August had worked its merciless will on the land. The bare ground was baked and hard beaten and the turf was dry as powder. The brooks that had wandered across the prairie to join the Maumee were all waterless. The air was heavy; not a breath of wind was stirring. Overhead the sky quivered, glittering like a great brazen bowl. Inside the hotel the heat was unbearable, but beneath the tree some respite could be gained. Jack was talking of the one topic that engrossed his thoughts in those days. “Think of myself!” he echoed, to Alagwa’s pleadings. “I’ve thought of myself too long! I’ve got to think of that poor girl now. What in God’s name has become of her while I have been chasing shadows. First I let Williams make a fool of me and lead me out of my way. Then I make a fool of myself by camping for the night in the most dangerous place in all the northwest--and get my silly head beaten in to pay for it. And now I’m lying here idle while she--Good God! Where is she and what is she doing?” Alagwa said nothing. She knew that by one word she could end Jack’s anxiety, and again and again she had tried to utter it. But always it died unspoken upon her lips. If Jack persisted in periling his life by starting out too soon, and if she could stop him only by confessing her secret, she would confess it. But she would not do so till the last possible moment. Jack jumped to his feet. “And where’s Rogers?” he demanded. “What’s become of him? I told him to report to me from time to time. By heavens, I won’t wait here much longer! I’m well now, and if that fool doctor doesn’t pretty soon say I can start, I’ll start without his permission. He didn’t do anything for me, anyhow. It was you who saved my life”--he turned on the girl--“it was you. You bully little pal, you.” Alagwa looked down. Jack’s voice had a note of tenderness that she had not heard before. “Yes! It was you,” he went on. “You’re a hero, whether you know it or not. You won’t tell me much about what happened after Brito struck me down, but Cato’s told me a lot. And apart from that you’ve nursed me like a little brick. No woman could have been more tender. And I won’t forget it.” Alagwa’s heart was singing. She dared not raise her head, lest Jack should see the love light shining in her eyes and guess her secret. Persistently she looked down. Then suddenly she heard Jack’s voice, in quite a new note. “By George!” he cried. “There comes Rogers.” Over the dusty road from the fort the old man came trotting. When he saw the light of reason in Jack’s eyes his own lighted. “Dog my cats!” he cried. “But I’m plumb glad to see you, Jack. I been a-lookin’ for you all up and down the Maumee and I never got a smell of you till I met that skunk Williams just now and he told me you was plumb crazy. Lord! Lord! How people do like to lie. If they wouldn’t talk so much they wouldn’t lie so much and----” Jack interrupted. He was eager to divert the old man to the missing girl.