Part 63 (1/2)

Sick as he was, the old man did his best to comfort her, but she was still sitting on the floor, with head bowed in troubled thought, when Hanscom and Carmody hurried in. Her relief, made manifest by the instant movement with which she gave way to him, was almost childlike.

”Oh, Doctor, I'm glad to see you!” she cried out. ”I was afraid your legal duties might keep you.”

”Luckily my legal duties are over,” he replied, quickly, ”and I'm glad of it. I hope I never'll have another such case.”

A brief examination convinced him that the sick man should be put to bed, and he suggested the Palace Hotel, which stood but a few doors away.

”He can't travel to-day,” he added, knowing that Helen had planned to take the train.

Kauffman insisted on going. ”I can walk,” he said, firmly. ”I feel a little dizzy, but I'll be all right in the coach.”

Hanscom was at his side, supporting him. ”You'd better wait a day,” he said, gently; and Helen understood and sided with him.

Together they helped the sick man to the door and into the doctor's car, and in a few minutes Kauffman was stretched upon a good bed in a pleasant room. With a deep sigh of relief he laid his head upon the soft pillow.

”I am glad not to entrain to-day,” he said. ”To-morrow will be better for us all.”

”Never mind about to-morrow,” said Hanscom. ”You rest as easy as you can.”

Helen followed Carmody into the hall. ”Tell me the truth,” she demanded.

”Is he injured internally?”

”It's hard to say what his injuries are,” he cautiously replied. ”He's badly bruised and feverish, but it may be nothing serious. However, he can't travel for a few days, that's certain.”

She was not entirely rea.s.sured by his reply, and her voice was bitterly accusing as she said: ”If he should die, I would never forgive myself.

He came here on my account.”

”There's no immediate danger. He seems strong and will probably throw this fever off in a few hours, but he must be kept quiet and cheerful.”

There was a rebuke in his final words, and she accepted it as such.

”I'll do the best I can, Doctor,” she replied, and returned to her duty.

Hanscom, divining some part of the pa.s.sion of self-accusation into which the girl had been thrown, eagerly asked, ”Is there something more I can do?”

”If you will have our bags brought, I shall be grateful. We may not be able to leave for several days.”

”I'll attend to them at once, but”--he looked aside as if afraid of revealing something--”I may be called away during the afternoon on business, and if I am, don't think I'm neglecting you.”

”How long will you be gone?”

”I can't tell--for a day or two, perhaps.”

The thought of his going gave her a sharp pang of prospective loneliness. ”I know you must return to your work,” she said, slowly, ”but I shall feel very helpless without you,” and the voicing of her dependence upon him added definiteness and power to her regret.

He hastened to say: ”I won't go if I can possibly help it, be sure of that; but something has come up which may make it necessary for me to--to take a trip. I'll return as soon as I can. I'll hurry away now and bring your baggage; that much I can surely do,” and he went out, leaving her greatly troubled by something unexplained in the manner of his going.

Stopping at Carmody's, Hanscom again thanked him for his kindness and warned him not to say one word to Helen about his fight with Abe nor about the warrant that was hanging over him.

”She has enough to worry about as it is,” he said; ”and if they get me, as they will, I want you to look after her and let me know how she gets on.”