He scooped water from the shallow basin and buried his face in the cupped hands that held it, rubbing and blowing furiously. "That's what I come to town for, Nora, because I suspected she'd be worryin'." To himself he thought, "Sister! That helps!" "You mean, you know where he is?" "Yeah,"--nodding his head as he wiped his hands--"I took him home. I got him there in bed an' I come to town th' first chance I got to tell her he's gettin' along fine." "That was swell of you, Bruce," she said, with an admiring smile. He shrugged his shoulders deprecatingly. "Yes, it was!" she insisted. "To do it for her. She's th' sweetest thing ever come into this town, an' he's...." She ended by making a wry face. "You had a run-in with him, didn't you?" he asked, as if casually, and the girl looked at him sharply. "How'd you know?" "He's been kind of nutty an' said somethin' about it." A pause. "He come in here last week, Bruce, drunk. He made a grab for me an' said somethin' fresh an' he was so crazy, so awful lookin', that it scart me for a minute. I told him to keep away or you'd knock all th' poison out of him. He ... You see,"--apologetically--"I was scart an' I knew that was th' easiest way out--to tell him you'd get after him. You ... Th' worst of 'em back up when they think you're likely to land on 'em." He reached out and pinched her cheek, smiled and shook his head with mock seriousness. "Lordy, Sister, you'd make me out a hell-winder of a bad man, wouldn't you?" "Not much! 'N awful good man, Bruce. That's what puts a crimp in 'em--your goodness!" He flushed at that. "Tryin' to josh me now, ain't you?" he laughed. "Well, josh away, but if any of 'em get fresh with you an' I'll ... I'll have th' sheriff on 'em!"--with a twinkle in his gray eyes. Then he sobered. "I s'pose I'd better go up to her room now," he said, an uneasy manner coming over him. "She'll be glad to know he's gettin' along so well.... "So everybody thinks she's his sister, do they?"--with an effort to make his question sound casual and as an afterthought. "Yes, they do. I'm th' only one who's guessed she's his wife an' I kept my mouth shut. Rest of 'em all swear she couldn't be, that's she's his sister, 'cause she ... well, she ain't th' kind that would marry a thing like that. I didn't say nothin'. I let 'em think as they do; but I know! No sister would worry th' way she does!" "You're a wise gal," he said, "an' when you said she was th' sweetest thing that ever come to this town you wasn't so awful wrong." He opened the door and closed it behind him. In the middle of the kitchen floor the girl stood alone, motionless, her eyes glowing, pulses quickened. Then, the keen light went from her face; its expression became doggedly patient, as if she were confronted by a long, almost hopeless undertaking, and with a sigh she turned to her tasks.