It was near midnight when he waked. Jen was sitting beside him. He looked round and saw her. Her face was touched with the light that shone from the Prairie Star. “Jen,” he said, and held out his hand.
She turned from the window and stood beside his bed. She took his outstretched hand. “You are better, Sergeant Tom”? she said, gently.
“Yes, I’m better; but it’s not Sergeant Tom I am any longer, Jen.”
“I forgot that.”
“I owed you a great debt, Jen. I couldn’t remain one of the Riders of the Plains and try to pay it. I left them. Then I tried to save Val, and I did. I knew how to do it without getting anyone else into trouble. It is well to know the trick of a lock and the hour that guard is changed. I had left, but I relieved guard that night just the same. It was a new man on watch. It’s only a minute I had; for the regular relief watch was almost at my heels. I got Val out just in time. They discovered us, and we had a run for it. Pretty Pierre has told you. That’s right. Val is safe now—”
In a low strained voice, interrupting him, she said, “Did Val leave you wounded so on the prairie?”
“Don’t let that ate at your heart. No, he didn’t. I hurried him off, and he didn’t know how bad I was hit. But I—I’ve paid my debt, haven’t I, Jen?” With eyes that could not see for tears, she touched pityingly, lovingly, the wounds on his head and shoulder, and said: “These pay a greater debt than you ever owed me. You risked your life for me—yes, for me. You have given up everything to do it. I can’t pay you the great difference. No, never!”
“Yes—yes, you can, if you will, Jen. It’s as aisy! If you’ll say what I say, I’ll give you quit of that difference, as you call it, forever and ever.”
“First, tell me. Is Val quite, quite safe?”
“Yes, he’s safe over the border by this time; and to tell you the truth, the Riders of the Plains wouldn’t be dyin’ to arrest him again if he was in Canada, which he isn’t. It’s little they wanted to fire at us, I know, when we were crossin’ the river, but it had to be done, you see, and us within sight. Will you say what I ask you, Jen?”