As she passed in she saw Doctor Barnes, sitting on a box, quietly watching the pale face of a woman, young, dark-haired, flushed, her eyes heavy, her hands spread out piteously upon the blanket covering of the rude bunk bed.
Karen's first quick glance assured her that this young woman was all that Nels Jensen had called her--a lady.

She looked so helpless now that the big ranchwoman's heart went out to her in spite of all.
"You'd better get right out, Doctor," said she; and that gentleman followed her orders, exceeding glad to welcome a woman in this womanless wreck of a home.
Doctor Barnes stood outside, hands in pocket, for a time looking across the meadows lined with their banks of willows, silvering as usual in the evening breeze.

"Come here," said he at length to the three men.
They all followed him to one side.
"Now, Gage," said he, "I want you to tell me the truth about how this woman came out here." Wid Gardner, taking pity on his friend, told him instead, going into all the details of the conspiracy that had now proved so disastrous.
Doctor Barnes frowned in resentment when he heard.
"She's got to go back East," said he, "as soon as she's able to travel." "That's what I think," said Sim Gage slowly.

"It's what I told her.
But she always said she didn't have no place to go back to.

She could stay here as long as she liked, but now I ain't got much." "But it can't run on this way, Gage," said Doctor Barnes.