“Sure,” laughed Norton; “that’s just what it is!”
CHAPTER XVII
THE RUSTLER
The following day Hollis rode to town over the Dry Bottom trail. Had he followed a perfectly natural inclination he would have taken the Coyote, for it would have brought him to the Hazelton cabin. But he succeeded in forcing himself to go the other way, arguing that Nellie and her brother might wish to be alone to consider the great good fortune that had come upon them.
And so they did, though had Hollis appeared to them this morning as they sat upon the porch he would have been assured of a royal welcome. Indeed, during the early morning hours Nellie had cast many furtive, expectant glances down the Coyote trail. When eight o’clock came and Hollis did not appear she gave him up.
The dawn found her kneeling beside her brother’s bed.
“Ed!” she said, leaning over him, waking him, her eyes alight with joy; “Ed, he says you can be cured!”
He struggled and sat up, rubbing his eyes.
“Gosh, sis!” he said in an awed voice. “Then it’s true! I was afraid I’d been dreaming!”
“It is no dream,” she returned ecstatically; “it is reality–beautiful reality! Wasn’t it simply great of him to take such an interest in us?”