For the first few weeks after Harry's accident Pearl's consciousness of
the external events in the world beyond the confines of the four walls
of the cabin seemed obliterated. She could never remember afterward
whether the rain fell or the days were flooded with sunshine. All of her
energies and interests were absorbed in one issue--his recovery.
Fortunately, his injuries proved more painful than dangerous, and were
necessarily slow in the mending; but the nursing was arduous, and Pearl
might have found it difficult indeed had it not been for the assistance
of the two mountain women and José.

It would be another matter to define correctly the motives that impelled
that debonair bandit to stand by her side so manfully in the face of
Gallito's wrath and reiterated prohibitions. It might have been a
conscientious wish to earn the jewels, over the possession of which he
had not ceased to gloat, or it might have been an impish desire to annoy
Gallito. Again, it might have been gratitude toward Seagreave, sympathy
with the Pearl, or, as easily the revolt of José's volatile nature
against the monotony of life in the narrow confines of his rock chamber.

But to José's danger, as to the passing days, Pearl was alike oblivious,
and it was not until Harry was able to sit up again for brief periods,
that she became aware of times and seasons, of other persons and of the
world of human interests and reactions. She awoke to a realization of
these facts with a sort of wonder. She looked abroad over the hillsides
and saw a new world. The long-awaited spring had sped up from the
valleys of mist, and at the wave of her white wand the mountains had
bloomed with a delicate iridescence--the luster on young leaves and
shining blades of grass. It was then that she also began to apprehend
something of the nature of José's difficulties.