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It had no visible effect. Arthur lay half
conscious, too weak to move or speak; only
sometimes he coughed and gasped for breath.

“Sure, he looks like an angel already,” said
Mary as she stood watching him, despairing.
“And it’s what he’ll be if the Lord doesn’t
reach out His hand to save him soon.”

In the hall nearby there was standing an old
Indian with a wrinkled, inscrutable face. He
looked in at the door.

“Put sick man in hot hut,” he told her.
“Soon he get well.”

Mary had no notion of what the “hot hut”
was, but the clerks at the fort assured her that
the Indian’s treatment could at least do no
harm. So, -believing that the boy would die
soon if nothing was done for him she consented
to try the Indian’s hot hut.

Just outside the entrance of the fort the
Indians built a little rounded tent of cedar
boughs which they covered close with blankets.
While this was being done a number of smooth
round stones were made intensely hot in a
great fire of coals. Then at the right moment
these stones were transferred to the tent, piled
in the center and cold water thrown upon them.

[176]