"Yes, with care and a return to graduated doses of the same poison; you
know it's the only remedy just now," answered the other.
By noon the next day the doctor and his patient had returned to the
cabin, but Ruysdael himself carried the helpless Liberty Jones to the
spring and deposited her gently beside it. "You may drink now," he said
gravely.
The girl did so eagerly, apparently imbibing new strength from the
sparkling water. The doctor meanwhile coolly filled a phial from the
same source, and made a hasty test of the contents by the aid of some
other phials from his case. The result seemed to satisfy him. Then he
said gravely:
"And THIS is the spring you had discovered?"
The girl nodded.
"And you and the cattle have daily used it?"
She nodded again wonderingly. Then she caught his hand appealingly.
"You won't send me away?"
He smiled oddly as he glanced from the waters of the hill to the
brimming eyes. "No."
"No-r," tremulously, "go away--yourself?"
The doctor looked this time only into her eyes.
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