When again I unclosed my eyes and asked for water, I was lying under the open-faced shed, and it was brilliant sunshine outside. Somebody had stripped me and had heated water in the kettle, and was bathing my body. Then I saw it was the little maid of Askalege. "Thiohero,--little sister?" At the sound of my voice, she came and bent over me. La one hand she held a great sponge of steaming sphagnum. Then came Nick, who leaned closer above me. "Their young sorceress," said he, "has washed your body with bitter-bark and sumach, and has cleansed the wounds and stopped them with dry moss and balsam, so that they have ceased bleeding." I turned my heavy eyes on the Oneida girl. "Truly," said I, "I have come back through the mist, returning in scarlet.... My little sister is very wise." She said nothing, but lifted a pannikin of cold water to my lips. It had bitter herbs in it, and, I think, a little gin. I satisfied my thirst. "Little sister," I gasped, "is the hole that Balty made in my body so great that my soul shall presently escape?" She answered calmly: "I have looked through the wound into your body; and I saw your soul there, watching me. Then I conjured your soul, which is very white, to remain within your body. And your soul, seeing that it was not the Eye of Tharon looking in to discover it, went quietly to sleep. And will abide within you." She spoke in the Oneida dialect, and Nick listened impatiently, not understanding. "What does the little Oneida witch say?" he demanded. Her brother, Tahioni, the Wolf, answered calmly: "The River-reed is a witch and is as wise as the Woman of the Sounding Skies. The River-reed sees events beforehand." "She says John Drogue will live?" demanded Nick. "He shall surely live," said Thiohero, drawing the blanket over me. "Well, then," said Nick, "in God's name let us get him to the Summer House, where the surgeon of the Continentals can treat him properly, and the ladies there nurse him----" That roused me, and I strove to sit up, but could not. "I shall not go to Summer House!" I cried. "If I am in need of a surgeon, bring him here; but I want no women near me!--I do not desire any woman at Summer House to nurse me or aid or touch me----" In my angry excitement at the very remembrance of Lady Johnson and Claudia, and of Penelope, whom I had beheld in Steve Watts' arms--and of that man himself, who had come spying,--I forced my body upright, furious at the mere thought and swore I had rather die here in camp than be taken thither. Then, suddenly my elbow crumpled under me, and I fell back in an agony of pain so great that presently the world grew swiftly black and I knew no more. CHAPTER XX IN SHADOW-LAND When I became conscious, I was lying under blankets upon a trundle-bed, within the four walls of a very small room.