Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/209

 Dinner was soon ready and seated at that hospitable board, Jack first tasted the succulent steaks which had heretofore existed only in his imagination.

"I reckon that this is your first meal in a 'dobe house," remarked Dora.

"The first one I ever entered," Jack returned, "and it has a distinctly foreign air."

"Well," said Mr. Nelson, "I spent some time in Mexico and their manner of building struck me as suitable to this climate. 'Dobe is cheap and durable."

Jack's head throbbed painfully and he could not conceal his suffering. The strain he had been under for the past week, with the shock received that morning, had completely prostrated him, and he was only too glad to follow Mrs. Nelson's advice and go to bed. His room was sweet and inviting, but he sank into bed too ill to appreciate it.

For two weeks he was confined to his bed and when able to sit up his eyes fell on a small box, on a stand beside the bed, which Dora said had been brought by Elsie.