boy, and one of them French Canadian trappers translated it into French when he brought him to California to school.
The last day she lay with her eyes half-closed, looking at me, and all at once her lips moved. I bent down to her and heard her murmur: 'I did try, Nellie, I did try, and I saw she was crying. I put my arms round her and kissed her on the forehead and told her that I knew she had, and then she smiled at me, such a sweet pitiful smile, and then she stopped breathing. That was the only change.
Nellie was specially granted permission to accompany the party, much against the wish of her mother, who declared that she would spoil all her things to a certainty; saying besides, that, from what she had gathered of the conversation, she did not believe trawling was a very ladylike pursuit, "for little girls, at all events."
"It is cooler here," answered Nellie. "How many sailors were saved?" asked Grace. "Nine were saved, besides Lesher and myself," answered Dan Baxter. "You see, we picked up some of the men from one of the other boats." "Then your party numbers eleven in all," said Dora. "Yes," came from Jack Lesher. "An' I am the cap'n of the lot," and he bobbed his head in satisfaction.
"What has happened, Nellie?" he began, and then halted, his gaze riveted upon her hand. A single diamond glittered from the dirt and grime that soiled her finger. "That?" he gasped, stunned by a feeling of misery and helplessness. "Nat and I are engaged," she said in a low voice without answering his question. "Just since last night." There was nothing more to be said.
This was of course the Bessie mentioned by Tom. Others who watched professed a bit of envy because Jack received all her attention after he appeared. Nellie Leroy, the Red Cross nurse, looked very sweet in her regulation hospital uniform, with the insignia of her calling on her sleeve.
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