"Won't you _help_ me?" she cried out. "What can _I_ do to find him? He may be starving to death! He would not have left you to starve! You"--she gasped and drew her breath hard--"you--whom he was good to--you remember--a hundred things, but you forget him! and let him--rave his life away--and starve to death--alone." She choked. She could not speak another word! but she stood with her lips parted, her eyes flashing, looking eagerly, almost angrily, from one face to another. Circus Jack bounded on to a table; it was rickety, and reeled with his weight; but Punks and Bob Jinks steadied it; they were friends of Jack's; besides, they had just won from him at poker, and felt very friendly. "Fellers!" said Jack, "to-morrow's Sunday. I'm going out ter hunt fer poor Jim, and ain't comin' back till I find him. Them as wants ter 'comp'ny me kin call at my cabin to-night." "I will go with you, Jack," said the Doctor impressively. "Me, too, you bet!" cried Scotty. "Count me in," growled a bass voice from the window. "Me too," squeaked Punks. "All as'll go say, 'Ay!'" And an "Ay!" came from those rough voices with such a ringing burst of good will as must have startled the very birds asleep in the distant trees. Nay! some faint echo of it may have been heard at the very gates of heaven itself. The tears rolled down Marian's cheeks. She tried to say, "God bless you!" but the tears had the right of way, and the words broke into something unintelligible. A sudden shame came over them that they had not thought of this before. Memories of homes, of mothers, of wives, came knocking at their hearts, and would not be denied. The sleeves of rough and not over clean flannel shirts were drawn across eyes that had scorned tears, through sickness, discomfort, and disappointment. Cutey came to the rescue. "Gentlemen!" he said, waving his hand over the bar, "help yourselves. My j'ints are stiff, and I can't go; but I'll treat the crowd. Free drinks, gentlemen!" And leaving his bar to the tender mercies of his thirsty friends, Cutey offered his arm to Marian, and escorted her to her own door, where he took leave of her with a low bow. Then he went down stairs four steps at a time, lest his choice liquors should be annihilated in his absence. It was Monday noon when they returned. Marian sat at the window in the easiest chair the house afforded, sickening with fever. She watched them coming into town with a restless, helpless anxiety. She watched them scatter to their cabins, and saw Circus Jack coming on toward the hotel alone. She buried her face in her hands. He had said that he would never come back until he found him. Had they become discouraged, or---- She could not believe that they had found him. Her heart seemed to cry out, "No! no!" Jack came up, with little Mrs. Sharpe at his heels. "Be keerful!" said the faded woman. "She mighty poorly." Jack came in as lightly as his heavy boots would allow.