Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III WYLLARD ASSENTS Sally, who returned with her mother, passed a fortnight at Hawtrey's homestead before Watson decided that his patient could be entrusted to Sproatly's care. Afterwards she went back twice a week to make sure that Sproatly, in whom she had no confidence, was discharging his duties satisfactorily. With baskets of dainties for the invalid she had driven over one afternoon, when Hawtrey. whose bones were knitting well, lay talking to another man in his little sleeping-room. There was no furniture in the room except the wooden bunk in which he lay, and a deerhide lounge chair he had made. The stovepipe from the kitchen led across part of one corner, and then up again into the room beneath the roof above. It had been one of Sproatly's duties since the accident to rise and renew the fire soon after midnight, and when Sally arrived he was outside the house, whip- sawing birch-logs and splitting them, an occupation he profoundly disliked. Spring had come suddenly, as it usually does on the prairie, and the snow was melting fast under a brilliant sun. The bright rays that streamed in through the window struck athwart the glimmering dust motes in the little bare room, and fell, pleasantly warm, upon the man who sat in the deerhide chair. He was a year or two older than Hawtrey, though he had scarcely reached thirty. He was a man of average height, and somewhat spare of figure. His manner was tranquil and his lean,bronzed face attractive. He held a pipe in his hand, and was looking at Hawtrey with quiet, contemplative eyes, that were his most noticeable feature, though it was difficult to say whether their color was gray or hazel-brown, for they were singularly clear, and there was something which suggested steadfastness in their unwavering gaze. The ma...