CHAPTER XII
the dry placer
THE long days passed with Stone restless as a haltered stallion in the spring and Larkin in much the same condition. Harvey was more stolid. Their camping-place down by the stream was pleasant and Harvey took charge of it. Larkin and Stone tried to eke out the time with fishing, with walks into the town twice a day to ask for the mail that would bring Stone's remittance, to locate a couple of burros, or to chat with the telegrapher and the store-keeper.
Curiously, both Larkin and Stone bothered a good deal about the same thing, the nursing of Healy by Peggy Furniss. It did not occur to either of them that there were plenty of professional nurses at the sanitarium and that the doctor would not be likely to delegate the girl to duties that were any but the most perfunctory. It did not occur to them that the girl might have made her statement in a teasing spirit to offset Larkin's remark about "angels." Larkin, to Stone's secret amusement, though he was really sympathetic, was openly jealous of Healy and fearful that the girl might fall for the gambler's fascinations. Stone felt no fears as to Peggy Furniss not being able to take care of herself nor as to her
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