"But isn't that a difficult thing? How did you know how to go about it?"
"Oh, I'd seen it done."
"On the prairie?"
"No," replied Thorne, with a rather curious smile; "in an Edinburgh hospital."
Something in his manner warned her that it might not be judicious to pursue her inquiries any further, though she was, without exactly knowing why, a little curious upon the point. It occurred to her that if he had been a patient in the hospital the injured man would in all probability not have been treated in his sight, while it seemed somewhat strange that he should now be peddling patent medicines in Canada had he been qualifying for his diploma. He, however, said nothing more, and they drove on in silence for a while.
CHAPTER III
THE CAMP IN THE BLUFF
They stopped in a thin grove of birches at midday for a meal which Thorne prepared, and it was late in the afternoon when Alison, who ached with the jolting, asked if Graham's Bluff was very much farther. It struck her that the fact that she had not made the inquiry earlier said a good deal for her companion's conversational powers.
"Oh, yes," he answered casually, "it's most of thirty miles."
Alison started with dismay.