“It’s a comfort to Johnny Buffalo,” Nevada observed calmly. “I’m glad I saw you first, if that is your attitude. Johnny Buffalo has been brighter and happier, ever since he first thought he saw your grandfather walk in at the door and stand smiling down at him. He insists that his sergeant has his legs back, and that not a day passes but he comes and sits awhile with him. He--there’s something he won’t tell me, but he’s very anxious to see you, especially. I think it is something concerning your grandfather.” “Oh, well, if it’s any comfort to the old man--” Rawley frowned, but his tone was yielding. “Then do, please, act as if you believed your grandfather is there when Johnny says he is there! You needn’t pretend to see him. I never do. I always say I can’t see him; and then Johnny Buffalo tells me just how he looks, and what he says. It pleases him so! He will be sure to have his sergeant meet you, Cousin Rawley. And you must pretend to believe. He’s just waiting for you to come, so that something important can take place. He wouldn’t even tell Uncle Peter what it is.” Nevada leaned dangerously toward Rawley and laid a hand on his, apparently as unconscious of the possible results as is a child who picks up an explosive. “Promise me, Cousin Rawley, that you’ll be careful not to hurt Johnny’s feelings.” Her hand closed warmly over his. Rawley’s silence was not the stubbornness she seemed to think it. He was holding his teeth clamped together, trying to reach that quiet strength of soul she had naïvely credited him with possessing. He had tried to hold himself together, to refrain from making a fool of himself, and she had mistaken the effort for strength of soul, he thought with secret chagrin. Oh, as to Johnny Buffalo-- “I should feel very badly if I knew that I had hurt any one’s feelings,” he said. “Least of all, Johnny Buffalo. If he can be happy with an hallucination, I shall not disturb his happiness. But that means a mental letting go, according to my way of thinking. When he takes to having delusions, he’s weakening. I don’t like that. I can’t be with him, you see. I have a few days to myself, and then I must be on the job again.” “Oh. I thought you would be here for awhile, anyway.” Rawley tried to extract some comfort from Nevada’s tone of regret. But her regret was, after all, too candid to mean anything especial, he feared. He did not make the mistake of asking her if she really minded his going again so soon. “How is the dam coming along?” That, at least, would be a sane subject, he hoped. “Oh--it’s coming along. I believe they’re all across the river, to-day.” She did not seem eager to pursue that subject, either. He began to wonder more than ever what was in her mind. Something she would not talk about, he knew. But presently she pulled herself out of her preoccupation.