saving a fellow-being who couldn't save himself. Not to have done as I did would have been inhuman."
"You risked your life for mine!"
"Perhaps I did. But let us pass that over, and talk of something else. How do you feel now?"
"I am sick—I was sick before the fire. This climate has knocked out my stomach."
Gilbert was on the point of asking if liquor had not had as much to do with it as the climate, but wisely refrained. "You want to take care of yourself in the future," he remarked. "Be very careful of what you eat and drink."
"I shall be careful. I'm not going to drink any more,—at least, not as I've been in the habit of drinking. But, Pennington, I want to talk to you. As I said before, I can't understand why you risked your life for mine."
"Then don't try to understand it. It is past now."
"You are a better fellow than I am,—a good deal better," persisted Nuggy. "I don't believe I would have tried to save you under the same circumstances."
"Then it is a good thing that I am myself and
