In another five minutes he sat up. "I'm—I'm all right now. Let's get our things on and go."
They dressed, Alexander helping Ian. The blood came slowly back into the latter's cheek; he walked, but he shivered yet.
"Let's go get Mother Binning's coffee!" said Alexander. "Come, I'll put my arm about you so." They went thus up the moor and across, and then down to the trees, the stream, and the glen. "There's the smoke from her chimney! You may have both cups and lie by the fire till you're warm. Mercy me! how lonely the cave would have been if you had drowned!"
They got down to the flowing water.
"I'm all right now!" said Ian. He released himself, but before he did so he turned in Alexander's arm, put his own arm around the other's neck, and kissed him. "You saved my life. Let's be friends forever!"
"That's what we are," said Alexander, "friends forever."
"You've proved it to me; one day I'll prove it to you!"
"We don't need proofs. We just know that we like each other, and that's all there is about it!"
"Yes, it's that way," said Ian, and so they came to Mother Binning's cot, the fire, and the coffee.