"Those are to carry you and Anna along when you get exhausted. It is twenty miles to the coast, you know."
"I feel as if I could walk any distance to get on board the Osprey again."
"I have no doubt that you have the spirit, Bertha, but I question whether you have the strength; especially after being over three months without any exercise at all. I felt it myself yesterday, although we did little more than ten miles."
"Oh, but then you have been wounded. And you do look so ill, Frank."
"I dare say the wound had a little to do with it," he said; "but of course the climate is trying too; though it is cooler up on the hills than it is in that bay."
"Now, Frank, the first question of all is—How is my mother? What did she do when I was missing? It must have been awful for her."
"Of course, it was a terrible anxiety, Bertha, but she bore it better than would be expected, especially as she had not been well before."
"It troubled me more, Frank, than even my own affairs. As soon as I had time to think at all, I could not imagine what she would do, and the only comfort was that she had you to look after her."
"No doubt it was a comfort, dear, that she had someone to lean upon a little.
"Halt!" he broke off suddenly, as there was the sound of a stick breaking among the trees close by. "Stand to your arms, men, and gather closely.