Then she walked on out of the radius of the firelight glow.
It was dawn when Dr. Inman Shonto awoke. He crawled halfway out of his blankets and parted the tent flaps. Through the inchoate light he saw the gleam of the campfire and a figure moving about it. He heard the low rattle of pots and pans. The figure, he knew soon, was that of the industrious Mary Temple, and she was all alone.
The doctor himself had intended to rise first, rebuild the fire, and set water on to boil; but Mary had forestalled him. Provoked at himself for allowing a woman to rise first and begin the hard work of camp life, he struggled into his clothes without awaking Andy and hurried out to her.
“Good morning,” he greeted her. “It’s pretty shivery out here. You beat me to it, and I apologize for oversleeping and allowing you to start breakfast alone.”
“You’re a very considerate gentleman, Doctor,” replied Mary Temple. “But this is nothing new for me, and I like to work. I like to smell the dawn come, too. They’ve gone.”
“What’s that? Who’s gone, Miss Temple?”
“Leach and Morley and his wife,” Mary replied, raking coals one side from the fire on which to place the coffeepot to simmer.
“Gone? Gone where?”
“Land knows! But I guessed it last night. They knew they’d not have any chance after Charmian talked with that Shirttail body. They’re crooked, Doctor. A dog’s hind leg would look like a steel ruler ’longside of Leach and Morley. I knew it—I just knew it all along!”