Unquestioningly he drank, as though he had been a child and she his mother. The liquid, warm and somewhat sweet, had just a tang of some new taste that he had never known. Singularly vitalizing it seemed, soothing yet full of life. With a sigh of contentment, despite the numb ache in his right temple, he lay back and once more closed his eyes. Never had he felt such utter weakness. All his forces seemed drained and spent; even to breathe was very difficult. Feebly he raised his hand to his head. "Bandaged?" he whispered. "What does _that_ mean?" "It means you're to go to sleep now!" she commanded. "That's all--just go to sleep!" He lay quiet a moment, but sleep would not come. A score, a hundred thoughts confusedly crowded his brain. And once more looking up at her in the dim blue gloom of the hut where they were, he breathed a question: "Were you badly hurt, dear, in--in the battle?" "No, Allan. Just stunned, that's all. Not even wounded. Be quiet now or I'll scold!" He raised his arms to her and, weak though he was, took her to his breast and held her tight, tight. "Thank God!" he whispered. "Oh, I love you! I love you so! If you'd been killed--" She felt his tears hot upon his wasted cheeks, and unloosened his arms. "There, there!" she soothed him. "You'll get into a fever again if you don't lie still and try not to think! You--" "When was it? Yesterday?" he interrupted. "Sh-h-h-h! No more questions now." "But I want to know! And what happened to me? And the--the Lanskaarn? What about them? And--" "Heavens, but you're inquisitive for a man that's just missed--I mean, that's been as sick as you have!" she exclaimed, taking his head in both hands and gazing down at him with eyes more deeply tender than he had ever seen them. "Now do be good, boy, and don't worry about all these things, but go to sleep--there's a dear. And when you wake up next time--" "No, no!" he insisted with passionate eagerness. "I'm not that kind! I'm not a child, Beta! I've got to know--I can't go to sleep without knowing. Tell me a little about it, about what happened, and then--then I'll sleep as long as you say!" She pondered a moment, weighing matters, then made answer: "All right, boy, only remember your promise!" "I will." "Good! Now listen. I'll tell you what the old man told me, for naturally I don't remember the last part of the fight any better than you do. "I was struck by a flying stone, and--well, it wasn't anything serious. It just stunned me for a while. I came to in a hut." "Where I carried you, dearest, just before I--" "Yes, I know, just before the battle-ax--" "Was it an ax that hit me?" "Yes. But it was only a glancing blow. Your long hair helped save you, too. But even so--" "Skull cracked?" "No, I guess concussion of the brain would be the right term for it." She took his groping hand in both her own warm, strong ones and kissed it tenderly. "But before you fell, your raking fire along the wall there--you understand--"