"Poison!" wailed the woman from Kansas again. "She's goin' to die! There ain't no way to help it." "What poison--what has the child taken?" asked Constance. "It was strychnine, ma'am, like enough," ventured Curly. "There was some--" "Nonsense! It's not strychnine," cried the girl. In an instant her eye had caught what every other individual present had overlooked, although it was certainly the most obvious object in all the landscape,--the half-empty can which still remained tightly clutched in Arabella's free hand. "Why, here it is!" she exclaimed. "The child has eaten concentrated lye. Quick! Get her in somewhere. What are you standing around here for--get out of the way, you men!" They scattered, and Constance glanced about her. "Where's some grease--some lard? Quick!" she called out to Whiteman, who was looking on. "In here, lady--dis vay," he answered eagerly; but she outfooted him to the rear of the store, carrying Arabella in her arms. Spying a lard tin, she thrust off the cover, and plunged in a hand. Immediately the sobs of Arabella changed to sputterings, for the physician in charge had covered her face, lips, and a goodly portion of the interior of her mouth and throat with the ameliorating unguent! At this act of first aid, the wails of the woman from Kansas ceased also, and a vast sigh of relief arose from the confederated helplessness of Heart's Desire. "Is she going to die?" gasped the woman from Kansas. "No," said Constance, scornfully. "I've seen much worse burns. The lye has perhaps lost a little of its strength, too. The burns are all well in the front of the mouth and tongue, and I don't think she swallowed any of it. Lard is as good as anything to stop the burn. Why didn't you think of it?" "I don't know, ma'am," confessed the woman from Kansas. A sudden loquacity now seized upon all those recently perturbed and silent. "Now," said Curly, "it's this-a-way; the women they must have left that can of lye settin' around. It's mighty careless of 'em. I _needed_ my strychnine, but there ain't no _sense_ in leavin' lye settin' around. Them twins was due to eat it, shore. Why, they was _broke_ to eat anything that comes in tin cans!" Constance gathered Arabella in her arms. The tailored gown was ruined now. One hand remained gloved, but both were grease-laden to the wrists. She was unconscious of all this. Her gaze, frowning, solicitous, maternal, bent itself upon the face of her patient. The men of Heart's Desire looked on, silent, relieved, adoring. A few began to edge toward the open air. "You ain't no kind of a drug-store man," said the postmaster, scornfully, to Tomlinson. "Why ain't I?" retorted the latter, hotly. "What _chance_ does a merchant get in this town? What do I get for carrying a full line of drugs here for years? Now, _lard_ ain't drugs. It ain't in the pharmacopy."