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A chill, gray, soed herself into the cabin and crept under her blankets, there to sleep the sleep of exhaustion

When she awoke the hour appeared to be late afternoon Sun and sky shone through the sunken and decayed roof of the old cabin Her uncle, Tad Jorth, lay upon a blanket bed upheld by a crude couch of boughs The light fell upon his face, pale, lined, cast in a stillHe was not dead, for she heard his respiration

The floor underneath Ellen's blankets was bare clay She and Jorth were alone in this cabin It contained nothing besides their beds and a rank growth of weeds along the decayed lower logs Half of the cabin had a rude ceiling of rough-hewn boards which forh to the adjoining cabin, for of the porch-like space between the two structures There was no partition A ladder of two aspen saplings, pegged to the logs, and with braces between for steps, led up to the attic

Ellen s meat, and she heard the voices of men She looked out to see that Slater and Soht have strengthened it for defense, but did not lend her own situation anything favorable Somers had always appeared the one best to avoid

Colter espied her and called her to "Cohed, not loudly, but guardedly, as if noise was soan to toss and moan on the bed

Ellen hurried to his side and at once ascertained that he had a high fever and was in a critical condition Every tih up For all she could see, nothing had been done for hi of a scarf round his neck and under his ar to the door, she called out: "Fetchin her pack for soes

"Weren't any of y'u decent enough to look after my uncle?" she queried

"Huh! Wal, what the hell!" rejoined Colter "We shore did all we could I reckon y'u think it wasn't a tough job to pack him up the Rim He was done for then an' I said so"