"Then he cannot be here yet. It is only ten o'clock, and it is quite three hours to Sölden."
"Only ten o'clock," Wally repeated in a low voice, and the good priest was filled with pity to see her sit there so quietly, her hands folded in her lap, whilst her heart beat with anguish so that it could be heard.
He bent over the sick man, and felt his head and his hands, "I think you may be easy, Wally," he said, "he does not appear to me like a dying man."
Wally sat motionless, gazing fixedly before her. "If the doctor comes and says that he'll live, I care for nothing more in this world," she said.
"That is right, Wally, I am glad to hear you say that," said the curé approvingly, "and now relate to me how it was that Joseph was saved--that will help to shorten the time till the doctor comes."
"There's not much to tell," answered Wally shortly.
"Nay, it is a noble deed that does honour to the men of the Sonnenplatte," said the priest, "were you not there?"
"Oh yes!"
"Well then, be less short in your answers. I spoke with no one on the way, and have heard nothing about it. Who fetched him up from the ravine?"
"I!"