Sped by the kindly farewells of Miriam, Beatrice and Dr. Minturn set out next day on their return ride across the pass and reached the cabin without undue adventure. During the doctor’s long interview with Aunt Anna, the two girls sat beside the fire, holding each other’s hands tightly, neither speaking a word to voice her hopes or fears. When the doctor came out, however, one glimpse of his smiling face was enough to cheer them both.
“Nothing seriously wrong,” was his verdict, “and you have brought her to just the climate and just the sort of life to make her well.” He gave them long and careful directions as to what they were to do and then got up to say good-by. “I am going over to John Herrick’s to spend the night, and I will see you again before I go back.”
He visited the village also before his departure, for he seemed interested in the progress of the trouble there. He had a long talk with Nancy and Beatrice out under the pines beside the stream the next morning.
“Your aunt will get well,” he assured them. “She is anxious and unhappy and troubled, besides her illness. You say that you don’t understand why, but in time she may tell you.”
“Did she tell you?” Nancy asked him suddenly for he was the sort of person to invite confidences.
“No, she told me very little, but old doctors guess a great deal. She will tell you herself some day.”
He went on to explain that a sleeping-porch must be added to the cabin, since it was imperative that she sleep out of doors.
“I spoke about it to John Herrick and he can send some one over to build it for you,” he said. “Old Tim who works for him is a carpenter of sorts, though he is rather tottery and slow and you must not be impatient if the work seems to drag. Now I believe that is all.”
“I wish I could tell you——” Beatrice began as he got up. She wanted to thank him for breaking out of his long retirement and rendering services for which he would accept no fee. He cut short her halting words at once.
“I don’t want to hear anything about that,” he declared. “Just be careful of your aunt and get her confidence if you can. I will be here again before so very long. That situation in the village bears watching and I want to see how it turns out. I never saw anything quite like it—all the idle men wrangling and quarreling, since there is no one outside to quarrel with. The fellow that got away with the money and shut down the works, he is the one they are after, but since neither they nor the sheriff nor that clever reporter fellow can find him, they have to take out their bad humor on one another. It is a dangerous place, a town full of ugly-tempered men, especially when they have some one like that Thorvik to keep the agitation boiling.”