! 

 
 "CSB LIBRARY
 
 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS
 
 Books by Grace S. Richmond 
 
 A COURT OF INQUIRY 
 
 FOURSQUARE 
 
 MRS. RED PEPPER 
 
 RED AND BLACK 
 
 RED PEPPER BURNS 
 
 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 ROUND THE CORNER IN GAY STREET 
 
 STRAWBERRY ACRES 
 
 THE BROWN STUDY 
 
 THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET 
 
 THE SECOND VIOLIN 
 
 TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE 
 
 UNDER THE COUNTRY SKY 
 
 WITH JULIET IN ENGLAND 
 
 SHORT STORIES IN SMALL BOOK FORM 
 
 BROTHERLY HOUSE 
 
 ON CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE EVENING 
 
 ON CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE MORNING 
 
 THE BELLS OF ST. JOHN S 
 
 THE ENLISTING WIFE 
 
 THE WHISTLING MOTHER 
 
 UNDER THE CHRISTMAS STARS
 
 "Red Pepper" Burns, M. D.
 
 Red Pepper s 
 Patients 
 
 With an Account of Anne 
 Linton s Case in Particular 
 
 By GRACE S. RICHMOND 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "Red Pepper Burns," "Mrs. Red Pepper,** 
 
 "The Twenty-Fourth of June," 
 
 "The Brown Study, Etc. 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY 
 Publishers New York 
 
 Published by arrangement with DOUELEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
 
 Copyright, 1917, by 
 DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 AT 
 THE COUNTRY LIFE FRE88, GARDEN CITY, H. T.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 I. AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION . 3 
 
 II. LITTLE HUNGARY 26 
 
 III. ANNE LINTON S TEMPERATURE . 54 
 
 IV. Two RED HEADS 65 
 
 V. SUSQUEHANNA 8l 
 
 VI. HEAVY LOCAL MAILS .... 102 
 
 VII. WHITE LILACS . . 118 
 
 VIII. EXPERT DIAGNOSIS .... 133 
 
 IX. JORDAN Is A MAN 150 
 
 X. THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE . . 162 
 
 XL THE ONLY SAFE PLACE . . . ; 175 
 
 XII. THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 190 
 
 XIII. RED HEADED AGAIN . . . .213 
 
 XIV. A STRANGE DAY 222 
 
 XV. CLEAKED DECKS 234 
 
 XVI. WHITE LILACS AGAIN .... 249 
 
 XVII. RED S DEAREST PATIENTS . . 264
 
 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS
 
 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 
 
 THE man in the silk-lined, London-made 
 overcoat, holding his hat firmly on his 
 head lest the January wind send its ex 
 pensive perfection into the gutter, paused to ask 
 his way of the man with no overcoat, his hands 
 shoved into his ragged pockets, his shapeless head 
 gear crowded down over his eyes, red and bleary 
 ?vith the piercing wind. 
 
 "* Burns ? " repeated the second man to the ques 
 tion of the first. "Doc Burns? Sure! Next 
 house beyond the corner the brick one." He 
 turned to point. "Tell it by the rigs hitched. 
 It s his office hours. You ll do some waitin*, 
 tell ye that." 
 
 The questioner smiled a slightly superior smile. 
 "Thank you," he said, and passed on. He arrived 
 at the corner and paused briefly, considering the 
 row of vehicles in front of the old, low-lying brick 
 house with its comfortable, white-pillared porches. 
 
 3
 
 4 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 The row was indeed a formidable one and suggested 
 many waiting people within the house. But after 
 an instant s hesitation he turned up the gravel 
 path toward the wing of the house upon whose 
 door could be seen the lettering of an inconspicuous 
 sign. As he came near he made out that the sign 
 read "R. P. Burns, M.D.," and that the table of 
 office hours below set forth that the present hour 
 was one of those designated. 
 
 "I ll get a line on your practice, Red," said the 
 stranger to himself, and laid hand upon the door 
 bell. " Incidentally, perhaps, I ll get a line on why 
 you stick to a small suburban town like this when 
 you might be in the thick of things. A fellow 
 whom I ve twice met in Vienna, too. I can f 
 understand it." 
 
 A fair-haired young woman in a white uniform 
 and cap admitted the newcomer and pointed him 
 to the one chair left unoccupied in the large and 
 crowded waiting-room. It was a pleasant room, 
 in a well-worn sort of way, and the blazing wood 
 fire in a sturdy fireplace, the rows of dull-toned 
 books cramming a solid phalanx of bookcases, and 
 a number of interesting old prints on the walls 
 gave it, as the stranger, lifting critical eyes, was 
 obliged to admit to himself, a curious air of dig 
 nity in spite of the mingled atmosphere of drugs 
 3Jid patients which assailed his fastidious nostrils.
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 5 
 
 As for the patients themselves, since they were all 
 about him, he could hardly do less than observe 
 them, although he helped himself to a late mag 
 azine from a well-filled table at his side and mechan 
 ically turned its pages. 
 
 The first to claim his attention was a little girl at 
 his elbow. She could hardly fail to catch his eye } 
 she was so conspicuous with bandages. One eye, 
 one cheek, the whole of her neck, and both her 
 hands were swathed in white, but the other cheek 
 was rosy, and the uncovered eye twinkled bravely 
 as she smiled at the stranger. "I was burned, * 
 she said proudly. 
 
 "I see," returned the stranger, speaking very 
 low, for he was conscious that the entire roomful of 
 people was listening. "And you are getting 
 better?" 
 
 "Oh, yes!" exulted the child. "Doctor s making 
 me have new skin. He gets me more new skin every 
 day. I didn t have any at all. It was all burned 
 off." 
 
 "That s very good of him," murmured the 
 stranger. 
 
 "He s awful good," said the child, "when he : .sn t 
 cross. He isn t ever cross to me, Doctor isn t." 
 
 There was a general murmur of amusement in 
 the room, and another child, not far away, laughed 
 aloud. The stranger furtively scratinized the
 
 6 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 other patients one by one, lifting apparently casual 
 glances from behind his magazine. Several, pre 
 sumably the owners of the vehicles outside, were of 
 the typical village type, but there were others more 
 sophisticated, and several who were palpably per 
 sons of wealth. One late comer was admitted who 
 left a luxuriously appointed motor across the street, 
 and brought in with her an atmosphere of costly 
 furs and violets and fresh air. 
 
 "Certainly a mixed crowd," said the stranger to 
 himself behind his magazine; "but not so different, 
 after all, from most doctors waiting-room crowds. 
 I might send in a card, but, if I remember Red, it 
 Wouldn t get me anything and this is rather 
 interesting anyhow. I ll wait." 
 
 He waited, for he wished the waiting room to be 
 clear when he should approach that busy consulting 
 room beyond. Meanwhile, people came and went. 
 The door into the inner room would swing open, a 
 patient would emerge, a curt but pleasant "Good 
 bye " in a deep voice following him or her out, and 
 the fair-haired nurse, who sat at a desk near the 
 door or came out of the consulting room with the 
 patient, would summon the next. The lady of the 
 furs and violets sent in her card, but, as the stranger 
 had anticipated in his own case, it procured her 
 no more than an assurance from the nurse that 
 Doctor Burns would see her in due course. Since
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 7 
 
 he wanted the coast clear the stranger, when at 
 last his turn arrived, politely waived his rights, 
 sent the furs and violets in before him, and sat alone 
 with the nurse in the cleared waiting room. 
 
 A comparatively short period of time elapsed 
 before the consulting-room door opened once more. 
 But it closed again almost and a few words 
 reached the outer room. 
 
 "Oh, but you re hard hard, Doctor Burns! I 
 simply can t do it," said a plaintive voice. 
 
 "Then don t expect me to accomplish anything. 
 It s up to you absolutely," replied a brusque 
 voice, which then softened slightly as it added: 
 "Cheer up. You can, you know. Good-bye." 
 
 The patient came out, her lips set, her eyes low 
 ered, and left the office as if she wanted nothing so 
 much as to get away. The nurse rose and began to 
 say that Doctor Burns would now see his one re 
 maining caller, but at that moment Doctor Burns 
 himself appeared in the doorway, glanced at the 
 stranger, who had risen, smiling and the need for 
 an intermediary between physician and patient 
 vanished before the onslaught of the physician him 
 self. 
 
 "My word! Gardner Coolidge! Well, well if 
 this isn t the greatest thing on earth. My dear 
 fellow!" 
 
 The stranger, no longer a stranger, with his hand
 
 8 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 being wrung like that, with his eyes being looked 
 into by a pair of glowing hazel eyes beneath a heavy 
 thatch of well-remembered coppery hair, returned 
 this demonstration of affection with equal fervour. 
 
 "I ve been sitting in your stuffy waiting room, 
 Red, till the entire population of this town should 
 tell you its aches, just for the pleasure of seeing you 
 with the professional manner off." 
 
 Burns threw back his head and laughed, with a 
 gesture as of flinging something aside. "It s off 
 then, Cooly if I have one. I didn t know I had. 
 How are you ? Man, but it s good to see you ! Come 
 along out of this into a place that s not stuffy. 
 Where s your bag? You didn t leave it any 
 where ? " 
 
 " I can t stay, Red really I can t. Not this time. 
 I must go to-night. And I came to consult you 
 professionally so let s get that over first." 
 
 "Of course. Just let me speak a word to the 
 authorities. You ll at least be here for dinner? 
 Step into the next room, Cooly. On your way 
 let me present you to my assistant, Miss Mathew- 
 son, whom I couldn t do without. Mr. Cooiidge, 
 Miss Mathewson." 
 
 Gardner Cooiidge bowed to the office nurse, 
 whom he had already classified as a very attrac 
 tively superior person and well worth a good salary; 
 then went on into the consulting room, where an
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 9 
 
 open window had freshened the small place beyond 
 any possibility of its being called stuffy. As he 
 closed the window with a shiver and looked about 
 him, glancing into the white-tiled surgery beyond, 
 he recognized the fact that, though he might be 
 in the workshop of a village practitioner, it was a 
 workshop which did not lack the tools of the 
 workman thoroughly abreast of the times. 
 
 Burns came back, his face bright with pleasure 
 in the unexpected appearance of his friend. He 
 stood looking across the small room at Coolidge, 
 as if he could get a better view of the whole man at 
 a little distance. The two men were a decided 
 contrast to each other. Redfield Pepper Burns, 
 known to all his intimates, and to many more who 
 would not have ventured to call him by that title, 
 as "Red Pepper Burns," on account of the com 
 bination of red head, quick temper, and wit which 
 were his most distinguishing characteristics of 
 body and mind, was a stalwart fellow whose weight 
 was effectually kept down by his activity. His 
 white linen office jacket was filled by powerful 
 shoulders, and the perfectly kept hands of the 
 surgeon gave evidence, as such hands do, of their 
 delicacy of touch, in the very way in which Burns 
 closed the door behind him. 
 
 Gardner Coolidge was of a different type alto 
 gether. As tall as Burns, he looked taller because
 
 io RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 of his slender figure and the distinctive outlines 
 of his careful dress. His face was dark and rather 
 thin, showing sensitive lines about the eyes and 
 mouth, and a tendency to melancholy in the eyes 
 themselves, even when lighted by a smile, as now. 
 He was manifestly the man of worldly experience, 
 with fastidious tastes, and presumably one who 
 did not accept the rest of mankind as comrades 
 until proved and chosen. 
 
 "So it s my services you want?" questioned 
 Burns. "If that s the case, then it s here you sit." 
 
 " Face to the light, of course," objected Coolidge 
 with a grimace. "I wonder if you doctors know 
 what a moral advantage as well as a physical one 
 that gives you." 
 
 "Of course. The moral advantage is the one 
 we need most. Anybody can see when a skin is 
 jaundiced; but only by virtue of that moral stand 
 point can we detect the soul out of order. And 
 that s the matter with you, Cooly." 
 
 "What!" Coolidge looked startled. "I knew 
 you were a man who jumped to conclusions in the 
 old days " 
 
 "And acted on them, too," admitted Burns. 
 "I should say I did. And got myself into many a 
 scrape thereby, of course. Well, I jump to con 
 clusions now, in just the same way, only perhaps 
 with a bit more understanding of the ground I
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 11 
 
 jump on. However, tell me your symptoms in 
 orthodox style, please, then we ll have them out of 
 the way." 
 
 Coolidge related them somewhat reluctantly 
 because, as he went on, he was conscious that they 
 did not appear to be of as great importance as this 
 visit to a physician seemed to indicate he thought 
 them. The most impressive was the fact that he 
 was unable to get a thoroughly good night s sleep 
 except when physically exhausted, which in his 
 present manner of life he seldom was. When he 
 had finished and looked around he had been gaz 
 ing out of the window he found himself, as he had 
 known he should, under the intent scrutiny of the 
 eyes he was facing. 
 
 "What did the last man give you for this in 
 somnia ? " was the abrupt question. 
 
 "How do you know I have been to a succession 
 of men ? " demanded Coolidge with a touch of evi 
 dent irritation. 
 
 "Because you come to me. We don t look up 
 old friends in the profession until the strangers 
 fail us," was the quick reply. 
 
 "More hasty conclusions. Still, I ll have to 
 admit that I let our family physician look me over, 
 and that he suggested my seeing a nerve man 
 Allbright. He has rather a name, I believe? * 
 
 "Sure thing. What did he recommend?"
 
 12 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "A long sea voyage. I took it having nothing 
 else to do and slept a bit better while I was away. 
 The minute I got back it was the old story." 
 
 "Nothing on your mind, I suppose?" suggested 
 Burns. 
 
 "I supposed you d ask me that stock question. 
 Why shouldn t there be something on my mind? 
 Is there anybody whose mind is free from a weight 
 of some sort?" demanded Gardner Coolidge. His 
 thin face flushed a little. 
 
 "Nobody," admitted Burns promptly. "The 
 -question is whether the weight on yours is one 
 that s got to stay there or whether you may be rid 
 of it. Would you care to tell me anything about 
 \t ? I m a pretty old friend, you know." 
 
 Coolidge was silent for a full minute, then he 
 >poke with evident reluctance: "It won t do a 
 particle of good to tell, but I suppose, if I consult 
 you, you have a right to know the facts. My 
 wife has gone back to her father." 
 
 "On a visit?" Burns inquired. 
 
 Coolidge stared at him. "That s like you, Red," 
 he said, irritation in his voice again. "What s the 
 use of being brutal?" 
 
 "Has she been gone long enough for people to 
 think it s anything more than a visit?" 
 
 "I suppose not. She s been gone two months. 
 Her home is in California."
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 13 
 
 "Then she can be gone three without anybody s 
 thinking trouble. By the end of that third month 
 you can bring her home," said Burns comfortably. 
 He leaned back in his swivel-chair, and stared 
 hard at the ceiling. 
 
 Coolidge made an exclamation of displeasure and 
 got to his feet. "If you don t care to take me 
 seriously " he began. 
 
 "I don t take any man seriously who I know 
 cared as much for his wife when he married her 
 as you did for Miss Carrington and whose wife 
 was as much in love with him as she was with 
 you when he comes to me and talks about 
 her having gone on a visit to her father. Visits 
 are good things; they make people appreciate each 
 other." 
 
 " You don t or won t understand." Coolidge 
 evidently strove hard to keep himself quiet. "We 
 have come to a definite understanding that we 
 can t get on together. She s not coming back. 
 And I don t want her to." 
 
 Burns lowered his gaze from the ceiling to his 
 friend s face, and the glance he now gave him was 
 piercing. "Say that last again," he demanded. 
 
 "I have some pride," replied the other haughtily, 
 but his eyes would not meet Burns s. 
 
 "So I see. Pride is a good thing. So is love, 
 T<tll me you don t love her and I ll No, don c
 
 i 4 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 tell me that. I don t want to hear you perjure 
 yourself. And I shouldn t believe you. You may 
 as well own up" his voice was gentle now "that 
 you re suffering and not only with hurt pride." 
 There was silence for a little. Then Burns began 
 again, in a very low and quiet tone: "Have you 
 anything against her, Cooly?" 
 
 The man before him, who was still standing, 
 turned upon him. "How can you ask me such a 
 question?" he said fiercely. 
 
 "It s a question that has to be asked, just to 
 get it out of the way. Has she anything against 
 you?" 
 
 " For heaven s sake no ! You know us both." 
 
 "I thought I did. Diagnosis, you know, is a 
 series of eliminations. And now I can eliminate 
 pretty nearly everything from this case except a 
 certain phrase you used a few minutes ago. I m 
 inclined to think it s the cause of the trouble." 
 Coolidge looked his inquiry. "Having nothing 
 else to do. " 
 
 Coolidge shook his head. "You re mistaken 
 there. I have plenty to do." 
 
 " But nothing you couldn t be spared from un 
 less things have changed since the days when we all 
 envied you. You re still writing your name on the 
 backs of dividend drafts, I suppose?" 
 
 "Red, you are something of a brute," said
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 15 
 
 Coolidge, biting his lip. But he had taken the 
 t:hair again. 
 
 "I know," admitted Red Pepper Burns. "I 
 don t really mean to be, but the only way I can find 
 out the things I need to know is to ask straight 
 questions. I never could stand circumlocution. 
 If you want that, Cooly; if you want what are 
 called tactful methods, you ll have to go to some 
 other man. What I mean by asking you that one 
 is to prove to you that though you may have some 
 thing to do, you have no job to work at. As it 
 happens you haven t even what most other rich 
 men have, the trouble of looking after your income 
 and as long as your father lives you won t have 
 it. I understand that; he won t let you. But 
 there s a man with a job your father. And he 
 likes it so well he won t share it with you. It isn t 
 the money he values, it s the job. And collecting 
 books or curios or coins can never be made to take 
 the place of good, downright hard work." 
 
 "That may be all true," acknowledged Coolidge, 
 "but it has nothing to do with my present trouble. 
 My leisure was not what He paused, as if he 
 
 could not bear to discuss the subject of his marital 
 unhappiness. 
 
 The telephone bell in the outer office rang 
 sharply. An instant later Miss Mathewson 
 knocked, and gave a message to Burns. He read
 
 16 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 it, nodded, said "Right away," and turned back to 
 his friend. 
 
 "I have to leave you for a bit," he said. "Come 
 in and meet my wife and one of the kiddies. The 
 other s away just now. I ll be back in time for din 
 ner. Meanwhile, we ll let the finish of this talk wait 
 over for an hour or two. I want to think about it. * 
 
 He exchanged his white linen office-jacket for a 
 street coat, splashing about with soap and water 
 just out of sight for a little while before he did so, 
 and reappeared looking as if he had washed away 
 the fatigue of his afternoon s work with the phys 
 ical process. He led Gardner Coolidge out of the 
 offices into a wide separating hall, and the moment 
 the door closed behind him the visitor felt as if he 
 had entered a different world. 
 
 Could this part of the house, he thought, as 
 Burns ushered him into the living room on the 
 other side of the hall and left him there while he 
 went to seek his wife, possibly be contained within 
 the old brick walls of the exterior? He had not 
 dreamed of finding such refinement of beauty and 
 charm in connection with the office of the village 
 doctor. In half a dozen glances to right and left 
 Gardner Coolidge, experienced in appraising the 
 belongings of the rich and travelled of superior 
 taste and breeding, admitted to himself that the 
 genius of the place must be such a woman as he
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 17 
 
 would not have imagined Redfield Pepper Burns 
 able to marry. 
 
 He had not long to wait for the confirmation of 
 his insight. Burns shortly returned, a two-year- 
 old boy on his shoulder, his wife following, drawn 
 along by the child s hand. Coolidge looked, and 
 liked that which he saw. And he understood, 
 with one glance into the dark eyes which met his, 
 one look at the firm sweetness of the lovely mouth, 
 that the heart of the husband must safely trust in 
 this woman. 
 
 Burns went away at once, leaving Coolidge in 
 the company of Ellen, and the guest, eager though 
 he was for the professional advice he had come to 
 seek, could not regret the necessity which gave 
 him this hour with a woman who seemed to 
 him very unusual. Charm she possessed in full 
 measure, beauty in no less, but neither of these 
 terms nor both together could wholly describe 
 Ellen Burns. There was something about her 
 which seemed to glow, so that he soon felt that her 
 presence in the quietly rich and restful living room 
 completed its furnishing, and that once having seen 
 her there the place could never be quite at its best 
 without her. 
 
 Burns came back, and the three went out to 
 dinner. The small boy, a handsome, auburn- 
 haired, brown-eyed composite of his parents, had
 
 i8 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 been sent away, the embraces of both father and 
 mother consoling him for his banishment to the 
 arms of a coloured mammy. Coolidge thoroughly 
 enjoyed the simple but appetizing dinner, of 
 the sort he had known he should have as soon 
 as he had met the mistress of the house. And 
 after it he was borne away by Burns to the 
 office. 
 
 "I have to go out again at once," the physician 
 announced. "I m going to take you with me. I 
 suppose you have a distaste for the sight of illness, 
 but that doesn t matter seriously. I want you to 
 see this patient of mine." 
 
 "Thank you, but I don t believe that s neces 
 sary," responded Coolidge with a frown. "If 
 Mrs. Burns is too busy to keep me company I ll 
 sit here and read while you re out." 
 
 "No, you won t. If you consult a man you re 
 bound to take his prescriptions. I m telling you 
 frankly, for you d see through me if I pretended to 
 take you out for a walk and then pulled you into a 
 house. Be a sport, Cooly." 
 
 "Very well," replied the other man, suppressing 
 his irritation. He was almost, but not quite, wish 
 ing he had not yielded to the unexplainable im 
 pulse which had brought him here to see a man 
 who, as he should have known from past experi 
 ence in college days, was as sure to be eccentric in
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 19 
 
 his methods of practising his profession as he had 
 been in the conduct of his life as a student. 
 
 The two went out into the winter night together, 
 Coolidge remarking that the call must be a brief 
 one, for his train would leave in a little more than 
 an hour. 
 
 "It ll be brief," Burns promised. "It s practi 
 cally a friendly call only, for there s nothing more I 
 can do for the patient except to see him on his 
 way." 
 
 Coolidge looked more than ever reluctant. "I 
 hope he s not just leaving the world ?" 
 
 "What if he were would that frighten you? 
 Don t be worried; he ll not go to-night." 
 
 Something in Burns s tone closed his compan 
 ion s lips. Coolidge resented it, and at the same 
 time he felt constrained to let the other have his 
 way. And after all there proved to be nothing in 
 the sight he presently found himself witnessing to 
 shock the most delicate sensibilities. 
 
 It was a little house to which Burns conducted 
 his friend and latest patient; it was a low-ceiled, 
 homely room, warm with lamplight and comfort 
 able with the accumulations of a lifetime carefully 
 preserved. In the worn, old, red-cushioned arm 
 chair by a glowing stove sat an aged figure of a 
 certain dignity and attractiveness in spite of the 
 lines and hues plainly showing serious illness.
 
 20 , RED PEPPERS PATIENTS 
 
 The man was a man of education and experience^ 
 as was evident from his first words in response to 
 Burns s greeting. 
 
 "It was kind of you to come again to-night, Doc 
 tor. I suspect you know how it shortens the nights 
 to have this visit from you in the evening." 
 
 "Of course I know," Burns responded, his hand 
 resting gently on the frail shoulder, his voice as 
 tender as that of a son s to a father whom he 
 knows he is not long to see. 
 
 There was a woman in the room, an old woman 
 with a pathetic face and eyes like a mourning dog s, 
 as they rested on her husband. But her voice was 
 cheerful and full of quiet courage as she answered 
 Burns s questions. The pair received Gardner 
 Coolidge as simply as if they were accustomed to 
 meet strangers every day, spoke with him a little, 
 and showed him the courtesy of genuine interest 
 when he tried to entertain them with a brief ac 
 count of an incident which had happened on his 
 train that day. Altogether, there was nothing 
 about the visit which he could have characterized 
 as painful from the point of view of the layman who 
 accompanies the physician to a room where it is 
 clear that the great transition is soon to take place. 
 And yet there was everything about it to make 
 it painful acutely painful to any man whose 
 discernment was naturally as keen as Coolidge s,
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 21 
 
 That the parting so near at hand was to be one 
 between lovers of long standing could be read in 
 every word and glance the two gave each other. 
 That they were making the most of these last days 
 was equally apparent, though not a word was said 
 to suggest it. And that the man who was con 
 ducting them through the fast-diminishing time 
 was dear to them as a son could have been read 
 by the very blind. 
 
 "It s so good of you so good of you, Doctor," 
 they said again as Burns rose to go, and when he 
 responded: "It s good to myself I am, my dears, 
 when I come to look at you," the smiles they gave 
 him and each other were very eloquent. 
 
 Outside there was silence between the two men 
 for a little as they walked briskly along, then Cool- 
 idge said reluctantly: "Of course I should have 
 a heart of stone if I were not touched by that 
 scene as you knew I would be." 
 
 " Yes, I knew," said Burns simply; and Cool- 
 idge saw him lift his hand and dash away a tear. 
 "It gets me, twice a day regularly, just as if I hadn t 
 seen it before. And when I go back and look at 
 the woman I love I say to myself that I ll never 
 let anything but the last enemy come between 
 us if I have to crawl on my knees before her." 
 
 Suddenly Coolidge s throat contracted. His re 
 sentment against his friend was gone. Surely it
 
 24 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 was a wise physician who had given him that 
 heartbreaking little scene to remember when he 
 should be tempted to harden his heart against the 
 woman he had chosen. 
 
 "Red," he said bye and bye, when the two were 
 alone together for a few minutes again in the 
 consulting room before he should leave for his 
 train, "is that all the prescription you re going to 
 give me a trip to California? Suppose I m not 
 successful?" 
 
 Red Pepper Burns smiled, a curious little smile. 
 "You ve forgotten what I told you about the way 
 my old man and woman made a home together, 
 and worked at their market gardening together, 
 and read and studied together did everything 
 from first to last together. That s the whole force 
 of the illustration, to my mind, Cooly. It s the 
 standing shoulder to shoulder to face life that does 
 the thing. Whatever plan you make for your 
 after life, when you bring Alicia back with you - 
 as you will; I know it make it a plan which means 
 partnership if you have to build a cottage down 
 on the edge of your estate and live alone there to 
 gether. Alone till the children come to keep you 
 company," he added with a sudden flashing smile. 
 
 Coolidge looked at him and shook his head. His 
 face dropped back into melancholy. He opened 
 his lips and closed them again. Red Pepper Burns
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 23 
 
 opened his own lips and closed them again. 
 When he did speak it was to say, more gently than 
 he had yet spoken: 
 
 "Old fellow, life isn t in ruins before you. Make 
 up your mind to that. You ll sleep again, and 
 laugh again and cry again, too, because lifeis like 
 that, and you wouldn t want it any other way." 
 
 It was time for Coolidge to go, and the two men 
 went in to permit the guest to take leave of Mrs. 
 Burns. When they left the house Coolidge told his 
 friend briefly what he thought of his friend s wife, 
 and Burns smiled in the darkness as he heard. 
 
 "She affects most people that way," he an 
 swered with a proud little ring in his voice. But he 
 did not go on to talk about her; that would have 
 been brutal indeed in Coolidge s unhappy circum 
 stances. 
 
 At the train Coolidge turned suddenly to his 
 physician. "You haven t given me anything for 
 my sleeplessness," he said. 
 
 "Think you must have a prescription?" Burns 
 inquired, getting out his blank and pen. 
 
 "It will take some time for your advice to work 
 out, if it ever does," Coolidge said. "Meanwhile, 
 the more good sleep I get the fitter I shall be for 
 the effort." 
 
 "True enough. All right, you shall have the 
 prescription."
 
 24 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Burns wrote rapidly, resting the small leather- 
 bound book on his knee, his foot on an iron rail of 
 the fence which kept passengers from crowding. 
 He read over what he had written, his face sober, 
 his eyes intent. He scrawled a nearly indecipher 
 able "Burns" at the bottom, folded the slip and 
 handed it to his friend. "Put it away till you re 
 ready to get it filled," he advised. 
 
 The two shook hands, gripping tightly and 
 looking straight into each other s eyes. 
 
 "Thank you, Red, for it all," said Gardner 
 Coolidge. "There have been minutes when I felt 
 differently, but I understand you better now. 
 And I see why your waiting room is full of patients 
 even on a stormy day." 
 
 "No, you don t," denied Red Pepper Burns 
 stoutly. " If you saw me take their heads off you d 
 wonder that they ever came again. Plenty of them 
 don t and I don t blame them when I ve cooled 
 off." 
 
 Coolidge smiled. "You never lie awake thinking 
 over what you ve said or done, do you, Red ? By 
 gones are bygones with a man like you. You 
 couldn t do your work if they weren t!" 
 
 Apeculiarlook leaped into Burns s eyes. "That s 
 what the outsiders always think," he answered 
 briefly. 
 
 "Isn t it true?"
 
 AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION 25 
 
 "You may as well go on thinking it is and so 
 may the rest. What s the use of explaining one 
 self, or trying to? Better to go on looking unsym 
 pathetic and suffering, sometimes, more than all 
 one s patients put together!" 
 
 Coolidge stared at the other man. His face 
 showed suddenly certain grim lines which Coolidge 
 had not noticed there before lines written by 
 endurance, nothing less. But even as the patient 
 looked the physician s expression changed again. 
 His sternly set lips relaxed into a smile, he pointed 
 to a motioning porter. 
 
 : Time to be off, Cooly," he said. "Mind you 
 let me know how you are. Good luck the best 
 of it!" 
 
 In the train Coolidge had no sooner settled him 
 self than he read Burns s prescription. He had a 
 feeling that it would be different from other pre 
 scriptions, and so it proved: 
 
 Walk five miles every evening. 
 
 Drink no sort of stimulant, except one cup of coffee at 
 breakfast. 
 
 Begin to make plans for the cottage. Don t let it turn out 
 a palace. 
 
 Ask the good Lord every night to keep you from being a 
 proud fool. 
 
 BURNS.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 
 
 NOT HUNGRY, Red ? After all that cold 
 drive to-day? Would you like to have 
 Cynthia make you something special, 
 dear?" 
 
 R. P. Burns, M.D., shook his head. "No, 
 thanks." He straightened in his chair, where he 
 sat at the dinner table opposite his wife. He took 
 up his knife and fork again and ate valiantly a 
 mouthful or two of the tempting food upon his 
 plate, then he laid the implements down decisively. 
 He put his elbow on the table and leaned his head 
 upon his hand. "I m just too blamed tired to eat, 
 that s all," he said. 
 
 "Then don t try. I m quite through, too. 
 Come in the living room and lie down a little. It s 
 such a stormy night there may be nobody in." 
 
 Ellen slipped her hand through his arm and led 
 the way to the big blue couch facing the fireplace. 
 He dropped upon it with a sigh of fatigue. His 
 wife sat down beside him and began to pass her 
 fingers lightly through his heavy hair, with the 
 
 *6
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 27 
 
 touch which usually soothed him into slumber if 
 no interruptions came to summon him. But to 
 night her ministrations seemed to have little effect, 
 for he lay staring at a certain picture on the wall 
 with eyes which evidently saw beyond it into some 
 trying memory. 
 
 "Is the whole world lying heavy on you/ 
 shoulders to-night, Red?" Ellen asked presently, 
 knowing that sometimes speech proved a relie/ 
 from thought. 
 
 He nodded. "The whole world millions ol 
 tons of it. It s just because I m tired. There s 
 no real reason why I should take this day s 
 svork harder than usual except that I lost the 
 Anderson case this morning. Poor start for the 
 day, eh ? " 
 
 " But you knew you must lose it. Nobody could 
 have saved that poor creature." 
 
 "I suppose not. But I wanted to save him just 
 the same. You see, he particularly wanted to live, 
 and he had pinned his whole faith to me. He 
 wouldn t give it up that I could do the miracle. It 
 hurts to disappoint a faith like that." 
 
 "Of course it does," she said gently. "But you 
 must try to forget now, Red, because of to-morrow. 
 There will be people to-morrow who need you as 
 much as he did." 
 
 "That s just what I d like to forget," he mur-
 
 28 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 mured. "Everything s gone wrong to-day it ll 
 50 worse to-morrow." 
 
 She knew it was small use to try to combat this 
 mood, so unlike his usual optimism, but frequent 
 enough of occurrence to make her understand that 
 there is no depression like that of the habitually 
 buoyant, once it takes firm hold. She left him 
 presently and went to sit by the reading lamp, look 
 ing through current magazines in hope of finding 
 some article sufficiently attractive to capture 
 his interest, and divert his heavy thoughts. His 
 eyes rested absently on her as she sat there, a 
 charming, comradely figure in her simple home 
 dinner attire, with the light on her dark hair and 
 the exquisite curve of her cheek. 
 
 It was a fireside scene of alluring comfort, the 
 two central figures of such opposite character 
 istics, yet so congenial. The night outside was 
 very cold, the wind blowing stormily in great gusts 
 which now and then howled down the chimney, 
 making the warmth and cheer within all the more 
 appealing. 
 
 Suddenly Ellen, hunting vainly for the page she 
 sought, lifted her head, to see her husband lift his at 
 the same instant. 
 
 "Music?" she questioned. "Where can it 
 come from? Not outside on such a night as 
 this?"
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 29 
 
 "Did you hear it, too? I ve been thinking it my 
 imagination." 
 
 "It must be the wind, but no, it is music!" 
 
 She rose and went to the window, pushing aside 
 draperies and setting her face to the frosty pane. 
 The next instant she called in a startled way: 
 
 "Oh, Red come here!" 
 
 He came slowly, but the moment he caught 
 sight of the figure in the storm outside his langour 
 vanished. 
 
 "Good heavens! The poor beggar! We must 
 have him in." 
 
 He ran to the hall and the outer door, and Ellen 
 heard his shout above the howling of the wind. 
 
 "Come in come in!" 
 
 She reached the door into the hall as the slender 
 young figure stumbled up the steps, a violin 
 clutched tight in fingers purple with cold. She saw 
 the stiff lips break into a frozen smile as her hus 
 band laid his hand upon the thinly clad shoulder 
 and drew the youth where he could close the door. 
 
 "Why didn t you come to the door and ring, 
 instead of fiddling out there in the cold!" de 
 manded Burns. "Do you think we re heathen, 
 to shut anybody out on a night like this?" 
 
 The boy shook his head. He was a boy in size, 
 though the maturity of his thin face suggested that 
 he was at least nineteen or twenty years old. His
 
 30 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 dark eyes gleamed out of hollow sockets, and his 
 black hair, curling thickly, was rough with neglect. 
 But he had snatched off his ragged soft hat even 
 before he was inside the door, and for all the stiff 
 ness of his chilled limbs his attitude, as he stood 
 before his hosts, had the unconscious grace of the 
 foreigner. 
 
 "Where do you come from?" Burns asked. 
 
 Again the stranger shook his head. 
 
 "He can t speak English," said Ellen. 
 
 "Probably not though he may be bluffing. We 
 must warm and feed him, anyhow. Will you have 
 him in here, or shall I take him in the office?" 
 
 Ellen glanced again at the shivering youth, noted 
 that the purple hands were clean, even to the nails, 
 and led the way unhesitatingly into the living room 
 with all its beckoning warmth and beauty. 
 
 "Good little sport I knew you would," 
 murmured Burns, as he beckoned the boy after 
 him. 
 
 Ellen left the two alone together by the fire, 
 while she went to prepare a tray with Cynthia in 
 the kitchen, filling it with the hearty food Burns 
 himself had left untouched. Big slices of juicy 
 roast beef, two hurriedly warmed sweet potatoes 
 which had been browned in syrup in the Southern 
 style, crisp buttered rolls, and a pot of steaming 
 coffee were on the large tray which Cynthia in-
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 31 
 
 sisted on carrying to the living-room door for her 
 mistress. Burns, jumping up at sight of her, took 
 the tray, while Ellen cleared a small table, drew up 
 a chair, and summoned the young stranger. 
 
 The low bow he made her before he took the 
 chair proclaimed his breeding, as well as the smile 
 of joy which showed the flash of his even white 
 teeth in the firelight. He made a little gesture of 
 gratitude toward both Burns and Ellen, pressing 
 his hands over his heart and then extending them, 
 the expression on his face touching in its starved 
 restraint. Then he fell upon the food, and even 
 though he was plainly ravenous he ate as man- 
 neredly as any gentleman. Only by the way he 
 finished each tiniest crumb could they know \iis 
 extremity. 
 
 " By Jove, that beats eating it myself, if I were 
 nungry as a faster on the third day!" Burns ex 
 claimed, as he sat turned away from the beneficiary, 
 his eyes apparently upon the fire. Ellen, from 
 behind the boy, smiled at her husband, noting 
 how completely his air of fatigue had fallen from 
 him. Often before she had observed how any call 
 upon R. P. Burns s sympathies rode down his own 
 need of commiseration. 
 
 "Hungarian, I think, don t you?" Burns re 
 marked, as the meal was finished, and the youth 
 rose to bow his thanks once more. This time there
 
 32 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 was a response. He nodded violently, smiling and 
 throwing out his hands. 
 
 "Ungdkree!" he said, and smiled and nodded 
 again, and said again, "Ungahree!" 
 
 "He knows that word all right," said Burns, 
 smiling back. "It s a land of musicians. The 
 fiddle s a good one, I ll wager." 
 
 He glanced at it as he spoke, and the boy leaped 
 for it, pressing it to his breast. He began to tune 
 it. 
 
 "He thinks we want to be paid for his supper," 
 Ellen exclaimed. "Can t you make him under 
 stand we should like him to rest first?" 
 
 "I d only convey to him the idea that we didn t 
 want to hear him play, which would be a pity, for 
 we do. If he s the musician he looks, by those eyes 
 and that mouth, we ll be more than paid. Go 
 ahead, Hungary it ll make you happier than any 
 thing we could do for you." 
 
 Clearly it would. Burns carried out the tray, 
 and when he returned his guest was standing upon 
 the hearth rug facing Ellen, his bow uplifted. He 
 waited till Burns had thrown himself down on the 
 couch again in a sitting posture, both arms 
 stretched along the back. Then he made his 
 graceful obeisance again, and drew the bow very 
 slowly and softly over the first string. And, at the 
 very first note, the two who were watching him
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 33 
 
 knew what was to come. It was in every line of 
 him, that promise. 
 
 It might have been his gratitude that he was 
 voicing, so touching were the strains that followed 
 that first note. The air was unfamiliar, but it 
 sounded like a folk song of his own country, and he 
 put into it all the poignant, peculiar melody of such 
 a song. His tones were exquisite, with the sure 
 touch of the trained violinist inspired and sup 
 ported by the emotional understanding of the genu 
 ine musician. 
 
 When he had finished he stood looking down 
 ward for a moment, then as Burns said "Bravo!" 
 he smiled as if he understood the word, and lifted 
 his instrument again to his shoulder. This time 
 his bow descended upon the strings with a full note 
 of triumph, and he burst into the brilliant per 
 formance of a great masterpiece, playing with a 
 spirit and dash which seemed to transform him. 
 Often his lips parted to show his white teeth, often 
 he swung his whole body into the rhythm of his 
 music, until he seemed a very part of the splendid 
 harmonies he made. His thin cheeks flushed, his 
 hollow eyes grew bright, he smiled, he frowned, he 
 shook his slender shoulders, he even took a stride 
 to right or left as he played on, as if the passion of 
 his performance would not let him rest. 
 
 His listeners watched him with svmpathetic and
 
 34 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 comprehending interest. Warmed and fed, his 
 Latin nature leaping up from its deep depression 
 to the exaltation of the hour, the appeal he made to 
 them was intensely pathetic. Burns, even more 
 ardently than his wife, responded to the appeal. He 
 no longer lounged among the pillows of the broad 
 couch; he sat erect, his eyes intent, his lips re 
 laxed, his cares forgot. He was a lover of music, 
 as are many men of his profession, and he was more 
 than ordinarily susceptible to its influences. He 
 drank in the tones of the master, voiced by this 
 devoted interpreter, like wine, and like wine they 
 Drought the colour to his face also, and the light to 
 his eyes. 
 
 "Jove!" he murmured, as the last note died 
 away, "he s a wonder. He must be older than he 
 looks. How he loves it! He s forgotten that he 
 doesn t know where he s to sleep to-night but, by 
 all that s fair, we know, eh?" 
 
 Ellen smiled, with a look of assent. Her own 
 heart was warmly touched. There was a small 
 bedroom upstairs, plainly but comfortably fur 
 nished, which was often used for impecunious 
 patients who needed to remain under observation 
 for a day or two. It was at the service of any 
 chance guest, and the chance guest was surely 
 with them to-night. There was no place in the 
 village to which such a vagrant as this might be
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 35 
 
 sent, except the jail, and the jail, for a musician of 
 such quality, was unthinkable. And in the night 
 and storm one would not turn a dog outdoors to 
 hunt for shelter at least not Red Pepper Burns 
 nor Ellen Burns, his wife. 
 
 As if he could not stop, now that he had found 
 ears to listen, the young Hungarian played on. 
 More and more profoundly did his music move him, 
 until it seemed as if he had become the very spirit 
 of the instrument which sung and vibrated under 
 his thin fingers. 
 
 "My word, Len, this is too good to keep all to 
 ourselves. Let s have the Macauleys and Chest- 
 ers over. Then we ll have an excuse for paying the 
 chap a good sum for his work and somehow I feel 
 
 that we need an excuse for such a gentleman as he 
 
 
 is. 
 
 "That s just the thing. I ll ask them." 
 She was on her way to the telephone when her 
 husband suddenly called after her, "Wait a minute, 
 Len." She turned back, to see the musician, his 
 bow faltering, suddenly lower his violin and lean 
 against his patron, who had leaped to his support. 
 A minute later Burns had him stretched upon the 
 blue couch, and had laid his fingers on the bony 
 wrist. 
 
 "Hang me for a simpleton, to feed him like that 
 when he s probably not tasted solid food for days.
 
 3 6 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 The reaction is too much, of course. He s been 
 playing on his nerve for the last ten minutes, and I, 
 like an idiot, thought it was his emotional tempera 
 ment." 
 
 He ran out of the room and returned with a wine 
 glass filled with liquid, which he administered, his 
 arm under the ragged shoulders. Then he patted 
 the wasted cheek, gone suddenly white except 
 where the excited colour still showed in faint patches. 
 
 "You ll be all right, son," he said, smiling down 
 into the frightened eyes, and his tone if not his 
 words seemed to carry reassurance, for the eyes 
 closed with a weary flutter and the gripping 
 fingers relaxed. 
 
 "He s completely done," Burns said pityingly. 
 He took one hand in his own and held it in his 
 warm grasp, at which the white lids unclosed again, 
 and the sensitive lips tried to smile. 
 
 "I d no business to let him play so long I might 
 have known. Poor boy, he s starved for other 
 things than food. Do you suppose anybody s held 
 his hand like this since he left the old country? 
 He thought he d find wealth and fame in the new 
 one and this is what he found!" 
 
 Ellen stood looking at the pair her brawny 
 husband, himself "completely done" an hour be 
 fore, now sitting on the edge of the couch with his 
 new patient s hand in his, his face wearing an ex-
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 37 
 
 pression of keen interest, not a sign of fatigue in his 
 manner; the exhausted young foreigner in his 
 ragged clothing lying on the luxurious couch, his 
 pale face standing out like a fine cameo against the 
 blue velvet of the pillow under his dark head. If 
 a thought of possible contamination for her home s 
 belongings entered her mind it found no lodgment 
 there, so pitiful was her heart. 
 
 "Is the room ready upstairs?" Burns asked pres 
 ently, when he had again noted the feeble action of 
 the pulse under his fingers. "What he needs 
 is rest and sleep, and plenty of both. Like the 
 most of us he s kept up while he had to, and nowhe s 
 gone to pieces absolutely. To-morrow we can 
 send him to the hospital, perhaps, but for to 
 night " 
 
 "The room is ready. I sent Cynthia up at 
 
 
 
 once. 
 
 " Bless you, you never fail me, do you ? Well 
 we may as well be on our way. He s nearly asleep 
 now." 
 
 Burns stood up, throwing off his coat. But 
 Ellen remonstrated. 
 
 "Dear, you are so tired to-night. Let me call 
 Jim over to help you carry him up." 
 
 A derisive laugh answered her. "Great Caesar, 
 Len! The chap s a mere bag of bones and if he 
 were twice as heavy he d be no weight for me. Jim
 
 38 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Macauley would howl at the idea, and no wonder. 
 Go ahead and open the doors, please, and I ll have 
 him up in a jiffy." 
 
 He stooped over the couch, swung the slender 
 figure up into his powerful arms, speaking reassur 
 ingly to the eyes which slowly opened in half- 
 stupefied alarm. "It s all right, little Hungary. 
 We re going to put you to bed, like the small lost 
 boy you are. Bring his fiddle, Len he won t 
 want that out of his sight. * 
 
 He strode away with his burden, and marched 
 up the stairs as if he were carrying his own two- 
 year-old son. Arrived in the small, comfortable 
 little room at the back of the house he laid his 
 charge on the bed, and stood looking down at him. 
 
 "Len, I ll have to go the whole figure," he said 
 and said it not as if the task he was about to impose 
 upon himself were one that irked him. "Get me 
 hot water and soap and towels, will you ? And an 
 old pair of pajamas. I can t put him to bed in 
 his rags." 
 
 "Shall I send for Amy? * questioned his wife, 
 quite as if she understood the uselessness of re 
 monstrance. 
 
 "Not much. Amy s making out bills for me to 
 night, we ll not interrupt the good work. Put some 
 bath-ammonia in the water, please and have it 
 hot."
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 39 
 
 Half an hour later he called her in to see the work 
 of his hands. She had brought him one of his 
 surgical aprons with the bath equipment. With 
 his sleeves rolled up, his apron well splashed, his 
 coppery hair more or less in disarray from the 
 occasional thrustings of a soapy hand, and his face 
 flushed and eager like a healthy boy s, Red Pepper 
 Burns stood grinning down at his patient. Little 
 Hungary lay in the clean white bed, his pale face 
 shining with soap and happiness, his arms upon 
 the coverlet encased in the blue and white sleeves 
 of Burns s pajamas, the sleeves neatly turned back 
 to accommodate the shortness of his arms. The 
 workman turned to Ellen as she came in. 
 
 "Comfy, eh?" he observed briefly. 
 
 "Absolutely, I should say, poor dear." 
 
 "Ah, you wouldn t have called him that before 
 che bath. But he is rather a dear now, isn t he? 
 And I think he s younger than I did downstairs. 
 Not over eighteen, at the most, but fully forty 
 in the experiences and hardships that have 
 brought him here. Well, we ll go away and let 
 him rest. Wish I knew the Hungarian for good 
 night, don t you? Anyway, if he knows any 
 prayers he ll say em, I ll venture." 
 
 The dark eyes were watching him intently as he 
 spoke, as if their owner longed to know what this 
 kind angel in the form of a big American strangei
 
 40 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 I 
 
 was saying to him. And when, in leaving him, 
 
 Burns once more laid an exploring touch upon his 
 wrist, the two thin hands suddenly clutched the 
 strong one and bore it weakly to lips which 
 kissed it fervently. 
 
 "Well, that s rather an eloquent thank-you, 
 eh?" murmured Burns, as he patted the hands in 
 reply. "No doubt but he s grateful. Put the 
 fiddle where he can see it in the morning, will you, 
 honey? Open the window pretty well: I ve 
 covered him thoroughly, and he has a touch of 
 fever to keep him warm. Good-night, little Hun 
 gary. Luck s with you to-night, to get into this 
 lady s house." 
 
 Downstairs by the fireside once more, the signs 
 of his late occupation removed, Burns stretched out 
 an arm for his wife. 
 
 "Come sit beside me in the Retreat," he invited, 
 using the name he had long ago given to the 
 kixurious blue couch where he was accustomed, 
 since his marriage, to rest and often to catch a 
 needed nap. He drew the winsome figure close 
 within his arm, resting his red head against the 
 dark one below it. "I don t seem to feel par 
 ticularly tired, now," he observed. "Curious, 
 isn t it ? Fatigue, as I ve often noticed, is more 
 mental than physical with most of us. Your 
 ditch-digger is tired in his back and arms, but the
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 41 
 
 ordinary person is merely tired because his mind 
 tells him he is." 
 
 "You are never too tired to rouse yourself for one 
 patient more," was Ellen s answer to this. "The 
 last one seems to cure you of the one before." 
 
 Burns s hearty laugh shook them both. "You 
 can t make me out such an enthusiast in my pro 
 fession as that. I turned away two country calls 
 to-night too lazy to make em." 
 
 "But you would have gone if they couldn t have 
 found anybody else." 
 
 "That goes without saying no merit in that. 
 The ethics of the profession have to be lived up to, 
 curse em as we may, at times. Len, how are we to 
 get to know something about little Hungary up 
 stairs ? Thos eyes of his are going to follow me into 
 my dreams to-night." 
 
 "I suppose there are Hungarians in town?" 
 
 "Not a one that I ever heard of. Plenty in the 
 city, though. The waiter at the Arcadia, where I 
 get lunch when I m at the hospital, is a Magyar. 
 By Jove, there s an idea! I ll bring Louis out, if 
 Hungary can t get into the hospital to-morrow 
 and I warn you he probably can t. I shouldn t 
 want him to take a twelve-mile ambulance ride in 
 this weather. That touch of fever may mean 
 simple exhaustion, and it may mean look out for 
 pneiimorna, after all the exposure he s had. I d
 
 42 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 i 
 
 give something to know how it came into his crazy 
 head to stand and fiddle outside a private house in 
 a January storm. Why didn t he try a cigar shop 
 or some other warm spot where he could pass the 
 hat ? That s what Louis must find out for me, eh ? 
 Len, that was great music of his, wasn t it ? The 
 fellow ought to have a job in a hotel orchestra, 
 Louis and I between us might get him one." 
 
 Burns went to bed still working on this problem, 
 and Ellen rejoiced that it had superseded the 
 anxieties of the past day. Next morning he was 
 early at the little foreigner s bedside, to find him 
 resting quietly, the fever gone, and only the intense 
 fatigue remaining, the cure for which was simply 
 rest and food. 
 
 "Shall we let him stay till he s fit?" Burns 
 asked his wife. 
 
 "Of course. Both Cynthia and Amy are much 
 interested, and between them he will have all he 
 needs." 
 
 "And I ll bring Louis out, if I have to pay for a 
 waiter to take his place," promised Burns. 
 
 He was as good as his word. When he returned 
 that afternoon from the daily visit to the city 
 hospital, where he had always many patients, he 
 brought with him in the powerful roadster which 
 he drove himself a dark-faced, pointed moustached 
 countryman of little Hungary, who spoke tolerable
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 43 
 
 English, and was much pleased and flattered to be 
 of service to the big doctor whom he was accus 
 tomed to serve in his best manner. 
 
 Taken to the bedside, Louis gazed down at its 
 occupant with condescending but comprehending 
 eyes, and spoke a few words which caused the thin 
 face on the pillow to break into smiles of delight, 
 as the eager lips answered in the same tongue. 
 Question and answer followed in quick succession 
 and Louis was soon able to put Burns in possession 
 of a few significant facts. 
 
 "He say he come to dis countree October. Try 
 find work New York no good. He start to valk 
 to countree, find vork farm. Bad time. Seeck, 
 cold, hungree. Fear he spoil hands for veolinn 
 dat s vhy he not take vork on road, vat he could 
 get. He museecian good one." 
 
 "Does he say that?" Burns asked, amused. 
 
 Louis nodded. "Many museecians in Hungary. 
 Franz come from Budapest. No poor museecians 
 dere. Budapest great ceety better Vienna, Ber 
 lin, Leipsic oh, yes! See, I ask heem." 
 
 He spoke to the boy again, evidently putting a 
 meaning question, for again the other responded 
 with ardour, using his hands to emphasize his as 
 sertion for assertion it plainly was. 
 
 Louis laughed. "He say ze countree of Franz 
 Liszt know no poor museeck. He named for Franz
 
 44 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Liszt. He play beeg museeck for you and ze ladee 
 last night. So?" 
 
 "He did and took us off our feet. Tell him, 
 will you?" 
 
 "He no un erstand," laughed Louis, "eef I tell 
 him off defect. " 
 
 "That s so no American idioms yet for him, 
 eh? Well, say he made us very happy with his 
 wonderful music. I ll wager that will get over to 
 him." 
 
 Plainly it did, to judge by the eloquence of 
 Franz s eyes and his joyous smile. With quick 
 speech he responded. 
 
 "He say," reported Louis, "he vant to vork for 
 you. No wagees till he plees you. He do anyting. 
 You van heem?" 
 
 "Well, I ll have to think about that," Burns 
 temporized. "But tell him not to worry. We ll 
 find a job before we let him go. He ought to play 
 in a restaurant or theatre, oughtn t he, Louis? * 
 
 Louis shook his head. "More men nor places," 
 he said. "Butvesee ve see." 
 
 "All right. Now ask him how he came to stand 
 in front of my house in the storm and fiddle." 
 
 To this Louis obtained a long reply, at which he 
 first shook his head, then nodded and laughed, with 
 a rejoinder which brought a sudden rush of tears to 
 the black eyes below. Louis turned to Burns.
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 45 
 
 "He say man lead heem here, make heem stand 
 by window, make sign to heem to play. I tell heem 
 man knew soft heart eenside." 
 
 To the edge of his coppery hair the blood rushed 
 into the face of Red Pepper Burns. Whether he 
 would be angry or amused was for the moment an 
 even chance, as Ellen, watching him, understood. 
 Then he shook his fist with a laugh. 
 
 "Just wait till I catch that fellow!" he threat 
 ened. "A nice way out of his own obligations to a 
 starving fellow man." 
 
 He sent Louis back to town on the electric car 
 line, with a round fee in his pocket, and the in 
 struction to leave no stone unturned to find Franz 
 work for his violin, himself promising to aid him in 
 any plan he might formulate. 
 
 In three days the young Hungarian was so far 
 himself that Burns had him downstairs to sit by 
 the office fire, and a day more put him quite on his 
 feet. Careful search had discovered a temporary 
 place for him in a small hotel orchestra, whose 
 second violin was ill, and Burns agreed to take 
 him into the city. The evening before he was to 
 go, Ellen invited a number of her friends and neigh 
 bours in to hear Franz play. 
 
 Dressed in a well-fitting suit of blue serge Franz 
 looked a new being. The suit had been con 
 tributed by Arthur Chester, Burns s neighbour and
 
 46 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 good friend next door upon the right, and various 
 other accessories had been supplied by James 
 Macauley, also Burns s neighbour and good friend 
 next door upon the left and the husband of Martha 
 Macauley, Ellen s sister. Even so soon the rest 
 and good food had filled out the deepest hollows in 
 the emaciated cheeks, and happiness had lighted 
 the sombre eyes. Those eyes followed Burns about 
 with the adoring gaze of a faithful dog. 
 
 "It s evident you ve attached one more devoted 
 follower to your train, Red," whispered Winifred 
 Chester, in an interval of the violin playing. 
 
 "Well, he s a devotee worth having," answered 
 Burns, watching his protege as Franz looked over a 
 pile of music with Ellen, signifying his pleasure 
 every time they came upon familiar sheets. The 
 two had found common ground in their love of the 
 most emotional of all the arts, and Ellen had dis 
 covered rare delight in accompanying that ardent 
 violin in some of the scores both knew and loved. 
 
 "He s as handsome as a picture to-night, isn t 
 he?" Winifred pursued. "How Arthur s old blue 
 suit transforms him. And wasn t it clever of 
 Ellen to have him wear that soft white shirt with 
 the rolling collar and flowing black tie? It gives 
 him the real musician s look." 
 
 "Trust you women to work for dramatic effects," 
 murmured Burns. "Here we go and I ll wager
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 47 
 
 it ll be something particularly telling, judging by 
 the way they both look keyed up to it. Ellen 
 plays like a virtuoso herself to-night, doesn t 
 she?" 
 
 "It s enough to inspire any one to have that 
 fiddle at her shoulder," remarked James Macauley, 
 who, hanging over the couch, had been listening to 
 this bit of talk. 
 
 The performance which followed captured them 
 all, even practical and energetic Martha Macauley, 
 who had often avowed that she considered the 
 study of music a waste of time in a busy world. 
 
 "Though I think, after all," she observed to 
 Arthur Chester, who lounged by her side, revelling 
 in the entertainment with the zest of the man who 
 would give his whole time to affairs like these if it 
 were not necessary for him to make a living at the 
 practice of some more prosaic profession, "it s 
 quite as much the interest of having such a stagey 
 character performing for us as it is his music. Did 
 you ever see any human being throw his whole soul 
 into anything like that? One couldn t help but 
 watch him if he weren t making a sound." 
 
 "It s certainly refreshing, in a world where we all 
 try to cover up our real feelings, to see anybody 
 give himself away so naively as that," Chester re 
 plied. "But there s no doubt about the quality 
 of his music. He was born, not made. And, by
 
 48 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 George, Len certainly plays up to him. I didn t 
 know she had it in her, for all I ve been admiring 
 her accomplishments for four years." 
 
 "Ellen s all temperament, anyway," said Ellen s 
 sister. 
 
 Chester looked at her curiously. Martha was a 
 fine-looking young woman, in a very wholesome 
 and clean-cut fashion. There was no feminine 
 artfulness in the way she bound her hair smoothly 
 upon her head, none in the plain cut of her simple 
 evening attire, absolutely none in her manner. 
 Glancing from Martha to her sister, as he had often 
 done before in wonderment at the contrast between 
 them, he noted as usual how exquisitely Ellen was 
 dressed, though quite as simply, in a way, as her 
 practical sister. But in every line of her smoke- 
 blue silken frock was the most subtle art, as 
 Chester, who had a keen eye for such matters and a 
 fastidious taste, could readily recognize. From the 
 crown of her dark head to the toe of the blue 
 slipper with which she pressed the pedal of the 
 great piano which she had brought from her old 
 home in the South, she was a picture to feast one s 
 eyes upon. 
 
 "Give me temperament, then and let some 
 other fellow take the common sense," mused Arthur 
 Chester to himself. "Ellen has both, and Red s 
 in luck. It was a great day for him when the
 
 49 
 
 lovely young widow came his way and he knows 
 it. What a home she makes him what a home!" 
 
 His eyes roved about the beautiful living room, 
 as they had often done before. His own home, next 
 door, was comfortable and more than ordinarily 
 attractive, but he knew of no spot in the town 
 which possessed the subtle charm of this in which 
 he sat. His wife, Winifred, was always trying to 
 reproduce within their walls the indefinable 
 quality which belonged to everything Ellen 
 touched, and always saying in despair, "It s no 
 use Ellen is Ellen, and other people can t be like 
 her." 
 
 "Better let it go at that," her husband some 
 times responded. "You re good enough for me." 
 Which was quite true, for Winifred Chester was a 
 peculiarly lovable young woman. He noted afresh 
 to-night that beside Martha Macaulay s somewhat 
 heavy good looks Winifred seemed a creature of 
 infinite and delightful variety. 
 
 Perhaps the music had made them all more or 
 less analytic, for in an interval James Macauley, 
 comfortably ensconced in a great winged chair for 
 which he was accustomed to steer upon entering 
 this room, where he was nearly as much at home as 
 within his own walls, remarked, "What is there 
 about music like that that sets you to thinking 
 everybody in sight is about the best ever?"
 
 50 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "Does it have that effect on you?" queried 
 Burns, lazily, from the blue couch. "That s a 
 good thing for a fellow of a naturally critical 
 disposition." 
 
 "Critical, am I ? Why, within a week I paid you 
 the greatest compliment in my power." 
 
 "Really!" 
 
 "If it hadn t been for me this company would 
 never have been gathered, to listen to these won 
 drous strains." 
 
 "How s that?" Burns turned on him a suddenly 
 interested eye. 
 
 "Oh, I m not telling. It s enough that the thing 
 came about." Macauley looked around for general 
 approbation. 
 
 Red Pepper sat up. "It was you stood the poor 
 beggar up under my window, on that howling 
 night, was it, Jim ? I ve been looking for the man 
 that did it." 
 
 "Why," said Macauley comfortably, "the chap 
 asked me to point him to a doctor s office said he 
 had a bit of a cold. I said you were the one and 
 only great and original M.D. upon earth, and as 
 luck would have it he was almost at your door. I 
 said that if he didn t find you in he should come 
 over to my house and we would fix him up with 
 cough drops. He thanked me and passed on. As 
 luck would have it you were in."
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 51 
 
 Red Pepper glared at him. A chuckle from 
 Arthur Chester caused him to turn his eyes that 
 way. He scrutinized his guests in turn, and de 
 tected signs of mirth. Winifred Chester s pretty 
 shoulders were shaking. Martha Macauley s lips 
 were pressed close together. The others were all 
 smiling. 
 
 Burns turned upon Winifred, who sat nearest. 
 "Tell me the truth about this thing," he com 
 manded. 
 
 She shook her head, but she got no peace until at 
 length she gave him the tale. 
 
 "Arthur and I were over at Jim s. He came in 
 and said a wager was up among some men outside 
 as to whether if that poor boy came and fiddled 
 under your window you d take him in and keep 
 him over night. Somebody d been saying things 
 against you, down street somewhere " she hesi 
 tated, glancing at her husband, who nodded, and 
 said, "Go on he ll have it out of us now, any 
 how." 
 
 "They said," she continued, "that you were the 
 most brutal surgeon in the State, and that you 
 hadn t any heart. Some of them made this 
 wager, and they all sneaked up here behind the one 
 that steered Franz to your window." 
 
 Burns s quick colour had leaped to his face at this 
 recital, as they were all accustomed to see it, but
 
 52 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 for an instant he made no reply. Winifred looked 
 at him steadily, as one who was not afraid. 
 
 "We were all in a dark window watching. If you 
 hadn t taken him in we would. But O Red! We 
 knew we knew that heart of yours." 
 
 "And who started that wager business?" Burns 
 inquired, in a muffled voice. 
 
 "Why, Jim, of course. Who else would take 
 such a chance?" 
 
 "Was it a serious wager?" 
 
 "Of course it was." 
 
 "Even odds?" 
 
 "No, it was Jim against the crowd. And for a 
 ridiculously high stake." 
 
 Red Pepper glared at James Macauley once 
 more. "You old pirate!" he growled. "How 
 dared you take such a chance on me? And when 
 you know I m death on that gambling propensity 
 of yours?" 
 
 "I know you are," replied Macauley, with a 
 satisfied grin. "And you know perfectly well I 
 haven t staked a red copper for a year. But that 
 sort of talk I overheard was too much for me. 
 Besides, I ran no possible risk for my money. I 
 was betting on a sure thing." 
 
 Burns got up, amidst the affectionate laughter 
 which followed this explanation, and walked over 
 to where Franz stood, his eager eyes fixed upon his
 
 LITTLE HUNGARY 53 
 
 new and adored friend, who, he somehow divined, 
 was the target for some sort of badinage. 
 
 "Little Hungary," he said, smiling into the up 
 lifted, boyish face, with his hand on the slender 
 shoulder, "it came out all right that time, but 
 don t you ever play under my window again in a 
 January blizzard. If you do, I ll kick you out into 
 the storm!"
 
 CHAPTER III 
 ANNE LINTON S TEMPERATURE 
 
 IS DOCTOR BURNS in ?" 
 "He s not in. He will be here from two till 
 five this afternoon. Could you come then?" 
 
 Miss Mathewson regarded the young stranger 
 at the door with more than ordinary interest. The 
 face which was lifted to her was one of quite un 
 usual beauty, with astonishing eyes under resolute 
 dark brows, though the hair which showed from 
 under the small and close-fitting hat of black was 
 of a wonderful and contradictory colour. It was 
 almost the shade, it occurred to Amy Mathewson, 
 of that which thatched the head of Red Pepper 
 Burns himself, but it was more picturesque hair 
 than his, finer of texture, with a hint of curl. 
 The mass of it which showed at the back as the 
 stranger turned her head away for a moment, 
 evidently hesitating over her next course of action, 
 had in it tints of bronze which were more beautiful 
 than Burns s coppery hues. 
 
 "Would you care to wait?" inquired Miss 
 Mathewson, entirely against her own principles- 
 
 54
 
 ANNE LINTON S TEMPERATURE 55 
 
 It was not quite one o clock, and Burns always 
 lunched in the city, after his morning at the hos* 
 pital, and reached home barely in time for those 
 afternoon village office hours which began at two. 
 His assistant did not as a rule encourage the arrival 
 of patients in the office as early as this, knowing 
 that they were apt to become impatient and ag 
 grieved by their long wait. But something about 
 the slightly drooping figure of the girl before her, 
 in her black clothes, with a small handbag on her 
 arm, and a look of appeal on her face, suggested to 
 the experienced nurse that here was a patient who 
 must not be turned away. 
 
 The girl looked up eagerly. "If I might," she 
 said in a tone of relief. "I really have nowhere 
 to go until I have seen the Doctor." 
 
 Miss Mathewson led her in and gave her the 
 most comfortable chair in the room, a big, half 
 shabby leather armchair, near the fireplace and 
 close beside a broad table whereon the latest 
 current magazines were arranged in orderly 
 piles. The girl sank into the chair as if its wide 
 arms were welcome after a weary morning. She 
 looked up at Miss Mathewson with a faint little 
 smile. 
 
 "I haven t been sitting much to-day," she said. 
 
 "This first spring weather makes every one feel 
 rather tired," replied Amy, noting how heavy were
 
 56 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 the shadows under the brown eyes with their aU 
 most black lashes an unusual combination with 
 the undeniably russet hair. 
 
 From her seat at the desk, where she was post 
 ing Burns s day book, the nurse observed without 
 seeming to do so that the slim figure in the old 
 armchair sat absolutely without moving, except 
 once when the head resting against the worn 
 leather turned so that the cheek lay next it. And 
 after a very short time Miss Mathewson realized 
 that the waiting patient had fallen asleep. She 
 studied her then, for something about the young 
 stranger had aroused her interest. 
 
 The girl was obviously poor, for the black suit, 
 though carefully pressed, was of cheap material, 
 the velvet on the small black hat had been caught 
 in more than one shower, and the black gloves had 
 been many times painstakingly mended. The 
 small feet alone showed that their owner had al 
 lowed herself one luxury, that of good shoes and 
 the daintiness of those feet made a strong appeal 
 to the observer. 
 
 As for the face resting against the chair back, it 
 was flushed after a fashion which suggested illness 
 rather than health, and Miss Mathewson realized 
 presently that the respiration of the sleeper was 
 not quite what it should be. Whether this were due 
 to fatigue or coming illness she could not tell.
 
 ANNE LINTON S TEMPERATURE 57 
 
 Half-past one! The first early caller was slowing 
 a small motor at the curb outside when Amy 
 Mathewson gently touched the girl s arm. "Come 
 into the other room, please," she said. 
 
 The brown eyes opened languidly. The black- 
 gloved hand clutched at the handbag, and the 
 girl rose. "I m so sorry," she murmured. "I don t 
 know how I came to go to sleep." 
 
 "You were tired out. If I had known I should 
 have brought you in here before," Amy said, lead 
 ing her into the consulting room. "It is still half 
 an hour before Doctor Burns will be in, and you 
 must lie here on his couch while you wait." 
 
 "Oh, thank you, but I ought not to go to sleep. 
 I have you just a minute to spare? I should like 
 to show you a little book I am selling 
 
 Miss Mathewson suffered a sudden revulsion of 
 feeling. So this girl was only a book agent. First 
 on the list of what by two o clock would be a good- 
 sized assemblage of waiting patients, she must not 
 be allowed to take Doctor Burns s time to exploit 
 her wares. Yet, even as Amy regretted having 
 brought a book agent into this inner sanctum, the 
 girl looked up from searching in her handbag and 
 seemed to recognize the prejudice she had excited. 
 
 "Oh, but I m a patient, too," she said with a 
 little smile. "I didn t expect to take the Doctor s 
 time telling him about the book- But you I
 
 5 8 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 thought you might be interested. It s a little book 
 of bedtime stories for children. They are very 
 jolly little tales. Would you care to see it?" 
 
 Now Amy Mathewson was the fortunate or un 
 fortunate as you happen to regard such things 
 possessor of a particularly warm heart, and the 
 result of this appeal was that she took the book 
 away with her into the outer office, promising to 
 look it over if the seller of it would lie down upon 
 the couch and rest quietly. She was convinced 
 that the girl was much more than weary she was 
 very far from well. The revealing light of that 
 consulting room had struck upon the upturned 
 face and had shown Miss Mathewson s trained 
 eyes certain signs which alarmed her. 
 
 So it came about that Red Pepper Burns, com 
 ing in ruddy from his twelve-mile dash home, and 
 feeling particularly fit for the labours of the after 
 noon in consequence of having found every hos 
 pital patient of his own on the road to recovery 
 two of them having taken a right-about-face 
 from a condition which the day before had pointed 
 toward trouble discovered his first office patient 
 lying fast asleep upon the consulting room couch. 
 
 "She seemed so worn out I put her here," ex 
 plained Miss Mathewson, standing beside him. 
 "She falls asleep the moment she is off her 
 feet."
 
 ANNE LINTON S TEMPERATURE 59 
 
 " Hm m," was his reply as he thrust his arms into 
 his white office-jacket. "Well, best wake her up, 
 though it seems a pity. Looks as if she d been on 
 a hunger strike, eh?" he added under his breath. 
 
 Miss Mathewson had the girl awake again in 
 a minute, and she sat up, an expression of con 
 trition crossing her face as she caught sight of the 
 big doctor at the other side of the room, his back 
 toward her. When Burns turned, at Amy s sum 
 mons, he beheld the slim figure sitting straight on 
 the edge of the broad couch, the brown eyes fixed 
 on him. 
 
 "Tired out?" he asked pleasantly. "Take this 
 chair, please, so I can see all you have to tell me 
 and a few things you don t tell me." 
 
 It did not take him long. His eyes on the face 
 which was too flushed, his fingers on the pulse 
 which beat too fast, his thermometer registering a 
 temperature too high, all told him that here was 
 work for him. The questions he asked brought 
 replies which confirmed his fears. Nothing in his 
 manner indicated, however, that he was doing con 
 siderable quick thinking. His examination over ? 
 he sat back in his chair and began a second series 
 of questions, speaking in a more than ordinarily 
 quiet but cheerful way. 
 
 "Will you tell me just a bit about your personal 
 affairs?" he asked. "I understand that you come
 
 60 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 from some distance. Have you a home and 
 family ? " 
 
 "No family for the last two years, since my 
 father died." 
 
 "And no home?" 
 
 "If I am ill, Doctor Burns, I will look after 
 myself." 
 
 He studied her. The brown eyes met the scruti 
 nizing hazel ones without flinching. Whether or 
 not the spirit flinched he could not be sure. The 
 hazel eyes were very kindly. 
 
 "You have relatives somewhere whom we might 
 let know of this?" 
 
 She shook her head determinedly. Her head 
 lifted ever so little. 
 
 "You are quite alone in the world?" 
 
 "For all present purposes yes, Doctor Burns." 
 
 "I can t just believe," he said gently, "that it 
 is not very important to somebody to know if you 
 are ill." 
 
 "It is just my affair," she answered with equal 
 courtesy of manner but no less finally. " Believe 
 me, please and tell me what to do. Shall I not be 
 better to-morrow or in a day or two?" 
 
 He was silent for a moment. Then, "It is not 
 a time for you to be without friends," said Red 
 Pepper Burns. "I will prove to you that you have 
 them at hand. After that you will find there are
 
 ANNE LINTON S TEMPERATURE 61 
 
 others. I am going to take you to a pleasant place 
 I know of, where you will have nothing to do but 
 to lie still and rest and get well. The best of 
 nurses will look after you. You will obey orders 
 for a little my orders, if you want to trust me * 
 
 "Where is this place?" The question was a 
 little breathless. 
 
 "Where do you guess?" 
 
 "In a hospital?" 
 
 "In one of the best in the world." 
 
 "I am pretty ill then?" 
 
 "It s a bit of a wonder," said Burns in his 
 quietest tone, "how you have kept around these 
 last four days. I wish you hadn t." 
 
 "If I hadn t," said the girl rather faintly, "I 
 shouldn t have been in this town and I shouldn t 
 have come to Doctor Burns. So I m glad I did." 
 
 "Good!" said Burns, smiling. "It s fine to 
 start with the confidence of one s patient. Fm 
 glad you re going to trust me. Now we ll take 
 you to another room where you can lie down again 
 till my office hours are over and I can run into the 
 city with you." 
 
 He rose, beckoning. But his patient protested: 
 "Please tell me how to get there. I can go per 
 fectly well. My head is better, I think." 
 
 "That s lucky. But the first of my orders; 
 Miss Linton, is that you come with me now."
 
 62 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 He summoned Miss Mathewson, gave her di 
 rections, and dismissed the two. In ten minutes 
 the heavy eyes were again closed, while their 
 owner lay motionless again upon a bed in an inner 
 room which was often used for such purposes. 
 
 "I m sorry I can t take her in now," Burns said 
 to Amy presently in an interval between patients. 
 "I don t want to call the ambulance out here for 
 a walking case, and there s no need of startling 
 her with it, anyhow. I wish I had some way to 
 send her." 
 
 "Mr. Jordan King just came into the offie. 
 His car is outside. Couldn t he take her in?" 
 
 "Of course he could and would, I ve no doubt. 
 He s only after his mother s prescription. Send 
 him in here next, will you, please?" 
 
 To the tall, well-built, black-eyed young man 
 who answered this summons in some surprise at 
 being admitted before his turn, Burns spoke 
 crisply: 
 
 "Here s the prescription, Jord, and you ll have 
 to take it to Wood s to get it filled. I hope it ll do 
 your mother a lot of good, but I m not promising 
 till I ve tried it out pretty well. Now will you do 
 me a favour " 
 
 "Anything you like, Doctor." 
 
 "Thanks. I m sending a patient to the hospital 
 a stranger stranded here ill. She ought not to
 
 ANNE LINTON S TEMPERATURE 63 
 
 be out of bed another hour, though she walked 
 to the office and would walk away again if I d let 
 her which I won t. I can t get off for three hours 
 yet. Will you take her in to the Good Samaritan 
 for me? I ll telephone ahead, and some one will 
 meet her at the door. All right?" 
 
 He looked up. Jordan King young civil en 
 gineer of rising reputation in spite of the family 
 wealth which would have made him independent of 
 his own exertions, if he could possibly have been 
 induced by an adoring, widowed mother to remain 
 under her wing stood watching him with a smile 
 on his character-betraying lips. 
 
 "You ought to have an executive position of 
 some sort, Doctor Burns," he observed, "you re 
 so strong on orders. I ve got mine. Where s the 
 lady ? Do I have to be silent or talkative? Is she 
 to have pillows ? Am I to help her out?" 
 
 "She ll walk out but that and the walk in will 
 be the last she ll take for some time. Talk as 
 much as you like; it ll help her to forget that she s 
 alone in the world at present except for us. Go out 
 to your car; I ll send her out with Miss Mathew- 
 son." 
 
 Burns turned to his desk, and King obediently 
 went out. Five minutes later, as he stood waiting 
 beside his car, a fine but hard-used roadster of im 
 pressive lines and plenty of power, the office nurse
 
 64 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 and her patient emerged. King noted in some 
 surprise the slender young figure, the interest- 
 compelling face with its too vivid colour in cheeks 
 that looked as if ordinarily they were white, the 
 apparel which indicated lack of means, though the 
 bearing of the wearer unmistakably suggested 
 social training. 
 
 "I thought she d be an elderly one somehow," 
 he said in congratulation of himself. "Jolly, what 
 hair! Poor little girl; she does look sick but 
 plucky. Hope I can get her in all right." 
 
 Outwardly he was the picture of respectful at 
 tention as Miss Mathewson presented him, calling 
 the girl "Miss Linton," and bidding him wrap her 
 warmly against the spring wind. 
 
 "I ll take the best care of her I know," he prom 
 ised with a friendly smile. He tucked a warm rug 
 around her, taking special pains with her small feet, 
 whose well-chosen covering he did not fail to note. 
 "All right?" he asked as he finished. 
 
 "Very comfortable, thank you. It s ever so 
 kind of you." 
 
 "Glad to do anything for Doctor Burns," King 
 responded, taking his place beside her. "Now shall 
 we go fast or slow?" 
 
 "Just as you like, please. I don t feel very ill 
 just now, and this air feels good on my face."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 TWO RED HEADS 
 
 JORDAN KING set his own speed in the 
 powerful roadster, reflecting that Miss Linton, 
 to judge from her worn black clothes, was 
 probably not accustomed to motoring and so 
 making the pace a moderate one. Fast or slow, 
 it would not take long to cover the twelve miles 
 over the macadamized road to the hospital in the 
 city, and if it was to be her last bath in the good 
 outdoors for some time, as the doctor had said 
 King drew a long breath, filling his own sturdy 
 lungs with the balmy yet potent April air, feeling 
 very sorry for the unknown little person by his 
 side. 
 
 "Would you rather I didn t talk?" he inquired 
 when a mile or two had been covered in silence. 
 
 She lifted her eyes to his, and for the first time he 
 got a good look into them. They were very won 
 derful eyes, and none the less wonderful because 
 of the fever which made them almost uncannily 
 brilliant between their dark lashes. 
 
 "Oh, I wish you would talk, if you don t mind!" 
 65
 
 66 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 she answered and he noted as he had at first how 
 warmly pleasant were the tones of her voice, which 
 was a bit deeper than one would have expected. 
 "I ve heard nobody talk for days except to say 
 they didn t care to buy my book." 
 
 "Your book? Have you written a book?" 
 
 "I m selling one." This astonished him, but he 
 did not let it show. It was certainly enough to 
 make any girl ill to have to go about selling books. 
 He wondered how it happened. She opened her 
 handbag and took out the small book. "I don t 
 want to sell you one," she said. "You wouldn t 
 have any use for it. It s a little set of stories for 
 children." 
 
 " But I do want to buy one," he protested. " I ve 
 a lot of nieces and nephews always coming at me 
 for stories." 
 
 She shook her head. "You can t buy one. I d 
 like to give you one if you would take it, to show 
 you how I appreciate this beautiful drive." 
 
 "Of course I ll take it," he said quickly, "and 
 delighted at the chance." He slipped the book into 
 his pocket. "As for the drive, it s much jollier not 
 to be covering the ground alone. I wish, though 
 " and he stopped, feeling that he was prob 
 ably going to say the wrong thing. 
 
 She seemed to know what it would have been. 
 "You re sorry to be taking me to the hospital?"
 
 TWO RED HEADS 67 
 
 she suggested. "You needn t be. I didn t want 
 to go, just at first, but then I felt I could trust 
 the Doctor. He was so kind, and his hair was 
 so like mine, he seemed like a sort of big older 
 brother." 
 
 "Red Pepper Burns seems like that to a lot of 
 people, including myself. I don t look like much of 
 a candidate for illness, but I ve had an accident or 
 two, and he s pulled me through in great shape. 
 You re right in trusting him and you can keep 
 right on, to the last ditch He stopped short 
 
 again, with an inward thrust at himself for being 
 so blundering in his suggestions to this girl, who, 
 for all he knew, might be on her way to that "last 
 ditch" from which not even Burns could save her. 
 
 But the girl herself seemed to have paused at his 
 first phrase. "What did you call the Doctor?" she 
 asked, turning her eyes upon him again. 
 
 "What did I oh! Red Pepper. Yes I ve no 
 business to call him that, of course, and I don t to 
 his face, though his friends who are a bit older than 
 I usually do, and people speak of him that way. It s 
 his hair, of course and well, he has rather a quick 
 temper. People with that coloured hair But 
 you re wrong in saying yours is like his," he added 
 quickly. 
 
 For the first time he saw a smile touch her lips. 
 " So he has a quick temper," she mused. " I m glad
 
 68 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 of that I have one myself. It goes with the hair 
 surely enough." 
 
 "It goes with some other things," ventured 
 Jordan King, determined, if he made any more 
 mistakes, to make them on the side of encourage 
 ment. "Pluck, and endurance, and keeping jolly 
 when you don t feel so if you don t mind my 
 saying it." 
 
 "One has to have a few of those things to start 
 out into the world with," said Miss Linton slowly, 
 looking straight ahead again. 
 
 "One certainly does. Doctor Burns understands 
 that as well as any man I know. And he likes to 
 find those things in other people." Then with tales 
 of some of the Doctor s experiences which young 
 King had heard he beguiled the way; and by the 
 time he had told Miss Linton a story or two about 
 certain experiences of his own in the Rockies, the 
 car was approaching the city. Presently they were 
 drawing up before the group of wide-porched, long 
 buildings, not unattractive in aspect, which formed 
 the hospital known as the Good Samaritan. 
 
 "It s a pretty good place," announced King in a 
 matter-of-fact way, though inwardly he was suffer 
 ing a decided pang of sympathy for the young 
 stranger he was to leave within its walls. "And 
 the Doctor said he d have some one meet us who 
 knew all about you, so there d be no fuss."
 
 TWO RED HEADS 69 
 
 He leaped out and came around to her side. She 
 began to thank him once more, but he cut her short. 
 " I m going in with you, if I may," he said. " Some 
 thing might go wrong about their understanding, 
 and I could save you a bit of bother." 
 
 She made no objection, and he helped her out. 
 He kept his hand under her arm as they went up 
 the steps, and did not let her go until they were in a 
 small reception room, where they were asked to wait 
 for a minute. He realized now more than he had 
 done before her weakness and the sense of loneli 
 ness that was upon her. He stood beside her, hat 
 in hand, wishing he had some right to let her know 
 more definitely than he had ventured to do how 
 sorry he was for her, and how she could count on 
 his thinking about her as a brother might while she 
 was within these walls. 
 
 But Burns s message evidently had taken effect, 
 as his messages usually did, for after a very brief 
 wait two figures in uniform appeared, one showing 
 the commanding presence of a person in authority, 
 the other wearing the pleasantly efficient aspect of 
 the active nurse. Miss Linton was to be taken to 
 her room at once, the necessary procedure for ad 
 mittance being attended to later. 
 
 Miss Linton seemed to know something about 
 hospitals, for she offered instant remonstrance. 
 "It s a mistake, I think," she said, lifting her head
 
 yo RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 as if it were very heavy, but speaking firmly. "I 
 prefer not to have a room. Please put me in your 
 least expensive ward." 
 
 The person in authority smiled. "Doctor 
 Burns said room," she returned. "Nobody 
 here is accustomed to dispute Doctor Burns s 
 orders." 
 
 "But I must dispute them," persisted the girl^ 
 "I am not willing to take a room." 
 
 "Don t concern yourself about that now," said 
 the other. "You can settle it with the Doctor 
 when he comes by and by." 
 
 Jordan King inwardly chuckled. "I wonder if 
 it s going to be a case of two red heads," he said to 
 himself. " I ll bet on R. P." 
 
 The nurse put her arm through Miss Linton s. 
 "Come," she said gently. "You ought not to be 
 standing." 
 
 The girl turned to King, and put out her small 
 hand in its mended glove. He grasped it and dared 
 to give it a strong pressure, and to say in a low 
 tone: "It ll be all right, you know. Keep a stiff 
 upper lip. We re not going to forget you." He 
 very nearly said "I." 
 
 "Good-bye," she said. "I shall not forget how 
 kind you ve been." 
 
 Then she was gone through the big door, the tall 
 nurse beside her supporting steps which seemed
 
 TWO RED HEADS 71 
 
 suddenly to falter, and King was staring after her, 
 feeling his heart contract with sympathy. 
 
 Four hours later Anne Linton opened her eyes, 
 after an interval of unconsciousness which had 
 seemed to the nurse who looked in now and then less 
 like a sleep than a stupor, to find a pair of broad 
 shoulders within her immediate horizon, and to feel 
 the same lightly firm pressure on her wrist that 
 she had felt before that afternoon. She looked 
 up slowly into Burns s eyes. 
 
 "Not so bad, is it?" said his low and reassuring 
 voice. "Bed more comfortable than doctor s 
 office chairs? Won t mind if you don t ring any 
 door bells to-morrow? Just let everything go and 
 don t worry and you ll be all right." 
 
 "This room " began the weary young voice 
 she was really much more weary now that she had 
 stopped trying to keep up than seemed at all 
 reasonable "I can t possibly 
 
 " It s just the place for you. Don t do any think 
 ing on that point. You know you agreed to take 
 my orders, and this is one of them." 
 
 "But I can t possibly 
 
 "I said they were my orders," repeated Burns. 
 " But that was a misstatement. They re the orders 
 of some one else, more powerful than I am under 
 this roof and that s saying something, I assure
 
 72 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 you. I think you ll have to meet my wife. She s 
 come on purpose to see you. She was away when 
 you were at the office." 
 
 He beckoned, and another figure moved quietly 
 into range of the brown eyes which were smolder 
 ing with the first advances of the fever. This 
 figure came around to the other side of the narrow 
 high bed and sat down beside it. Miss Linton 
 looked into the face, as it seemed to her, of one of 
 the most attractive women she had ever seen. It 
 was a face which looked down at her with the 
 sweetest sympathy in its expression, and yet with 
 that same high cheer which was in the face of the 
 man on the other side of the bed 
 
 "My dear little girl," said a low, rich voice, 
 "this is my room, and I often have the pleasure 
 of seeing my special friends use it. And I come 
 to see them here. When you are getting well, as 
 you will be by and by, I can have much nicer 
 talks with you than if you were in a ward. Now 
 that you understand, you will let me have my 
 way?" 
 
 The burning brown eyes looked into the soft 
 black ones for a full minute, then, with a long- 
 drawn breath, the tense expression in the stranger s 
 relaxed. "I see," said the weary voice. "You are 
 used to having your way just as he is. I ll 
 have to let you because 1 haven t any strength )eft
 
 TWO RED HEADS 73 
 
 to fight with. You are wonderfully kind. But 
 I m not a little girl." 
 
 Ellen Burns smiled. "We ll play you are, for a 
 while," she said. "And I want you to know 
 that, little or big, you are my friend. So now you 
 have both Doctor Burns and me, and you are not 
 alone any more." 
 
 The heavy lashes closed over the brown eyes, and 
 the lids were held tightly shut as if to keep tears 
 back. Seeing this, Ellen rose. 
 
 "Red," she said, "are you going to let us have 
 Miss Arden ? " 
 
 "Won t anybody else do?" 
 
 "Do you need her badly somewhere else?" 
 
 "If there were ten of her I could use them all!" 
 declared her husband emphatically. 
 
 "Nevertheless 
 
 Red Pepper Burns got up. He summoned a 
 nurse waiting just outside the door. "Please send 
 Miss Arden here for a minute," he requested. 
 Then he turned back. "Are you satisfied with 
 your power?" he asked his wife. 
 
 She nodded. "Quite. But I think you feel, as 
 I do, that this is one of the ten places where she 
 will be better than another." 
 
 "She s a wonder, all right." 
 
 The patient in the bed presently was bidden to 
 taok at her new nurse, one who was to take care
 
 74 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 of her much of the time. She lifted her heavy eyes 
 unwillingly, then she drew another deep breath of 
 relief. "I would rather have you," she murmured 
 to the serene brow, the kind eyes, the gently smil 
 ing lips of the girl who stood beside her. 
 
 "There s a tribute," laughed Burns softly. 
 "They all feel like that when they look at you, 
 Selina. And what Mrs. Burns wants she usually 
 gets. You may special this case to-night, if you 
 are ready to begin night duty again." 
 
 "I am quite ready," said Miss Arden. 
 
 Burns turned to the bed again. "You are in the 
 best hands we have to give you," he said. "You 
 are to trust everything to those hands. Good 
 night. I ll see you in the morning." 
 
 "Good-night, dear," whispered Mrs. Burns, 
 bending for an instant over the bed. 
 
 "Oh you angels!" murmured the girl as they 
 left her, her eyes following them. 
 
 It was ten days later, in the middle of a wonder 
 ful night in early May, that Miss Arden, begin 
 ning to be sure that the case which had interested 
 her so much was going to give her a hard time be 
 fore it should be through, listened to words which 
 roused in her deeper wonder than she had yet felt 
 for the most unusual patient she had had in a 
 long time. A though there was as yet nothing that
 
 TWO RED HEADS 75 
 
 could be called real delirium, a tendency to talk in 
 a light-headed sort of way was becoming notice 
 able. Sitting by the window, the one light in the 
 room deeply shaded, she heard the voice suddenly 
 say: 
 
 "This evens things up a little, doesn t it? I 
 know a little more about it now you must realize 
 that, if you are keeping track of me and I know 
 you are you would even from another world. 
 Things aren t fair they aren t. That you should 
 have to suffer all you did, to bring you to that 
 pass while I But I know a good deal about 
 it nowreally I do. And I m going to know more. 
 I didn t sell a single book to-day. You had lots of 
 such days, didn t you ? Poor pale tired heart 
 sick heartbroken girl!" 
 
 A little mirthless laugh sounded from the bed. 
 "I wonder how many people ever let a person who 
 is selling something at the door get into the house. 
 And if they let her in, do they ever, ever ask her to 
 sit down? The places where I ve stood, telling 
 them about the book, while they were telling me 
 they didn t want it stood and stood and stood 
 with great easy chairs in sight! Oh, that chair 
 in my doctor s office it was the first chair I d sat 
 in that whole morning. I went to sleep in it, I 
 think." 
 
 There followed a long silence, as if the thought
 
 76 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 of sleep had brought it on. But then the rambling 
 talk began again. 
 
 "His hair is red red, like mine. I think that s 
 why his heart is so warm. Yet her heart is warm, 
 too, and her hair is almost black. The other man s 
 hair was pretty dark, too, and his heart seemed 
 well, not exactly cold. Did he send me some 
 daffodils the other day ? I can t seem to remember. 
 It seems as if I had seen some pretty things 
 lovely, springy things. Perhaps Mrs. the red 
 headed doctor s wife queer I can t think of their 
 names perhaps she sent them. It would be like 
 her." 
 
 The nurse s glance wandered, in the faint light, 
 to where a great jar of daffodils stood upon the 
 farther window sill, their heads nodding faintly in 
 the night breeze. Jordan King s card, which had 
 come with them, was tucked away in a drawer 
 near by with two other cards, bearing the same 
 name, which had accompanied other flowers. 
 Miss Arden doubted if her patient realized who 
 had sent any of them. Afterward if there was 
 to be an afterward she would show the cards to 
 her. Miss Arden, like many other people, knew 
 Jordan King by reputation, for the family was an 
 old and established one in the city, and the early 
 success of the youngest son in a line not often 
 taken up by the sons of such families was note-
 
 TWO RED HEADS 77 
 
 worthy. Also he was good to look at, and Miss 
 Arden, experienced nurse though she was and de 
 voted to her profession, had not lost her appre 
 ciation of youth and health and good looks in those 
 who were not her patients. 
 
 Unexpectedly, at this hour of the night it was 
 well toward one o clock the door suddenly opened 
 very quietly and a familiar big figure entered. 
 Springing up to meet Doctor Burns, Miss Arden 
 showed no surprise. It was a common thing for 
 this man, summoned to the hospital at unholy 
 hours for some critical case, to take time to look 
 in on another patient not technically in need of 
 him. 
 
 The head on the pillow turned at the slight 
 sound beside it. Two wide eyes stared up at 
 Burns. "You ve made a mistake, I think," said 
 the patient s voice, politely yet firmly. "My doc 
 tor has red hair. I know him by that. Your hair 
 is black." 
 
 "I presume it is, in this light," responded Burns, 
 sitting down by the bed. "It s pretty red, though, 
 by daylight. In that case will you let me stay a 
 minute ? " His fingers pressed the pulse. Then his 
 hand closed over hers with a quieting touch. 
 "Since you re awake," he said, "you may as well 
 have one extra bath to send you back to sleep. * 
 
 The head on the pillow signified unwillingness.
 
 78 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "I d take one to please my red-headed doctor, but 
 not you." 
 
 "You d do anything for him, eh?* questioned 
 Burns, his eyes on the chart which the nurse had 
 brought him and upon which she was throwing the 
 light of a small flash. " Well, you see he wants you 
 to have this bath; he told me so/ 
 
 "Very well, then," she said with a sigh. "But 
 I don t like them. They make me shiver." 
 
 "I know it. But they re good for you. They 
 keep your red-headed doctor master of the situa 
 tion. You want him to be that, don t you?" 
 
 "He d be that anyway," said she confidently. 
 
 Burns smiled, but the smile faded quickly. He 
 gave a few brief directions, then slipped away as 
 quietly as he had come. 
 
 It was well into the next week when one morning 
 he encountered Jordan King, who had been out 
 of town for several days. King came up to him 
 eagerly. Since this meeting occurred just out 
 side the hospital, where Burns s car had been 
 standing in its accustomed place for the last hour, 
 it might not have been a wholly accidental en 
 counter. 
 
 King made no attempt to maneuver for infor 
 mation. Maneuvering with Red Pepper Burns, as 
 the young man was well aware, seldom served any
 
 TWO RED HEADS 79 
 
 purpose but to subject the artful one to a straight 
 exposure. He asked his question abruptly. 
 
 "I want to hear how Miss Linton is doing. I m 
 just back from Washington haven t heard for 
 a week." 
 
 Burns frowned. No physician likes to be ques 
 tioned about his cases, particularly if they are not 
 progressing to suit him. But he answered, in a sort 
 of growl: "She s not doing." 
 
 King looked startled. "You mean not doing 
 well?" 
 
 "She s fighting for existence and slipping." 
 
 "But you haven t given her up?" 
 
 Burns exploded with instant wrath. King might 
 have known that question would make him ex 
 plode. "Given her up! Don t you know a red 
 headed fiend like me better than that?" 
 
 "I know you re a bulldog when you get your 
 teeth in," admitted Jordan King, looking decidedly 
 unhappy and anxious. "If I m just sure you ve 
 got em in, that s enough." 
 
 Burns grunted. The sound was significant. 
 
 King ventured one more question, though Red 
 Pepper s foot was on his starter, and the en 
 gine had caught the spark and turned over. "If 
 there s anything I could do," he offered hurriedly 
 and earnestly. "Supply a special nurse, or any- 
 trung "
 
 8o RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Burns shook his head. "Two specials now, and 
 half the staff interested. It s up to Anne Linton 
 and nobody else. If she can do the trick she and 
 
 Nature all right. If not well Thanks for 
 
 letting go the car, Jord. This happens to be my 
 busy day." 
 
 Jordan King looked after him, his heart uncom 
 fortably heavy. Then he stepped into his own car 
 and drove away, taking his course down a side 
 street from which he could get a view of certain 
 windows. They were wide open to the May breeze 
 and the sunshine, but no pots of daffodils or other 
 flowers stood on their empty sills. He knew it was 
 useless to send them now. 
 
 "But if she does pull through," he said to himself 
 between his teeth, "I ll bring her such an armful 
 of roses she can t see over the top of em. God 
 send I get the chance!"
 
 CHAPTER V 
 SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 K~:D PEPPER BURNS drove into the vine- 
 covered old red barn behind his house 
 which served as his garage, and stopped 
 his engine with an air of finality. 
 
 "Johnny," said he, addressing the young man 
 who was accustomed to drive with him and for 
 him when for any reason he preferred not to 
 drive himself, which was seldom and who kept 
 the car in the most careful trim, "not for man 
 or beast, angel or devil will I go out again to 
 night." 
 
 Johnny Carruthers grinned. "No, sir," he re~ 
 plied. "Not unless they happen to want you," he 
 added. 
 
 "Not if they offer me a thousand dollars for the 
 trip," growled his master. 
 
 "You would for a dead beat, though," suggested 
 the devoted servant, who by virtue of five years 
 of service knew whereof he spoke, "if he d smashed 
 his good-for-nothin head." 
 
 "Not if he d smashed his whole blamed body 
 
 Si
 
 82 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 so long as there was another surgeon in the county 
 who could do the job." 
 
 "That s just the trouble," argued Johnny. 
 "You d think there wasn t." 
 
 Red Pepper looked at him. "Johnny, you re an 
 idiot!" he informed him. Then he strode away 
 toward the house. 
 
 As he went into his office the telephone rang. 
 The office was empty, for it was dinner-time, and 
 Miss Mathewson was having a day off duty on 
 account of her mother s illness. So, unhappily for 
 the person at the other end of the wire, the Doctor 
 himself answered the ring. It had been a hard 
 day, following other hard days, and he was feeling 
 intense fatigue, devastating depression, and that 
 unreasoning irritability which is born of physical 
 weariness and mental unrest. 
 
 "Hello," shouted the victim of these disorders 
 into the transmitter. "What? . . . No, I can t. 
 . . . What? . . . No. Get somebody else. 
 . . . What? ... I can t, I say. . . . 
 Yes, you can. Plenty of em. . . . What? 
 . . . Absolutely no! Good-bye!" 
 
 "I ought to feel better after that," muttered 
 Burns, slamming the receiver on the hook. " But 
 somehow I don t." 
 
 In two minutes he was splashing in a hot bath, 
 as always at the end of a busy day. From the tub
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 83 
 
 he was summoned to the telephone, the upstairs 
 extension, in his own dressing room. With every 
 red hair erect upon his head after violent towelling, 
 he answered the message which reached his un 
 willing ears. 
 
 "What s that? Worse? She isn t it s all in 
 her mind. Tell her she s all right. I saw her an 
 hour ago. What? . . . Well, that s all im 
 agination, as I ve told her ten thousand times. 
 There s absolutely nothing the matter with her 
 heart. . . . No, I m not coming she s not 
 to be babied like that. . . . No, I won t. 
 Good-bye!" 
 
 The door of the room softly opened. A knock 
 had preceded the entrance of Ellen, but Burns 
 hadn t heard it. He eyed her defiantly. 
 
 "Do you feel much, much happier now?" she 
 asked with a merry look. 
 
 "If I don t it s not the fault of the escape valve. 
 I pulled it wide open." 
 
 "I heard the noise of the escaping steam." She 
 came close and stood beside him, where he sat, half 
 dressed and ruddy in his bathrobe. He put up 
 both arms and held her, lifting his head for her 
 kiss, which he returned with interest. 
 
 "That s the first nice thing that s happened 
 to me to-day since the one I had when I left 
 you this morning," he remarked. "I m all in
 
 84 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 to-night, and ugly as a bear, as usual. I feel 
 better, just this minute, with you in my arms 
 and a bath to the good, but I m a beast just 
 the same, and you d best take warning. . . . 
 Oh, the- 
 
 For the telephone bell was ringing again. From 
 the way he strode across the floor in his bathrobe 
 and slippers it was small wonder that the walls 
 trembled. His wife, watching him, felt a thrill of 
 sympathy for the unfortunate who was to get the 
 full force of that concussion. With a scowl on his 
 brow he lifted the receiver, and his preliminary 
 "Hello!" was his deepest-throated growl. But 
 then the scene changed. Red Pepper listened, the 
 scowl giving place to an expression of a very differ 
 ent character. He asked a quick question or two, 
 with something like a most unaccustomed breath- 
 lessness in his voice, and then he said, in the 
 businesslike but kind way which characterized him 
 when his sympathies were roused: 
 
 "I ll be there as quick as I can get there. Call 
 Doctor Buller for me, and let Doctor Grayson 
 know I may want him." 
 
 Rushing at the completion of his dressing he 
 gave a hurried explanation, in answer to his wife s 
 anxious inquiry, "It isn t Anne Linton?" 
 
 "It s worse, it s Jord King. He s had a bad 
 accident confound his recklessness! I m afraid
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 85 
 
 he s made a mess of it this time for fair, though 
 I can t be sure till I get there." 
 
 "Where is he?" Ellen s face had turned pale. 
 
 "At the hospital. His man Aleck is hurt, too. 
 Call Johnny, please, and have him bring the car 
 around and go with me." 
 
 Ellen flew, and five minutes later watched her 
 husband gulp down a cup of the strong coffee 
 Cynthia always made him at such crises when, in 
 spite of fatigue, he must lose no time nor ade 
 quately reenforce his physical energy with food. 
 
 "Oh, I m so sorry you couldn t rest to-night," 
 she said as he set down the cup and, pulling his hat 
 over his eyes, picked up the heavy surgical bags. 
 
 "Couldn t, anyway, with the universe on my 
 mind, so I might as well keep going," was Burns s 
 gruff reply, though the kiss he left on her lips was 
 a long one and spoke his appreciation of her tender 
 comradeship. 
 
 She did not see him again till morning, though 
 she lay awake many hours. He came in at day 
 light; she heard the car go in at the driveway, and, 
 rising hurriedly, was ready to meet him when he 
 came into the living room downstairs. 
 
 "Up so early?" questioned Burns as he saw her. 
 The next minute he had folded her in one of those 
 strong-armed embraces which speak of a glad re 
 turn to one whose life is a part of one s own. "I
 
 I 
 86 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 wonder," he murmured, with his cheek pressed to 
 hers, "if a man ever came back to sweeter arms 
 than these!" 
 
 But she knew, in spite of this greeting, that his 
 heart was heavy. Her own heart sank. But she 
 waited, asking no questions. He would tell her 
 when he was ready. 
 
 He drew her down upon the couch beside him 
 and sat with his arm around her. "No, I don t 
 want to lie down just yet," he said. "I just want 
 you. I m keeping you in suspense, I know; I 
 oughtn t to do that. Jord s life is all right, and 
 he ll be himself again in time, but well, I ve lost 
 my nerve for a bit I can t talk about it." 
 
 His voice broke. By and by it steadied again; 
 and, his weariness partially lifted by the heartening 
 little breakfast Ellen brought him on a tray, he 
 told her the story of the night: 
 
 " Jord was coming in from the Coldtown Water 
 works, forty miles out, late for dinner and hustling 
 to make up time. Aleck, the Kings chauffeur, was 
 with him. They were coming in at a good clip, 
 even for a back street, probably twenty-five or 
 thirty. There wasn t much on the street except 
 ahead, by the curb, a wagon, and coming toward 
 him a big motor truck. When he was fifty feet 
 from the wagon a fellow stepped out from behind 
 it to cross the street. It was right under the arc
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 87 
 
 light, and Jord recognized Franz Little Hun 
 gary/ you know with his fiddle under his arm, 
 crossing to go in at the stage door of the Victoria 
 Theatre, where he plays. The boy didn t see 
 them at all. 
 
 "Neither Jord nor Aleck can tell much about it 
 yet, of course, but from the little I got I know as 
 well as if I had been there what happened. He 
 slammed on the brakes it was the only thing he 
 could do, with the motor truck taking up half the 
 narrow street. The pavement was wet a shower 
 was just over. Of course she skidded completely 
 around to the left, just missing the truck, and 
 when she hit the curb over she went. She jammed 
 Jord between the car and the ground, injuring his 
 back pretty badly but not permanently, as nearly 
 as I can make out. But she crushed Aleck s right 
 arm so that 
 
 He drew a long breath, a difficult breath, and 
 Ellen, listening, cried out against the thing she 
 instantly felt it meant. 
 
 "ORed! You don t mean " 
 
 He nodded. "I took it off, an hour afterward 
 at the shoulder." 
 
 Ellen turned white, and in a moment more she 
 was crying softly within the shelter of her hus 
 band s arm. He sat with set lips, and eyes staring 
 at the empty fireplace before him. Presently he
 
 88 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 spoke again, and his voice was very low, as if he 
 could not trust it: 
 
 "Aleck was game. He was the gamest chap I 
 ever saw. All he said when I told him was, Go 
 ahead, Doctor. I never did a harder thing in all 
 my life. I suppose army surgeons get more or less 
 used to it, but somehow when I knew what that 
 arm meant to Aleck, and how an hour before it 
 had been a perfect thing, and now 
 
 He did not try to tell her more just then, but 
 later, when both were steadied, he added a few 
 more important details to the story: 
 
 "Franz went to the hospital with them 
 wouldn t leave them ran the risk of losing his 
 position. Do you know, Jord has been teaching 
 that boy English, evenings, and naturally Franz 
 adores him. I suppose Jord would have taken 
 that skid for any blamed beggar who got in his 
 way, but of course it didn t take any force off the 
 way he jammed on those brakes when he saw it 
 was a friend he was going to hit. And a friend 
 he was going to maim pretty hard choice to 
 make, wasn t it? But of course it was sure death 
 to Franz if he hit him, at that pace, so there was 
 nothing else to do but take the chance for himself 
 and Aleck. Maybe you can guess, though, how he 
 feels about Aleck. One wouldn t think he knew 
 he d been cruelly hurt himself."
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 89 
 
 "Oh! I thought " 
 
 " Jord s back will give him a lot of trouble for 
 a while, but his spine isn t seriously injured, if 
 I know my trade. Altogether well the nurses 
 have got a couple of interesting cases on their 
 hands for a while. No doubt Aleck will be well 
 looked after. As for Jord he ll be so much the 
 more helpless of the two for a while, I m afraid 
 he ll prove a distraction that will demoralize the 
 force." 
 
 He smiled faintly for the first time, but his face 
 sobered again instantly. 
 
 "Anne Linton s pretty weak, but she took a 
 Jittle nourishment sanely this morning just before 
 I came away. Miss Arden feels a trifle encouraged. 
 I confess this thing of Jord s has knocked the girl 
 out of my mind for the time being, though I shall 
 get her back again fast enough, if I don t find 
 things going right when I see her. Well" he 
 turned his wife s face toward him, with a hand 
 against her cheek "it s all out now, and I m 
 eased a bit by the telling. I wish I could get forty 
 winks, just to make a break between last night and 
 this morning." 
 
 "You shall. Lie down and I ll put you to sleep." 
 
 He did not think it possible, in spite of his 
 exhaustion, but presently under her quieting touch 
 he was over the brink, greatly to Ellen s relief.
 
 90 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Her heart contracted with love and sympathy as 
 she watched his face. It was a weary face, now in 
 its relaxation, and there were heavy shadows under 
 the closed eyes. Every now and then a frown 
 crossed the broad brow, as if the sleeper were not 
 wholly at ease, could not forget, even in his dreams, 
 what he had had to do a few hours ago. She 
 thought of young Aleck with his manly, smiling 
 face, his pride in keeping Jordan King s car as fine 
 and efficient beneath its hood mud-splashed 
 though it often was without as he did the shining 
 limousine he drove for Mrs. Alexander King, 
 Jordan s mother. She thought of what it must be 
 to him now to know that he was maimed for life. 
 As for King himself, she knew him well enough to 
 understand how his own injuries would count for 
 little beside his distress in having had to deal the 
 blow which had crushed that strong young arm of 
 Aleck s. Her heart ached for them both and even 
 for poor Franz, weeping at having been the inno 
 cent cause of all this havoc. 
 
 Two hours sleep did his wife secure for Burns- 
 before he woke, stoutly avowing himself fit for 
 anything again, and setting off, immediately break 
 fast was over, for the place to which his thoughts 
 had leaped with his first return to consciousness. 
 
 "Can t rest till I see old Jord. Did I tell you 
 that he insisted on Aleck s having the room next
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 9 x 
 
 his, precisely as big and airy as his own ? There s a 
 door between, and when it s open they can see 
 each other. When I left Jord the door was open, 
 and he was staring in at Aleck, who was still sleep 
 ing off the anesthetic, and a big tear was running 
 down Jord s cheek. He can t stir himself, but that 
 doesn t seem to bother him any. He s going to 
 suffer a lot of pain with his back, but he ll suffer 
 ten times more looking at that bandaged shoulder 
 of Aleck s." 
 
 It was four days later that Ellen saw King. She 
 was prepared to find him, as Burns had called him, 
 "game," but she had not known just all that term 
 means among men when it is applied to such a one 
 as he. If he had been receiving her after having 
 suffered a bad wrench of the ankle he could not 
 have treated the occasion more simply. 
 
 "This is mighty good of you," he said, reaching 
 up a well-developed right arm from his bed, where 
 he lay flat on his back without so much as a pillow 
 beneath his head. His hair was carefully brushed, 
 his bandages were concealed, his lips were smiling, 
 and altogether he was, except for his prostrate posi 
 tion, no picture of an invalid. 
 
 "I ve just been waiting to come," she said, re 
 turning the firm pressure of his hand with that of 
 both her own.
 
 92 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "And meanwhile you ve kept me reminded of 
 you by these wonderful flowers," he said with a 
 nod toward the ranks on ranks of roses which 
 crowded table and window sills. 
 
 "Oh, but not all those!" she denied. "I might 
 have known you would be deluged with them. 
 Daisies and buttercups out of the fields would have 
 been better." 
 
 "No, because those you sent look like you. 
 Doctor Burns won t grudge me the pleasure of say 
 ing now what I like to his wife and it s the first 
 time I ve really dared tell you what I thought." 
 
 "What a charming compliment! But I m going 
 to send you something much more substantial now 
 good things to eat, and books to read, if I can 
 just find out what you like and even games to 
 play, if you care for them." 
 
 "I ll be delighted, if they re something Aleck and 
 I can play together. You see when that door is 
 open we aren t far apart, and it won t be long, 
 Doctor Burns says, before he ll be walking in here 
 to keep me company till he gets out." 
 
 "He is doing well, I hear. I m so glad." 
 
 "Yes, that husky young constitution of his is 
 telling finely plus your husband s surgery. My 
 poor boy!" He shut his lips upon the words, and 
 kept them closely pressed together for an instant. 
 "My word, Mrs. Burns he s the stuff that heroes
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 93 
 
 are made of! His living to earn for the rest of his 
 life with one arm and you d think he d lost the 
 tip of one finger. If ever I let that boy go out of my 
 employ why, he s worth more as a shining ex 
 ample of pluck than other men are worth with two 
 good arms!" 
 
 "I must go and see him if he d care to have 
 me." 
 
 "He d take it asthe honourof hislife. He scrazy 
 over the flowers you sent him." 
 
 "Would he care for books? And what sort? 
 I m going to bring both of you books." 
 
 " Stories of adventure will suit Aleck the wilder 
 the better. Odd choice for such a peaceable- 
 looking fellow, isn t it? As for me something I ll 
 have to work hard to listen to, something to keep 
 an edge on my mind. I ve counted the cracks in 
 the ceiling till I have a map of them by heart. I ve 
 worked out a system by which I can drain that 
 ceiling country and raise crops there. There isn t 
 much else in this room that I can count or lay out 
 worse luck! So I ve named all the roses, and have 
 wagers with myself as to which will fade first. 
 I m betting on Susquehanna, that big red one, to 
 outlast all the rest." 
 
 When Red Pepper looked in half an hour later, 
 it was to find the door open between the two rooms,
 
 94 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 and his wife listening, smiling, to an incident of the 
 night just past, as told by first one patient and then 
 the other. The two young men might have been 
 two comrades lying beside a campfire, so gay was 
 their jesting with each other, so light their treat 
 ment of the wakeful hours both had spent. 
 
 "No, there s nothing the matter with either of 
 them," observed Burns, looking from one bedside 
 to the other. "Franz is the chap with the heavy 
 heart; these two are just enjoying a summer holi 
 day. But I m not going to keep the communica 
 tion open long at a time, as yet." 
 
 He went in to see Aleck, closing the door again. 
 When he returned he took up a position at the foot 
 of King s bed, regarding him in silence. Ellen 
 looked up at her husband. There was something 
 in his face which had not been there of late a 
 curiously bright look, as if a cloud were lifted. She 
 studied him intently, and when he returned the 
 scrutiny she raised her eyebrows in an interroga 
 tion. He nodded, smiling quizzically. 
 
 "Jord," he said, "if you want to keep your 
 secrets to yourself, beware of letting any woman 
 come within range. My wife has just read rne as if 
 I were an open book in large black type." 
 
 "Bound in scarlet and gold," added Ellen. 
 "Tell us, Red. You really have good news?" 
 
 "The best. I am pretty confident Anne Linton
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 95 
 
 has turned the corner. I hoped it yesterday, but 
 wasn t sure enough to say so. Did you know that, 
 too?" 
 
 "Of course. But you were in small type yester 
 day. To-day he who runs may read. You would 
 know it yourself, wouldn t you, Jordan?" 
 
 The man in the bed studied the man who stood 
 at its foot. The two regarded each other as under 
 peculiar circumstances men do who have a strong 
 bond of affection and confidence between them. 
 
 "He s such a bluffer," said King. "I hadn t sup 
 posed anybody could tell much about what he was 
 thinking. But I do see he looks pretty jolly this 
 morning, and I don t imagine it s all bluff. I m 
 certainly glad to hear Miss Linton is doing well." 
 
 " Doing well isn t exactly the phrase even now," 
 admitted Red Pepper. "There are lots of things 
 that can happen yet. But the wind and waves 
 have floated her little craft off the rocks, and the 
 leaks in the boat are stopped. If she doesn t 
 spring any more, and the winds continue favour 
 able, we ll make port." 
 
 Jordan King looked as happy as if he had been 
 the brother of this patientof Burns s, whomneither 
 of them had known a month ago, and whom one of 
 them had seen but once. 
 
 "That s great," he said. "I haven t dared to ask 
 since I came here myself, knowing how poor the
 
 96 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 prospects were the last time I did ask. I was afraid 
 I should surely hear bad news. When can we begin 
 to send her flowers again ? Couldn t I send some of 
 mine ? I d like her to have Susquehanna there, and 
 Rappahannock and I think Arapahoe and Apache 
 will run them pretty close on lasting. Would you 
 mind taking them to her when you go?" His eyes 
 turned to Mrs. Burns. 
 
 "I d love to, but I shall not dare to tell her you 
 are here, just yet. She is very weak, isn t she, 
 Red?" 
 
 "As a starved pussy cat. The flowers won t 
 hurt her, but we don t want to rouse her sym 
 pathies as yet." 
 
 "I should say not. Don t mention me; just take 
 her the posies," instructed King, his cheek showing 
 a slight access of colour. 
 
 "You won t know whether Susquehanna wins 
 your wager or not," Ellen reminded him as she 
 obediently separated the indicated blooms, mag 
 nificent great hothouse specimens with stems like 
 pillars. That the finest of all these roses, not ex 
 cepting those she had sent herself, had come from 
 private greenhouses, she well knew. The Kings 
 lived in the centre of the wealthiest quarter 
 of the city, though not themselves possessed 
 of more than moderate riches. Their name, how 
 ever, was an old and honoured one, Jordan him-
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 97 
 
 self was a favourite, and none in the city was too 
 important to be glad to be admitted at his home. 
 
 "Anything more I can do for you before I go?" 
 inquired Burns of his patient when Ellen had gone, 
 smiling back at King from over the big roses and 
 promising to keep track of Susquehanna for him in 
 her daily visits. 
 
 "Nothing, thank you. You did it all an hour 
 ago, and left me more comfortable than I expected 
 to be just yet. I m not sure whether it was the 
 dressing or the visit that did me the most good." 
 
 "You re a mighty satisfactory sort of patient. 
 That good clean blood of yours is telling already in 
 /our recovery from shock. It tells in another way, 
 coo." 
 
 "What s that?" 
 
 "Sheer pluck." 
 
 King s eyelids fell. It meant much to him to 
 otand well m the estimation of this man, him 
 self distinguished for the cool daring of his work, 
 his endurance of the hard drudgery of his profession 
 as well as the brilliant performance on occasion. 
 "I m glad you think so Red Pepper Burns, 
 King answered daringly. Then, as the other 
 laughed, he added: "Do you know what would 
 make me the most docile patient you could ask?" 
 
 "Docile doesn t seem just the word for you but 
 I d be glad to know, in case of emergency."
 
 98 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "Let me call you that the name your best 
 friends have for you. It s a bully name. I know 
 I m ten years younger but " 
 
 "Good lack! Jordan King, call me anything 
 you like! I ll appreciate it." 
 
 " You ve no idea how long I ve wanted to do it 
 Red," vowed the younger man, with the flush 
 again creeping into his cheek. 
 
 "Why didn t you long ago?" Burns demanded. 
 "Surely dignity s no characteristic of mine. If 
 Anne Linton can call me Red Head on no 
 acquaintance at all 
 
 " She didn t do that ! " King looked a little as if he 
 had received a blow. 
 
 "Only when she was off her head, of course. 
 She took me for a wildcat once, poor child. No, no 
 when she was sane she addressed me very prop 
 erly. She s back on the old decorous ground now. 
 Made me a beautiful little speech this morning, 
 informing me that I had to stop calling her little 
 girl, for she was twenty-four years old. As she 
 looks about fifteen at the present, and a starved 
 little beggar at that, I found it a bit difficult to be 
 gin on Miss Linton, particularly as I have been 
 addressing her as Little Anne all the time." 
 
 "Starved?" King seemed to have paused at 
 this significant word. 
 
 "Oh, we ll soon fill her out again. She s really
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 99 
 
 not half so thin as she might be under the old-style 
 treatment. It strikes me you have a good deal of 
 interest in my patients, Jord. Shall I describe the 
 rest of them for you?" 
 
 Burns looked mischievous, but King did not seem 
 at all disturbed. 
 
 "Naturally I am interested in a girl you made 
 me bring to the hospital myself. And at present 
 well a fellow feeling, you know. I see how it is 
 myself now. I didn t then." 
 
 "True enough. Well, I ll bring you daily bul 
 letins from Miss Anne. And when she s strong 
 enough I ll break the news to her of your prox 
 imity. Doubtless your respective nurses will 
 spend their time carrying flowers back and forth 
 from one of you to the other." 
 
 "More than likely," King admitted. "Any 
 thing to fill in the time. I m sorry I can t take her 
 out in my car when she s ready. I ve been think 
 ing, Doctor Red," he went on hastily, "that 
 there s got to be some way for Aleck to drive that 
 car in the future. I m going to work out a scheme 
 while I lie here." 
 
 "Work out anything. I ll prophesy right now 
 that as soon as you get fairly comfortable you ll think 
 out more stuff while you re lying on your back than 
 you ever did in a given period of time before. It 
 won t be lost time at all; it ll be time gained. And
 
 ioo RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 when you do get back on your legs no, don t ask 
 me when that ll be, I can t tell nor any other fellow 
 but when you do get back you ll make things fly 
 as they never did before and that s going some." 
 
 "You are a great bluffer, but I admit that I like 
 the sound of it," was King s parting speech as he 
 watched Burns depart. 
 
 On account of this latest interview he was able to 
 bear up the better under the immediately following 
 visit of his mother, an aristocratic-looking, sweet- 
 faced but sad-eyed lady, who could not yet be rec 
 onciled to that which had happened to her son, 
 andwho visited him twice daily to bring hampers of 
 fruit, food, and flowers, in quantity sufficient to 
 sustain half the patients in a near-by ward. She 
 invariably shed a few quiet tears over him which 
 she tried vainly to conceal, addressed him in a 
 mournful tone, and in spite of his efforts to cheer 
 her managed to leave behind her after each visit an 
 atmosphere of depression which it took him some 
 time and strength to overcome. 
 
 "Poor mother, she can t help it," philosophized 
 her son. "What stumps me, though, is why one 
 who takes life so hard should outlive a man like 
 my father, who was all that is brave and cheerful. 
 Perhaps it took it out of him to be always playing 
 the game boldly against her fears. But even so 
 give me the bluffers, like Red Pepper and like
 
 SUSQUEHANNA 101 
 
 Mrs. Red. Jove! but she s a lovely woman. No 
 wonder he adores her. So do I with his leave. 
 And so does Anne Linton, I should imagine. Poor 
 little girl what does she look like, I wonder? " 
 
 If he could have seen her at that moment, hold 
 ing Susquehanna against her hollow young cheek, 
 the glowing flower making the white face a pitiful 
 contrast, he would have been even more touched 
 than he could have imagined. Also he would 
 have felt that his wager concerning Susquehanna 
 was likely to be lost. It is not conducive to the 
 life of a rose to be loved and caressed as this one was 
 being. But since it was the first of her flowers that 
 Anne Linton had been able to take note of and 
 enjoy, it might have been considered a life and a 
 wager well lost.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS 
 
 ANTE LINTON lifted her head ever so 
 little from the allowed incline of her pillow 
 in the Good Samaritan Hospital. She 
 peered anxiously at the tray being borne toward 
 her by Selina Arden, most scrupulously con 
 scientious of all trained nurses, and never more 
 rigidly exact than when the early diet of patients 
 in convalescence was concerned. 
 
 "Is that all?" murmured Anne in a tone of 
 anguish. 
 
 "All!" replied Miss Arden firmly. But she 
 smiled, showing her perfect white teeth and 
 showing also her sympathy by the tone in which she 
 added: "Poor child!" 
 
 "Shall I never, never, never," asked the patient, 
 hungrily surveying the tray at close range, "have 
 enough just to dull these pangs a little? Not enough 
 to satisfy me, of course, but just enough to take the 
 edge off?" 
 
 "Very soon now," replied Miss Arden cheerily, 
 "you shall have a pretty good-sized portion of 
 
 102
 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS 103 
 
 beefsteak, juicy and tender, and you shall eat it all 
 
 , ir . " 
 
 up 
 
 "And leave not a wrack behind," moaned Anne 
 Linton, closing her eyes. "But you are wrong, 
 Miss Arden I shall not eat it, I shall gulp it the 
 way a dog does. I always wondered why a dog 
 has no manners about eating. I know now. He 
 is so hungry his eyes eat it first, so his mouth has 
 no chance. Well, I m certainly thankful for the 
 food on this tray. It s awfully good what there 
 is of it." 
 
 She consumed it, making the process as lingering 
 as was consistent with the ravaging appetite which 
 was a real torture. When the last mouthful had 
 vanished she set her eyes upon the clock the little 
 travelling clock which was Miss Arden s and which 
 had ticked busily and cheerfully through all those 
 days of illness when Anne s eyes had never once 
 lifted to notice the passage of time. 
 
 "I was so long about it," said the girl gleefully, 
 "that now it s only two hours and forty minutes to 
 the next refreshment station. I expect I can keep 
 on living till then if I use all my will power." 
 
 "And here s something to make you forget how 
 long two hours and forty minutes are." 
 
 Miss Arden went to the door and, returning, laid 
 suddenly in Anne s arms a great, fragrant mass of 
 white bloom, at the smell and touch of which she
 
 104 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 gave a half-smothered cry of rapture, and buried 
 her face in the midst of it. "White lilacs oh, 
 white lilacs! The dears the loves! Oh, where 
 did they come from?" 
 
 "There s a note that came with them," admitted 
 Miss Arden presently, when she had let the ques 
 tion go unanswered for some time, while Anne, 
 seeming to forget that she had asked it, smelled and 
 smelled of the cool white and green branches as if 
 she could never have enough of them. Into her 
 eyes had leaped a strange look, as if some memory 
 were connected with these outdoor flowers which 
 made them different for her from the hothouse 
 blooms, or even from the daffodils and tulips that 
 had alternated with the roses which had come often 
 since her convalescence began. 
 
 Anne reached up an eager hand for the note, a 
 look of surprise on her face. Miss Arden, looking 
 back at her, noted how each day was helping to re 
 move the pallor and wanness from that face. At 
 the moment, under the caress of the lilacs and the 
 surprise of the impending note, it was showing once 
 more a decided touch of its former beauty. Also 
 she was wearing a little invalid s wrap of lace 
 and pink silk, given her by Mrs. Burns, and this 
 helped the effect. 
 
 Anne unfolded the note. Miss Arden went 
 away with the empty tray, and remained away
 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS 105 
 
 tome time. Miss Arden, as has been said before, 
 was a most remarkable nurse. 
 The note read thus: 
 
 The Next Corridor, 10:30 A. M. 
 
 DEAR Miss LINTON: 
 
 The time has come, it seems to me, for two patients who 
 have nothing to do but while away the hours for a bit longer, 
 to help each other out. What do you say? I suppose you 
 don t know that I ve been lying flat on my back now for a 
 fortnight, getting over a rather bad spill from my car. I m 
 pretty comfortable now, thank you, so don t waste a particle 
 of sympathy; but the hours must certainly drag for you as 
 they do for me, and my idea is that we ought to establish 
 some sort of system of intercommunication. I have an 
 awfully obliging nurse, and a young man with a fiddle here 
 besides, and I d like to send you a short musicale when you 
 feel up to it. Are you fond of music? I have a notion you 
 are. Franz will come and play for you whenever you say. 
 But besides that I d awfully like to have a note from you as 
 soon as you are able to write. I ll answer it, you know and 
 then you ll answer that, perhaps and so the hours will go by. 
 I know this is a rather free-and-easy-sounding proposition 
 from a perfect stranger, as I suppose you think me, but cir 
 cumstances do alter cases, you know, and if our circumstances 
 can t alter our cases, then it s no good being laid up! 
 
 Hearty congratulations on that raging appetite. You see 
 Doctor Burns is good enough to keep me informed as to how 
 you come on. You certainly seem to be coming on now. 
 Please keep it up. I shouldn t dare ask you to write to me 
 if the Doctor hadn t said you could if you wouldn t do it 
 enough to tire you. So I m hoping. 
 
 Yours, under the same roof, 
 JORDAN KING.
 
 106 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "Good morning!" said a beloved voice from the 
 doorway. Anne looked up eagerly from her letter. 
 
 "Oh, Mrs. Burns good morning! And won t 
 you please stand quite still for a minute while I 
 look at you ? " 
 
 Ellen laughed. To other people than Anne Lin- 
 ton she was always the embodiment of quiet charm 
 in her freshness of attire and air of general dainti 
 ness. In the pale gray and white of her summer 
 clothing, with a spray of purple lilac tucked into 
 her belt, she was a vision to rest the eye upon. 
 "You are looking ever so well yourself to-day," 
 Ellen said as she sat down close beside Anne, facing 
 her. "Another week and you will be showing 
 us what you really look like." 
 
 "The little pink cover-up does me as much good 
 as anything," declared Anne. "I never thought I 
 could wear pink with my carroty hair. But Miss 
 Arden says I can wear anything you say I can, and 
 I believe her." 
 
 "Your hair is bronze, not carroty, and that 
 apricot shade of pink tones in with it beautifully. 
 What a glorious mass of white lilacs! I never saw 
 any so fine " 
 
 "They re wonderful I insisted on keeping them 
 Tight here, I m so fond of the fragrance. They came 
 from Mr. King," said Anne frankly. "And a note 
 from him savs Ke & here in the hospital with an in-
 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS 107 
 
 jured back. I m so sorry. Please tell me how badly 
 he is hurt." 
 
 "He will have to be patient for some weeks 
 longer, I believe, but there is no permanent injury. 
 Meanwhile, he is like any man confined, restless for 
 want of occupation. Still, he keeps his time pretty 
 full." And Ellen proceeded to recount the story of 
 Franz, and of how Jordan King was continuing here 
 in the hospital to teach him to speak English, find 
 ing him the quickest and most grateful of pupils. 
 
 " How splendid of him ! He s going to send Franz 
 to play for me. I can t think of anything except 
 beefsteak I should like so much!" and Anne 
 laughed, her face all alight with interest. But the 
 next instant it sobered. "Mrs. Burns," she said, 
 "there s something I want to say very much, and 
 so far the Doctor hasn t let me. But I m quite 
 strong enough now to begin to make plans, and one 
 of them is this : The minute I m able to leave the 
 hospital I want to go to some inexpensive place 
 where I can stay without bothering anybody. You 
 have all been so wonderful to me I can never ex 
 press my gratitude, but I m beginning to feel oh, 
 can t you guess how anxious I am to be taking care 
 of myself again? And I want you to know that I 
 have quite money enough to do it until I can go on 
 with my work." 
 
 Mrs. Burns looked at her. In the excitement of
 
 io8 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 talking the girl s face looked rounder and of a 
 better colour than it had yet shown, and her eyes 
 were glowing, eyes of such beauty as are not often 
 seen. But for all that, she seemed like some lovely 
 child who could no more take care of itself than 
 could a newborn kitten. Ellen laid one hand on 
 hers. 
 
 "You are not to think about such things yet, 
 dear," she said. "Do you imagine we have not 
 grown very fond of you, and would let you go off 
 into some place alone before you are fully yourself 
 again ? Not a bit of it. As soon as you can leave 
 here you are coming to me as my guest. And when 
 you are playing tennis with Bob, on our lawn, you 
 may begin to talk about plans for the future." 
 
 Anne stared back at her, a strange expression on 
 her face. "Oh, no!" she breathed. 
 
 "Oh, yes! You can t think how I am looking 
 forward to it. Meanwhile you are not to tire 
 yourself with talking. I only stopped for a minute, 
 and the Doctor is waiting by now. Good-bye, my 
 dear." And before Anne could protest she was 
 gone, having learned, by experience, that the way 
 to terminate useless argument with the one who is 
 not strong enough to be allowed to argue is by 
 making early escape. 
 
 That afternoon, having recovered from the two 
 surprises of the morning, Anne asked for pencil and
 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS 109 
 
 paper. Miss Arden, supplying them, stipulated 
 that their use should cover but five minutes. 
 
 "It is one of the last things we let patients do," 
 she said, "though it is the thing they all want to do 
 first. There is nothing so tiring as letter writing." 
 
 "I m not going to write a letter," Anne replied, 
 "just a hail to a fellow sufferer. Only I m no 
 sufferer, and I m afraid he is." 
 
 She wrote her note, and it was presently handed 
 to Jordan King. He had wondered very much 
 what sort of answer he should have, feeling that 
 nothing could reveal the sort of person this girl was 
 so surely as a letter, no matter how short. He had 
 been sure he recognized education in her speech, 
 breeding in her manner, high intelligence as well as 
 beauty in her face, but well, the letter would re 
 veal. And so it did, though it was written in a 
 rather shaky hand, in pencil, on one of MissArden s 
 hospital record blanks of all things! 
 
 DEAR MR. KING: 
 
 It is the most wonderful thing in the world to be sitting up 
 far enough to be able to write and tell you how sorry I am 
 that you are lying down. But Mrs. Burns assures me that 
 you are fast improving and that soon you will be about again. 
 Meanwhile you are turning your time of waiting to a glorious 
 account in teaching poor Franz to speak English. Surely he 
 must have been longing to speak it, so that he might tell you 
 the things in his heart about that dreadful night. But I 
 know you don t want me to write of that, and I won t.
 
 no RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Of course I should care to have him play for me, and I hope 
 he may do it soon to-morrow, perhaps. I wonder if he knows 
 the Schubert " Fruhlingstraum" how I should love to hear it! 
 As for your interesting plan for relieving the passing hours, I 
 should hardly be human if I did not respond to it! Only please 
 never write when you don t feel quite like it and neither will 
 I. 
 
 The white lilacs were even more beautiful than the roses and 
 the daffodils. There was a long row of white lilac trees at one 
 side of a garden I used to play in I shall never, never forget 
 what that fragrance was like after a rain ! And now that my sun 
 is shining again after the rain you may imagine what those 
 white lilacs breathe of to me. 
 
 With the best of good wishes, 
 ANNE LINTON. 
 
 Jordan King read this note through three times 
 before he folded it back into its original creases. 
 Then he shut it away in a leather-bound writing 
 tablet which lay by his side. " Franz/ he said, ad 
 dressing the youth who was at this hour of the day 
 his sole attendant, "can you play Schubert s 
 Fruhlingstraum? 
 
 He had to repeat this title several times, with 
 varying accents, before he succeeded in making 
 it intelligible. But suddenly Franz leaped to an 
 understanding. 
 
 "Yess yess yess yess sair," he responded 
 joyously, and made a dive for his violin case. 
 
 "Softly, Franz," warned his master. As this 
 was a word which had thus far been often used in
 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS in 
 
 his education, on account of the fact that the hos 
 pital did not belong exclusively to King strange 
 as that might seem to Franz who worshipped him 
 it was immediately comprehended. Without 
 raising the tones of his instrument, Franz was 
 able presently to make clear to King that the 
 music he was asked to play was of the best at 
 his command. 
 
 "No wonder she likes that," was King s inward 
 comment. "It s a strange, weird thing, yet beau 
 tiful in a haunting sort of way, I imagine, to a girl 
 like her, and I don t know but it would be to me if 
 I heard it many times while I was smelling lilacs 
 in the rain," he added, smiling to himself. 
 
 That hint of a garden had rather taken hold of 
 his imagination. More than likely, he said to him 
 self, it had been her own garden only she would 
 not tell him so lest she seem to try to convey an 
 idea of former prosperity. A different sort of girl 
 would have said "our garden." 
 
 Next morning, at the time of Mrs. Burns s visit 
 to the hospital, King sent Franz to play for Miss 
 Linton. With her breakfast tray had come his 
 second note telling her of this intention, so she had 
 two hours of anticipation a great thing in the life 
 of a convalescent. With every bronze lock in shin 
 ing order, with the little wrap of apricot pink silk
 
 ii2 RED PEPPER S PATIEN1S 
 
 and lace about her shoulders, with an extra pillow 
 at her back, Miss Anne Linton awaited the coming 
 of the "Court Musician," as King had called him. 
 
 "It s a very good thing Jord can t see her at this 
 minute," observed Burns to his wife as he met her 
 in the hall outside the door. "The prettiest con 
 valescent has less appeal for a doctor than a young 
 woman of less good looks in strapping health 
 naturally, for he gets quite enough of illness and 
 the signs thereof. But to a lusty chap like King 
 Miss Anne s present frail appearance would un 
 doubtedly enlist his chivalry. Those are some eyes 
 of hers, eh?" 
 
 "I think I have never seen more beautiful eyes," 
 Ellen agreed heartily. 
 
 Her husband laughed. "I have," he said, and 
 went his way, having no time for morning musi- 
 cales. 
 
 That afternoon Anne Linton, having had all her 
 pillows removed and having obediently lain still 
 and silent for two long hours, was permitted to sit 
 up again and write a note to King to tell him of 
 the joy of the morning: 
 
 DEAR MR. KING: 
 
 It was as if the twilight were falling, with the stars coming 
 out one by one. By and by they were all shining, and I was on 
 a mountain top somewhere, with the wind blowing softly
 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS 113 
 
 against my face. It was dark and I was all alone, but I didn t 
 Tiind, for I was strong, strong again, and I knew I could run 
 down by and by and be with people. Then a storm came on, 
 and I lifted my face to it and loved it, and when it died away 
 the stars were shining again between the clouds. Somewhere 
 a little bird was singing I opened my eye/ just there, and 
 your Franz was looking at me and smiling, and I smiled back. 
 He seemed so happy to be making me happy for he was, of 
 course. After a while it was dawn the loveliest dawn, all 
 flushed with pink and silver, and I couldn t keep my eyes shut 
 any more for looking at the musician s face. He is a real 
 musician, you know, and the music he makes comes out of his 
 soul. 
 
 When it was all over and he and Mrs. Burns were gone, my 
 tray came in. This is a frightful confession, but I am not a 
 real musician; I merely love good music with some sort of 
 understanding of what it means to those who really care, as 
 Franz does. To me, after all the emotion, my tray looked like 
 a sort of solid rock that I could cling to. And I had a piece of 
 wonderful beefsteak ah, now you are laughing! Never 
 mind I ll show you the two scenes. 
 
 Upon the second sheet was something which 
 made Jordan King open his eyes. There were two 
 little drawings the simplest of pencil sketches, 
 yet executed with a spirit and skill which aston 
 ished him. The first was of Franz himself, done in 
 a dozen lines. There was no attempt at a portrait, 
 yet somehow Franz was there, in the very set of the 
 head, the angle of the lifted brow, the pose of 
 the body, most of all in the indication of the smiling 
 mouth, the drooping eyelids. The second picture 
 Was a funny sketch of a big-eyed girl devouring
 
 ii 4 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 food from a tray. Two lines made the pillows be 
 hind her, six outlined the tray, a dozen more 
 demonstrated plainly the famishing appetite with 
 which the girl was eating. It was all there it was 
 astonishing how it was all there. 
 
 " My word ! " he said as he laid down the sheets 
 and took them up again, "that s artist work, 
 whether she knows it or not. She must know it, 
 though, for she must have had training. I wonder 
 where and how." 
 
 He called Miss Arden and showed her the 
 sketches. 
 
 "Dear me, but they re clever," she said. "They 
 look like a child s work and yet they aren t." 
 
 "I should say not," he declared very positively. 
 "That sort of thing is no child s work. That s 
 what painters do when they re recording an im 
 pression, and I ve often looked in more wonder at 
 such sketchy outlines than at the finished product. 
 To know how to get that impression on paper so 
 that it s unmistakable I tell you that s training 
 and nothing else. I don t know enough about it to 
 say it s genius, too, yet I ve had an artist friend 
 tell me it cost him more to learn to take the right 
 sort of notes than to enlarge upon those notes 
 afterward." 
 
 When he wrote to Anne next morning he was 
 not venturing to ask more of her than one exchange
 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS 115 
 
 a day he told her what he thought about those 
 sketches : 
 
 I ve had that sheet pinned up at the foot of my bed ever 
 since it came, and I m not yet tired of looking at it. You 
 should have seen Franz s face when I showed it to him. "Ze 
 arteeste!" he exclaimed, and laughed, and made eloquent 
 gestures, by means of which I judged he was trying to express 
 you. He looked as if he were trying to impress me with his 
 own hair, his eyes, his cheeks, his hands; but I knew well 
 enough he meant you. I gathered that he had been not ill 
 pleased with his visit to you, for he proposes another; in fact, 
 I think he would enjoy playing for you every day if you 
 should care to hear him so often. He does not much like to 
 perform in the wards, though he does it whenever I suggest it. 
 He has discovered thatthough they listen respectfully while he 
 plays his own beloved music, mostly they are happier when he 
 gives them a bit of American ragtime, or a popular song hit. 
 His distaste for that sort of thing is very funny. One would 
 think he had desecrated his beloved violin when he con 
 descends to it, for afterward he invariably gives it a special 
 polishing with the old silk handkerchief he keeps in the case 
 and Miss Arden vows he washes his hands, too. Poor Franz! 
 Your real artist has a hard time of it in this prosaic world, 
 doesn t he? 
 
 The note ended by saying boldly that King 
 would like another sketch sometime, and he 
 even ventured to suggest that he would enjoy 
 seeing a picture of that row of white lilac trees 
 at the edge of the garden where Anne used to 
 play. It was two days before he got this, and 
 meanwhile a box of water colours had come into
 
 n6 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 requisition. When the sheet of heavy paper 
 came to King he lay looking at it with eyes 
 which sparkled. 
 
 At first sight it was just a blur of blues and 
 greens, with irregular patches of white, and gay 
 tiny dashes of strong colour, pinks and purples and 
 yellows. But when, as Anne had bidden him, he 
 held it at arm s length he saw it all the garden 
 with its box-bordered beds full of tall yellow 
 tulips and pink and white and purple hyacinths 
 it was easy to see that this was what they were, 
 even from the dots and dashes of colour; thehedge 
 it was a real hedge of white lilac trees, against a 
 spring sky all scudding clouds of gray. Like the 
 sketch of Franz, its charm lay entirely in sugges 
 tion, not in detail, but was none the less real for 
 that. 
 
 There was one thing which, to King s observant 
 eyes, stood out plainly from the little wash drawing. 
 This garden was a garden of the rich, not of the 
 poor. Just how he knew it so well he could hardly 
 have told, after all, for there was no hint of house, 
 or wall, or even summer-house, sundial, terrace, 
 or other significant sign. Yet it was there, and he 
 doubted if Anne Linton knew it was there, or 
 meant to have it so. Perhaps it was that lilac 
 hedge which seemed to show so plainly the hand 
 of a gardener in the planting and tending. The
 
 HEAVY LOCAL MAILS 117 
 
 question was was it her own garden in which 
 she had played, or the garden of her father s 
 employer? Had her father been that gardener, 
 perchance? King instantly , rejected this pos 
 sibility.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 WHITE LILACS 
 
 BURNS, coming in to see King one day when 
 the exchange of letters had been going on 
 for nearly a fortnight, announced that he 
 might soon be moved to his own home. 
 
 King stared at him. "I m not absolutely 
 certain that I want to go till I can get about on 
 my own feet," he said slowly. 
 
 Burns nodded. "I know, but that will be some 
 time yet, and your mother well, I ve put her off 
 as long as I could, but without lying to her I can t 
 say it would hurt you now to be taken home. And 
 lying s not my long suit." 
 
 "Of course not. And I suppose I ought to go; it 
 would be a comfort to my mother. But " 
 
 He set his lips and gave no further hint of his un 
 willingness to go where he would be at the mercy 
 of the maternal fondness which would overwhelm 
 him with the attentions he did not want. Besides 
 there was another reason why, since he must for 
 the present be confined somewhere, he was loath 
 to leave the friendly walls where there was now so 
 
 118
 
 WHITE LILACS 119 
 
 much of interest happening every day. Could he 
 keep it happening at home? Not without much 
 difficulty, as he well foresaw. 
 
 "Miss Linton s coming to us on Saturday," ob 
 served Burns carelessly, strolling to the window 
 with his hands in his pockets. 
 
 "Is she? I didn t suppose she d be strong 
 enough just yet." King tried to speak with equal 
 carelessness, but the truth was that, with his life 
 bound, as it was at present, within the confines of 
 this room, the incidents of each day loomed large. 
 
 "She s gaining remarkably fast. For all her ap 
 parent delicacy of constitution when she came to 
 MS, I m beginning to suspect that she s the fortu 
 nate possessor of a good deal of vigour at the nor 
 mal. She says herself she was never ill before, and 
 that s why she didn t give up sooner couldn t 
 believe there was anything the matter. We can t 
 make her agree to stay with us a day longer than 
 I say is a necessity for safety." 
 
 "Where does she want to go ? Not back to that 
 infernal book-agenting?" There was a frown be 
 tween King s well-marked brows. 
 
 "Yes, I imagine that s what she intends. She s 
 a very decided young person, and there s not much 
 use telling her what she must and must not do. As 
 for the book itself, it s pretty clever, my wife and 
 Miss Mathewson insist. They say the youngsters
 
 120 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 of the neighbourhood are crazy over it. Bob knows 
 it by heart, and even the Little-Un studies the 
 pictures half an hour at a time. If children were 
 her buyers she d have no trouble." 
 
 "Have a look at those, will you?" 
 
 King reached for a leather writing case on the 
 table at his elbow, took out a pile of sheets, and 
 began to hand them over one by one to Burns. 
 
 "What s this? Hullo! Do you mean to say she 
 did this? Well, I like her impudence!" 
 
 "So do I," laughed King, looking past Burns s 
 shoulder at a saucy sketch of the big Doctor himself 
 evidently laying down the law about something, 
 by every vigorous line of protest in his attitude 
 and the thrust of his chin. Underneath was 
 written: "Absolutely not! Haven t I said so a 
 thousand times?" 
 
 "Wad some power " murmured Burns. 
 
 "Well, she seems to have the power/ I am rather 
 a thunderer, I suppose. What s this next? My 
 wife! Jolly! that s splendid. Hasn t she caught a 
 graceful pose though ? Ellen s to the life. Selina 
 Arden ? That s good that s very good. There s 
 your conscientious nurse for you. And this, of her 
 self? Ha! She hasn t flattered herself any. She 
 may have looked like that at one time, but not 
 now hardly." 
 
 "She s looking pretty well again, is she?"
 
 WHITE LILACS 121 
 
 "Both pretty and well. We don t starve our 
 patients on an exclusively liquid diet the way we 
 used to, and they don t come out of typhoid look 
 ing half so badly in consequence. And she s been 
 rounding out every day for the last two weeks in 
 fine shape. She s a great little girl, and as full of 
 spirit as a gray squirrel. I m beginning to believe 
 she s a bit older than I would believe at first; that 
 mind of hers is no schoolgirl s; it s pretty mature. 
 She says frankly she s twenty-four, though she 
 doesn t look over nineteen." 
 
 "Is there any reason why I can t see her for a bit 
 of a visit if she goes Saturday?" asked King 
 straightforwardly. It was always a characteristic 
 of his to go straight to a point in any matter; in 
 trigue and diplomacy were not for him in affairs 
 which concerned a girl any more than in those 
 which pertained to his profession. "You see we ve 
 been entertaining each other with letters and 
 things, and it would seem a pity not to meet 
 especially if she ll be leaving town before I m 
 about." 
 
 There was a curiously wistful look in his face as 
 he said this, which Burns understood. All along 
 King had said almost nothing about the torture 
 his present helplessness was to him, but his friend 
 knew. 
 
 "Of course she ll come; we ll see to that. She s
 
 122 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 walking about a little now, and by Saturday she 
 can come down this corridor on her two small 
 feet." 
 
 "See here couldn t I sit up a bit to meet her?" 
 
 "Not a sixteenth of a degree. You ll lie exactly 
 as flat as you are now. If it s any consolation I ll 
 tell you that you look like a prostrate man-angel 
 seven feet long." 
 
 "Thanks. I d fire a pillow at you if I had one. 
 I don t want to look like an object for sympathy 
 that s all." 
 
 Burns nodded understandingly. "Well, Jord," 
 he said a moment later, "will you go home on Sat 
 urday, too?" 
 
 The two looked at each other. Then, "If you say 
 so," King agreed. 
 
 "All right. Then we ll get rid of two of our most 
 interesting patients on that happy day. Never 
 mind the mails will still carry and Franz is a 
 faithful messenger. What s that, Miss Dwight? 
 All right, I ll be there." And he went out, with a 
 gay nod and wave of the hand to the man on the 
 bed. 
 
 This was on Monday. On Tuesday King offered 
 his petition that Anne Linton would pay him a 
 visit before she left on Saturday. When the an 
 swer came it warmed his heart more than anything 
 he had yet had from her:
 
 WHITE LILACS 123 
 
 Of course I will come only I want you to know that I 
 shall be dreadfully sorry to come walking, when you must still 
 lie so long on that poor back. Doctor Burns has told me 
 how brave you are, with all the pain you are still suffering. 
 But I am wonderfully glad to learn that he is so confident of 
 your complete recovery. Just to know that you can be your 
 active self again is wonderful when one thinks what might 
 have happened. I shall always remember you as you seemed 
 to me the day you brought me here. I was, of course, feeling 
 pretty limp, and the sight of you, in such splendid vigour, 
 made me intensely envious. And even though I see you now 
 "unhorsed," I shall not lose my first impression, because I 
 know that by and by you will be just like that again looking 
 and feeling as if you were fit to conquer the world. 
 
 It was the most personal note he had had from 
 her, and he liked it very much. He couldn t help 
 hoping for more next day, and did his best to se* 
 cure it by the words he wrote in reply. But Wed 
 nesday s missive was merely a merrily piquant 
 description of the way she was trying her returning 
 strength by one expedition after another about her 
 room. On Thursday she sent him some very jolly 
 sketches of her "packing up," and on Friday she 
 wrote hurriedly to say that she couldn t write, be 
 cause she was making little visits to other patients. 
 
 Jordan King had never been more exacting as to 
 his dressing than on that Saturday. He studied his 
 face in the glass after an orderly had shaved him, to 
 make sure that the blue bloom it took but a few
 
 124 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 hours to acquire had been properly subdued. 
 He insisted on a particular silk shirt to wear under 
 the loose black-silk lounging robe which enveloped 
 him, and in which he was to be allowed to-day to 
 lie upon the bed instead of in it. His hair had to 
 be brushed and parted three separate times before 
 he was satisfied. 
 
 "I didn t know I was such a fop," he said, laugh 
 ing, as Miss Dwight rallied him on his preparations 
 for receiving the ladies. "But somehow it seems 
 to make a difference when a man lies on his back. 
 They have him at a disadvantage. Now if you ll 
 just give me a perfectly good handkerchief I ll con 
 sider that the reception committee is ready. Thank 
 you. It must be almost time for them, isn t it?" 
 
 For a young man who usually spent compara 
 tively little of his time in attentions to members of 
 the other sex, but who was accustomed, neverthe 
 less, to be entirely at his ease with them, King 
 acknowledged to himself that he felt a curious ex 
 citement mounting in his veins as the light foot 
 steps of his guests approached. 
 
 Mrs. Burns came first into his line of vision, 
 wearing white from head to foot, for it was early 
 June and the weather had grown suddenly to be like 
 that of midsummer. Behind her followed not the 
 black figure King s memory had persistently pic 
 tured, but one also clad in white the very simple
 
 WHITE LILACS 125 
 
 white of a plain linen suit, with a close little white 
 hat drawn over the bronze-red hair. Under this 
 hat the eyes King remembered glowed warmly, 
 and now there was health in the face, which was so 
 much more charming than the one he recalled that 
 for a moment he could hardly believe the two the 
 same. Yet- the profile, as she looked at Mrs. 
 Burns, who spoke first, was the one which had been 
 stamped on his mind as one not to be forgotten. 
 
 She was looking at him now, and there was no 
 pity in her bright glance he could not have borne 
 to see it if it had been there. She came straight 
 up to the bed, her hand outstretched her gloves 
 were in the other, as if she were on her way down 
 stairs, as he presently found she was. She spoke 
 in a full, rich voice, very different from the weary 
 one he had heard before. 
 
 "Do you know me?" she asked, smiling. 
 
 "Almost I don t. Have you really been ill, or 
 did you make it all up?" 
 
 "I m beginning to believe I did. I feel myself 
 as if it must be all dream. How glad I am to find 
 you able to be dressed. Doctor Burns says you 
 will go home to-day, too." 
 
 "This evening, I believe. I thought you were 
 not going till then either." 
 
 "This very hour." She glanced at Mrs. Burns, 
 "My good fairy begged that I might go early, be-
 
 126 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 cause it is her little son s birthday. I am to be at 
 a real party; think of that!" 
 
 "The Little-Un s or Bob s?" King asked hk 
 other visitor. 
 
 Bob was an adopted child, taken by Burns be: 
 fore his marriage, but the little Chester s parent! 
 made no difference between them, and a birthday 
 celebration for the older boy was sure to be quite 
 as much of an occasion as for the two-year-old. 
 
 "Bob s," Mrs. Burns explained. "He is ten; 
 we can t believe it. And he has set his heart on 
 having Miss Linton at home for his party. He hai 
 read her little book almost out of its covers, and she 
 has been doing some place-cards for his guests 
 the prettiest things!" Ellen opened a small 
 package she was carrying and showed King the 
 cards. 
 
 He gazed at them approvingly. "They re the 
 jolliest I ever saw; the youngsters will be crazy 
 over them. For a convalescent it strikes me 
 Miss Linton has been the busiest known to the 
 hospital." 
 
 "You, yourself, have kept me rather busy, Mr. 
 King," the girl observed. 
 
 "So I have. I m wondering what I m to do when 
 you are at Doctor Burns s and I at home." 
 
 She smiled. "I shall be there only a week if I 
 keep on gaining as fast as I am now."
 
 WHITE LILACS 127 
 
 "A fortnight," interpolated Mrs. Burns, "is the 
 earliest possible date of your leaving us. And not 
 then unless we think you fit." 
 
 "Did you ever know of such kindness?" Anne 
 Linton asked softly of King. "To a perfect 
 stranger?" 
 
 He nodded. "Nothing you could tell me of 
 their kindness could surprise me. About that 
 fortnight would it be asking a great deal of you 
 to keep on sending me that daily note?" 
 
 "Isn t there a telephone in your own room at 
 home?" she asked. 
 
 "Yes how did you know?" 
 
 "I guessed it. Wouldn t a little telephone 
 talk do quite as well or better than a letter?" 
 
 "It would be very nice," admitted King. "But 
 I should hate to do without the letter. The days 
 are each a month long at present, you know, and 
 each hour is equal to twenty-four. Make it a 
 letter, too, will you, please?" 
 
 Miss Linton looked at Mrs. Burns. "Do 
 you think circumstances still alter cases?" she 
 inquired. 
 
 Her profile, as King caught it again, struck him 
 as a perfect outline. To think of this girl starting 
 out again, travelling alone, selling books from door 
 to door! 
 
 "I think you will be quite warranted in being
 
 128 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 very good to Mr. King while his hours drag as he 
 describes," Ellen assented cordially. 
 
 "As soon as I can sit up at any sort of decent 
 angle I can do a lot of work on paper," King 
 asserted. "Then I ll make the time fly. Mean 
 while it s all right." 
 
 They talked together for a little, then King 
 sent for Franz, who came and played superbly, 
 his eager eyes oftenest on Jordan King, like those 
 of an adoring and highly intelligent dog. Anne 
 watched Franz, and King watched Anne. Mrs. 
 Burns, seeming to watch nobody, noted with 
 affectionate and somewhat concerned interest the 
 apparent trend of the whole situation. She could 
 not help thinking, rather dubiously, of Mrs. 
 Alexander King, Jordan s mother. 
 
 And, as things happen, it was just as Franz laid 
 down his bow, after a brilliant rendering of a great 
 concerto, that Mrs. Alexander King came in. She 
 entered noiselessly, a slender, tall, black-veiled 
 figure, as scrupulously attired in her conventional 
 deep mourning as if it were not hot June weather, 
 when some lightening of her sombre garb would 
 have seemed not only rational but kind to those 
 who must observe her. 
 
 "Oh, mother!" King exclaimed. "In all this 
 heat? I didn t expect you. I m afraid you ought 
 not to have come."
 
 WHITE LILACS 129 
 
 She bent over him. "The heat has nothing to do 
 with my feelings toward my son. I couldn t neg 
 lect you, dear." 
 
 She greeted Ellen cordially, who presented Miss 
 Linton. King lost nothing of his mother s polite 
 scrutiny of the girl, who bore it without the slight 
 est sign of recognizing it beyond the lowering of her 
 lashes after the first long look of the tall lady had 
 continued a trifle beyond the usual limit. Book 
 agent though she might be, Miss Linton s manner 
 was faultless, a fact King noted with curious pride 
 in his new friend whom, though he himself was 
 meeting her for but the second time, he somehow 
 wanted to stand any social test which might be put 
 upon her. And he well knew that his lady mother 
 could apply such tests if anybody could. 
 
 In his heart he was saying that it seemed hard 
 luck, he must say good-bye to Anne Linton in that 
 mother s presence. There was small chance to 
 make it a leave-taking of even ordinary good fel 
 lowship beneath that dignified, quietly appraising 
 eye, to say nothmg of endowing it with a quality 
 which should in some measure compensate for the 
 fact that it might be a parting for a long time to 
 come. However much or little the exchange of 
 notes during these last weeks might have come to 
 mean to Jordan King, aside from the diversion they 
 had offered to one sorely oppressed of mind and
 
 130 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 body, he resented being now forced to those re 
 strained phrases of farewell which he well knew 
 were the only ones that would commend him to his 
 mother s approval. 
 
 Mrs. Burns and Miss Linton rose to go, sum 
 moned by Red Pepper himself, who was to take 
 them. In the momentary surge of greeting and 
 small talk which ensued, King surreptitiously 
 beckoned Anne near. He looked up with the direct 
 gaze of the man who intends to make the most of 
 the little that Fate sends him. 
 
 "Letters are interesting things, aren t they?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "Very. And when they are written by a man 
 lying on his back, who doesn t know when he is 
 down, they are stimulating things," she answered; 
 and there was that in the low tone of her voice and 
 the look of her eyes which was as if she had pinned 
 a medal for gallantry on the breast of the black silk 
 robe. 
 
 Mrs. Alexander King looked at her son and 
 moved nearer. She addressed Anne. "I am more 
 than glad to see, Miss Linton," said she, "that you 
 are fully recovered. Please let me wish you much 
 success in your work. I suppose we shall not see 
 you again after you leave Mrs. Burns." 
 
 "No, Mrs. King," responded Anne s voice com 
 posedly. "Thank you for that very kjic^ wish."
 
 WHITE LILACS 131 
 
 She turned to the prostrate one once more. She 
 put her hand in his, and he held it fast for an in 
 stant, and, in spite of his mother s gaze, it was an 
 appreciable instant longer than formality called 
 for. 
 
 "I shall hope to see you again," he saif 1 dis 
 tinctly, and the usual phrase acquired a meaning 
 it does not always possess. 
 
 Then they were gone, and he had only the remem 
 brance of Anne s parting look, veiled and maidenly, 
 but the comprehending look of a real friend none 
 the less. 
 
 "My dear boy, you must be quite worn out with 
 all this company in this exhausting weather," mur 
 mured Mrs. King, laying a cool hand on a de 
 cidedly hot brow. 
 
 The brow moved beneath her hand, on account 
 of a contraction of the smooth forehead, as if with 
 pain. "I really hadn t noticed the weather, 
 mother," replied her son s voice with some con 
 straint in it. 
 
 "You must rest now, dear. People who are per 
 fectly well themselves are often most inconsiderate 
 of an invalid, quite without intention, of course. * 
 
 "If I never receive any less consideration than I 
 have had here, I shall do very well for the rest of 
 my life." 
 
 "I know; they have all been very kind. But I
 
 132 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 shall be so relieved when I can have you at home, 
 where you will not feel obliged to have other pa 
 tients on your mind. In your condition it is too 
 much to expect." 
 
 Jordan King was a good son, and he loved his 
 mother deeply. But there were moments when, as 
 now, if he could have laid a kind but firm hand 
 upon her handsome, emotional mouth, he would 
 have been delighted to do so.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 
 
 WHAT would you give for a drive with me 
 this morning?" Burns surveyed his 
 patient, now dressed and downstairs 
 upon a pillared rear porch, wistfulness in his eyes 
 but determination on his lips. 
 
 "Do you mean it?" 
 
 "Yes. We may as well try what that back will 
 stand. Most of the drive will be sitting still in front 
 of houses, anyhow, and in your plaster jacket 
 you re pretty safe from injury." 
 
 "Thank heaven!" murmured Jordan King 
 fervently. 
 
 Two minutes later he was beside Burns in the 
 Doctor s car, staring eagerly ahead, lifting his hat 
 now and then as some one gave him interested 
 greeting from passing motor. More than once 
 Burns was obliged to bring his car to a short 
 standstill, so that some delighted friend might 
 grasp King s hand and tell him how good it seemed 
 to see him out. With one and all the young man 
 was very blithe, though he let them do most of the 
 
 133
 
 i 3 4 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 talking. They all told him heartily that he was 
 looking wonderfully well, while they ignored with 
 the understanding of the intelligent certain signs 
 which spoke of physical and mental strain. 
 
 "Your friends," Burns remarked as they went on 
 after one particularly pleasant encounter, "seem to 
 belong to the class who possess brains. I wish it 
 were a larger class. Every day I find some patient 
 suffering from depression caused by fool comments 
 from some well-meaning acquaintance." 
 
 "I ve had a few of those, too," King ac 
 knowledged. 
 
 "I ll wager you have. Well, among a certain 
 class of people there seems to be an idea that you 
 can t show real sympathy without telling the victim 
 that he s looking very ill, and that you have known 
 several such cases which didn t recover. I have one 
 little woman on my list who would have been well 
 long ago if she hadn t had so many loving friends to 
 impress her with the idea that her case was des 
 perate. I talk Dutch to such people now and then, 
 when I get the chance, but it doesn t do much good. 
 Sometimes I get so thundering mad I can t stand it, 
 and then I rip out something that makes me a last 
 ing enemy." 
 
 "You get some comfort out of the explosion, any 
 how," King commented with a glance at the 
 strong profile beside him. " Besides, you may do
 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 135 
 
 more good than you know. Anybody who had had 
 a good dressing down from you once wouldn t be 
 likely to forget it in a hurry." 
 
 Burns laughed at this, as they stopped in 
 front of a house. King had a half-hour wait while 
 his friend was inside. The car stood in heavy 
 shade, and he was very comfortable. He took a 
 letter from his pocket as he sat, a letter which 
 looked as if it had been many times unfolded, and 
 read it once more, his face very sober as his eyes 
 followed the familiar lines: 
 
 DEAR MR. KING: 
 
 I was very, very sorry to go away without seeing you to say 
 good-bye after our interesting correspondence. Mrs. Burns 
 and I had such a pleasant visit with your mother, in your 
 absence, that we felt rewarded for our call, and it was good 
 to know that you could be out, yet of course we were very 
 disappointed. I do hope that all will go well with you, and 
 that very rapidly, for I can guess how eager you are to be at 
 work. 
 
 Of course once I am off on my travels I shall have no time 
 for letters. No, that isn t quite frank, is it? Well, I will be 
 truthful and say honestly that I am sure it is not best that I 
 should keep on writing. I am glad if the letters have, as you 
 say, helped you through the worst of the siege; they surely 
 have helped me. But now our ways part. Sometime I may 
 give you a hail from somewhere when I am lonely and longing 
 to know how you get on. And sometime I may be back 
 at my old home. But wherever I am I shall never forget you, 
 Jordan King, for you have put something into my life which 
 Was not there before and I am the better for it. As for you
 
 136 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 your life will not be one whit the less big and efficient for this 
 trying experience; it will be bigger, I think, and finer. I am 
 glad, glad I have known you. 
 
 ANNE LINTON. 
 
 For the hundredth time King felt his heart sink 
 as he thought of that prevented last interview. 
 His mother had prevented it. It was perfectly 
 true that he was out, and away from home out in 
 a wheeled chair, which had been pushed by Franz 
 through a gap in the hedge between the Kings 
 lawn and the Wentworths next door. Just on the 
 other side of that hedge the chair had paused, where 
 Sally Wentworth, his friend of long standing, was 
 serving tea to a little group of young people, all 
 intimates and all delighted to have the invalid oncts 
 more in their midst. Under the group of great 
 copper beeches which made of that corner of the 
 Wentworth lawn a summer drawing room, King 
 had sat in his chair drinking tea and listening to 
 gay chatter and wondering why he had not been 
 able to get Anne Linton on the telephone so far 
 that day. And at that very time, so he now bitterly 
 reflected, she and Mrs. Burns had made their call 
 upon him, only to be told by Mrs. King that he 
 was "out." 
 
 His mother was unquestionably a lady, and she 
 had told the truth; he could not conceive of her 
 doing otherwise. He knew that she undoubtedly,
 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 137 
 
 quite as Anne had said, had made the call a pleas-, 
 ant one. But she had known that he was within a 
 stone s throw of the house, and that he would be 
 bitterly disappointed not to be summoned. She 
 had not mentioned to him the fact of the call at all 
 until next day when Anne Linton had been gone a 
 full two hours upon her train. Then, when he had 
 called up Mrs. Burns, in a fever of haste to learn 
 what had happened and what there might yet be a 
 chance of happening, he had discovered that Ellen 
 herself had tried three times to get him, upon the 
 telephone, and had at last realized though this she 
 did not say that it was not intended that she should. 
 
 King understood his mother perfectly. She 
 would scorn directly to deceive him, yet to intrigue 
 quietly but effectively against him in such a case as 
 this she would consider only her duty. She had 
 seen clearly his interest in the stranger, unin- 
 troduced and unvouched for, taken in by kind 
 people in an emergency, and though showing un 
 questionable marks of breeding, none the less a 
 stranger. She had feared for him, in his present 
 vulnerable condition; and she had done her part in 
 preventing that final parting which might have 
 contained elements of danger. That was all there 
 was to it. 
 
 For the present King was helpless, and there 
 could be no possible use in reproaching his mother
 
 138 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 for her action or lack of action. Once let him get 
 up on his feet, his own master once more then it 
 would be of use to talk. And talk he would some 
 day. Also he would act. Meanwhile 
 
 Red Pepper Burns came out of the house and 
 scrutinized his friend and patient closely as he ap 
 proached. "Want to go on, or shall I take you 
 home?" he inquired. 
 
 "Take me on anywhere everywhere! Some 
 thing inside will break loose if you don t." King 
 spoke with a smothered note of irritation new to 
 him in Burns s experience. 
 
 "You ve about reached the limit, have you? * 
 The question was straightforward, matter-of-fact 
 in tone, but King knew the sympathy behind it. 
 
 "I rather have," the young man admitted, 
 "I m ashamed to own it." 
 
 "You needn t be. It s a wonder you haven t 
 reached it sooner; I should have. Well, if you 
 stand this drive pretty well to-day you ought to 
 come on fast. With that back, you may be thank 
 ful you re getting off as easily as you are." 
 
 "I am thankful everlastingly thankful. It s 
 just " 
 
 "I know. Blow off some of that steam; it won t 
 hurt you. Here we are on the straight road. I ll 
 open up and give you a taste of what poor Henley 
 felt the first time his crippled body and his big,
 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 139 
 
 uncrippled spirit tasted the delight of Speed. 
 Remember?" 
 
 "Indeed I do. Oh, I m not complaining. You 
 understand that, Red?" 
 
 "Of course I understand absolutely. And I 
 understand that you need just what I say to blow 
 off a lot of steam. Hurt you or not, I m going to 
 let loose for a couple of miles and blow it off for 
 you." 
 
 In silence, broken only by the low song of the 
 motor as it voiced its joy in the widening license to 
 show its power, the two men took the wind in their 
 faces as the car shot down the road, at the moment 
 a clear highway for them. King had snatched off 
 his hat, and his dark hair blew wildly about his fore 
 head, while his eyes watched the way as intently 
 as if he had been driving himself, though his body 
 hardly tensed, so complete was his confidence in 
 the steady hands on the wheel. Faster and faster 
 flew the car, until the speed indicator touched a mark 
 seldom passed by King himself at his most reckless 
 moments. His lips, set at first, broke into a smile 
 as the pointing needle circled the dial, and his eyes, 
 if any could have seen them, would have told the 
 relief there was for him in escape by flight, though 
 only temporary, from the grinding pullof monotony 
 and disablement. 
 
 At the turn ahead appeared obstruction, and
 
 i 4 o RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Burns was obliged to begin slowing down. When 
 the car was again at its ordinary by no means slow 
 pace, King spoke: 
 
 "Bless you for a mind reader! That was bully, 
 and blew away a lot of distemper. If you ll just do 
 it again going back I ll submit to the afternoon of a 
 clam in a bed of mud." 
 
 "Good. We ll beat that record going back, if we 
 break the speedometer. Racing with time isn t 
 supposed to be the game for a convalescent, but 
 I m inclined to think it s the dose you need, just 
 the same. I expect, Jord, that the first time you 
 pull on a pair of rubber boots and go to climbing 
 around a big concrete dam somewhere your heart 
 will break for joy." 
 
 "My heart will stand anything, so that it s 
 action." 
 
 "Will it? I thought it might be a bit damaged. 
 It s had a good deal of reaction to stand lately, I m 
 afraid." 
 
 There was silence for a minute, then King spoke: 
 "Red, you re a wizard." 
 
 "Not much of a one. It doesn t take ex 
 traordinary powers of penetration to guess that a 
 flame applied to a bundle of kindling will cause a 
 fire. And when you keep piling on the fuel some 
 thing s likely to get burned." 
 
 "Did I pile on the fuel?"
 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 141 
 
 "You sure did. If there had been gunpowder 
 under the kindling you could have expected an ex 
 plosion and a wreck. * 
 
 "There s no wreck." 
 
 "No? I thought there might be somewhere." 
 
 King spoke quickly. "Do you think I carried it 
 too far?" 
 
 "I think you carried it some distance for an in 
 valid s diversion." 
 
 The young man flushed hotly. "I was gen 
 uinely interested and I saw no harm. If there s 
 any harm done it s to myself, and I can stand 
 that. I m not conceited enough to imagine that 
 a broken-backed cripple could make any lasting 
 impression." 
 
 Burns turned and surveyed his companion with 
 some amusement. "Do you consider that a de 
 scription of yourself?" 
 
 "I certainly do." Jordan King s strong young 
 jaw took on a grim expression. 
 
 "Know this then" Burns spoke deliberately 
 "there s not a sane girl who liked you well enough 
 before your accident to marry you who wouldn t 
 marry you now." 
 
 "That s absurd. Women want men, not 
 cripples." 
 
 "You re no cripple. Stop using that term." 
 
 "What else? A man condemned to wear a
 
 142 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 plaster jacket for at least a year." King evidently 
 did his best not to speak bitterly. 
 
 "Bosh! Suppose the same thing happened to 
 me. Would you look on me askance for the rest of 
 my days, no matter what man s job I kept on 
 tackling? Besides, the plaster jacket s only a pre 
 caution. You wouldn t disintegrate without it." 
 
 King looked at Red Pepper Burns and smiled in 
 spite of himself. "I m glad to hear that, I m sure. 
 As for looking at you askance you are you, R. P. 
 Burns." 
 
 "Apply the same logic to yourself. You are you, 
 and will continue to be you, plus some assets you 
 haven t had occasion to acquire before in the way 
 of dogged endurance, control of mind, and such 
 like qualities, bred of need for them. You will be 
 more to us all than you ever were, and that s saying 
 something. And the back s going to be a perfectly 
 good back; give it time. As for if you don t mind 
 my saying it that invalid s diversion, I don t 
 suppose it s hurt you any. What I m concerned 
 for is the hurt it may have done somebody else. I 
 don t need to tell you that it wasn t possible for 
 Ellen and me to have that little girl on our hearts all 
 that time and not get mightily interested in her. 
 She s the real thing, too, we re convinced, and we 
 care a good deal what happens to her next." 
 
 Jordan King drew a deep breath. "So do I."
 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 143 
 
 Burns gave him a quick look. " That s good. 
 But you let her go away without making sure of 
 keeping any hold on her. You don t know where 
 she is now." 
 
 King shot him a return look. "That wasn t my 
 fault. That was hard luck." 
 
 "I don t think much of luck. Get around it." 
 
 "I ll do my best, I promise you. But I wish 
 you d tell me 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 why you should think I had done her any 
 harm. Heaven knows I wouldn t do that for my 
 right arm!" 
 
 "She didn t make a sign not one of any in 
 jury, I assure you. She s a gallant little person, if 
 ever there was one and a thoroughbred, though 
 she may be as poor as a church mouse. No, I 
 should never have guessed it. She went away with 
 all sails set and the flags flying. All I know is what 
 my wife says." 
 
 "Please tell me." 
 
 "I m not sure it will be good for you." Burns 
 smiled as he drew up beside a house. "However 
 if you will have it she says Miss Anne Linton took 
 away with her every one of your numerous letters, 
 notes, and even calling cards which had been sent 
 with flowers. She also took a halftone snapshot 
 of you out at the Coldtown dam, cut from a news-
 
 144 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 paper, published the Sunday after your accident. 
 The sun was in your eyes and you were scowling 
 like a fiend; it was the worst picture of you con 
 ceivable." 
 
 "Girls do those things, I suppose," murmured 
 King with a rising colour. 
 
 "Granted. And now and then one does it for a 
 purpose which we won t consider. But a girl of the 
 type we feel sure Miss Linton to be carefully de 
 stroys all such things from men she doesn t care for 
 particularly if she has started on a trip and is 
 travelling light. Of course she may have fooled us 
 all and be the cleverest little adventuress ever 
 heard of. But I d stake a good deal on Ellen s 
 judgment. Women don t fool women much, you 
 know, whatever they do with men." 
 
 He disappeared into a small brown house, and 
 King was left once more with his own thoughts. 
 When Burns came out they drove on again with 
 little attempt at conversation, for Burns s calls were 
 not far apart. King presently began to find himself 
 growing weary, and sat very quietly in his seat dur 
 ing the Doctor s absences, experiencing, as he had 
 done many times of late, a sense of intense con 
 tempt for himself because of his own physical 
 weakness. In all his sturdy life he had never known 
 what it was to feel not up to doing whatever there 
 might be to be done. Fatigue he had known, the
 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 145 
 
 healthy and not unpleasant fatigue which follows 
 vigorous and prolonged labour, but never weakness 
 or pain, either of body or of mind. Now he was 
 suffering both. 
 
 "Had about enough?" Burns inquired as he re 
 turned to the car for the eighth time. "Shall I take 
 you home?" 
 
 "I m all right." 
 
 Burns gave him a sharp glance. "To be sure you 
 are. But we ll go home nevertheless. The rest of 
 my work is at the hospital anyhow." 
 
 As they were approaching the long stretch of 
 straight road to which King had looked forward an 
 hour ago, but which he was disgusted to find him 
 self actually rather dreading now, a great closed car 
 of luxurious type, and bearing upon its top con 
 siderable travelling luggage, slowed down as it 
 neared, and a liveried chauffeur held up a detaining 
 hand. Burns stopped to answer a series of ques 
 tions as to the best route toward a neighbouring 
 city. There were matters of road mending and 
 detours to be made plain to the inquirers, so the 
 detention occupied a full five minutes, during which 
 the chauffeur got down and came to Burns s side 
 with a road map, with which the two wrestled after 
 the fashion usually made necessary by such aids to 
 travel. 
 
 During this period Jordan King underwent a dis-
 
 I 4 6 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 turbing experience. Looking up with his usual keen 
 glance, one trained to observe whatever might be 
 before it, he took in at a sweep the nature of the 
 party in the big car. That it was a rich man s 
 car, and that its occupants were those who natu 
 rally belonged in it, there was no question. From 
 the owner himself, an aristocrat who looked the 
 part, as not all aristocrats do, to those who were 
 presumably his wife, his son, and daughters, all 
 were of the same type. Simply dressed as if for a 
 long journey, they yet diffused that aroma of lux 
 ury which cannot be concealed. 
 
 The presumable son, a tall, hawk-nosed young 
 man who sat beside the chauffeur, turned to speak 
 to those inside, and King s glance followed his. He 
 thus caught sight of a profile next the open window 
 and close by him. He stared at it, his heart sud 
 denly standing still. Who was this girl with the 
 bronze-red hair, the perfect outline of nose and 
 mouth and chin, the sea-shell colouring? Even as 
 he stared she turned her head, and her eyes looked 
 straight into his. 
 
 He had seen Miss Anne Linton only twice, and 
 on the two occasions she had seemed to him like 
 two entirely different girls. But this girl was she 
 not that one who had come to visit him in his room 
 at the hospital, full of returning health and there 
 fore of waxing beauty and vigour ?
 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 147 
 
 For one instant he was sure it was she, no matter 
 how strange it was that she should be here, in this 
 
 rich man s car unless But he had no time to 
 
 think it out before he was overwhelmed by the in 
 dubitable evidence that, whoever this girl was, she 
 did not know him. Her eyes apparently the same 
 wonderful eyes which he could now never forget 
 looked into his without a sign of recognition, and 
 her colour the colour of radiantly blooming youth 
 did not change perceptibly under his gaze. And 
 after that one glance, in which she seemed to sur 
 vey him closely, after the manner of girls, as if he 
 were an interesting specimen, her eyes travelled to 
 Red Pepper Burns and rested lightly on him, as if 
 he, too, were a person of but passing significance to 
 the motor traveller looking for diversion after many 
 dusty miles of more or less monotonous sights. 
 
 King continued to gaze at her with a steadiness 
 somewhat indefensible except as one considers that 
 all motorists, meeting on the highway, are accus 
 tomed to take note of one another as comrades of 
 the road. He was not conscious that the other 
 young people in the car also regarded him with 
 eyes of interest, and if he had he would not have 
 realized just why. His handsome, alert face, its 
 outlines slightly sharpened by his late experiences, 
 his well-dressed, stalwart figure, carried no hint of 
 the odious plaster jacket which to his own think-
 
 i 4 8 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 ing put him outside the pale of interest for any 
 one. 
 
 But it could not be Anne Linton; of course it 
 could not! What should a poor little book agent 
 be doing here in a rich man s car unless she were 
 in his employ? And somehow the fact that this 
 girl was not in any man s employ was established 
 by the manner in which the young man on the 
 front seat spoke to her, as he now did, plainly heard 
 by King. Though all he said was some laughing, 
 more or less witty thing about this being the 
 nineteenth time, by actual count since breakfast, 
 that a question of roads and routes had arisen, he 
 spoke as to an equal in social status, and also 
 this was plainer yet as to one on whom he had a 
 more than ordinary claim. And King listened for 
 her answer surely he would know her voice if she 
 spoke? One may distrust the evidence of one s 
 eyes when it comes to a matter of identity, but 
 one s ears are not to be deceived. 
 
 But King s ears, stretched though they might be, 
 metaphorically speaking, like those of a mule, tc 
 catch the sound of that voice, caught nothing. She 
 replied to the young man on the front seat only by 
 a nod and a smile. Then, as the chauffeur began 
 to fold up his road map, thanking Burns for his 
 careful directions, and both cars were on the point 
 of starting, the object of King s heart-arresting
 
 EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 149 
 
 scrutiny looked at him once again. Her straight 
 gaze, out of such eyes as he had never seen but on 
 those two occasions, met his without flinching 
 a long, steady, level look, which lasted until, under 
 Burns s impatient hand, the smaller car got under 
 motion and began to move. Even then, though she 
 had to turn her head a little, she let him hold her gaze 
 as, of course, he was nothing loath to do, being 
 intensely and increasingly stirred by the encounter 
 with its baffling hint of mystery. Indeed, she let 
 him hold that gaze until it was not possible for her 
 longer to maintain her share of the exchange with 
 out twisting about in the car. As for King, he did 
 not scruple to twist, as far as his back would let 
 him, until he had lost those eyes from his view.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 JORDAN IS A MAN 
 
 WHEN King turned back again to face the 
 front his heart was thumping prodig 
 iously. Almost he was certain it had 
 been Anne Linton; yet the explanation if there 
 were one was not to be imagined. And if it had 
 been Anne Linton, why should she have refused 
 to know him? There could have been little diffi 
 culty for her in identifying him, even though she 
 had seen him last lying flat on his back on a hos 
 pital bed. And if there had been a chance of her 
 not knowing him there was Red Pepper. 
 
 It was Anne. It could not be Anne. Between 
 these two convictions King s head was whirling. 
 Whoever it was, she had dared to look straight into 
 his eyes in broad daylight at a distance of not more 
 than four feet. He had seen into the very depths 
 of her own bewildering beauty, and the encounter, 
 always supposing her to be the person of whom he 
 had thought continuously for four months, was a 
 thing to keep him thinking about her whether he 
 would or no. 
 
 JJO
 
 JORDAN IS A MAN 151 
 
 "Anything wrong ?" asked Burns s voice in its cool 
 est tones. "I suspect I was something of an idiot 
 to give you such a big dose of this at the first trial. * 
 
 "I m all right, thank you." And King sat up 
 very straight in the car to prove it. Nevertheless, 
 when he was at home again he was not sorry to be 
 peremptorily ordered to lie supine on his back for 
 at least three hours. 
 
 It was not long after this that King was able to 
 bring about the thing he most desired a talk with 
 Mrs. Burns. She came to see him one July day, at 
 his request, at an hour when he knew his mother 
 must be away. With her he went straight to his 
 point; the moment the first greetings were over and 
 he had been congratulated on his ability to spend 
 a few hours ~ach day at his desk, he began upon 
 the subject uppermost in his thoughts. He told 
 her the story of his encounter with the girl in the 
 car, and asked her if she thought it could have been 
 Miss Linton. 
 
 She looked at him musingly. "Do you prefer to 
 think it was or was not?" she asked. 
 
 "Are you going to answer accordingly?" 
 
 "Not at all. I was wondering which I wanted to 
 think myself. I wish I had been with you. I should 
 have known." 
 
 "Would you?" King spoke eageriv. "Would 
 vou mind telling me how ? "
 
 152 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "I can t tell you how. Of course I came to know 
 her looks much better than you; it really isn t 
 strange that after seeing her only twice you 
 couldn t be sure. I don t think any change of dress 
 or environment could have hidden her from me. 
 The question is, of course, why if it was she she 
 should have chosen not to seem to know you 
 unless 
 
 "Yes " 
 
 She looked straight at him. "Unless she is not 
 the poor girl she seemed to be. And that explana 
 tion doesn t appeal to me. I have known of poor 
 girls pretending to be rich, but I have never, out 
 side of a sensational novel, known a rich girl to 
 pretend to be poor, unless for a visit to a poor 
 quarter for charitable purposes. What possible ob 
 ject could there be in a girl s going about selling 
 books unless she needed to do it? And she allowed 
 
 me " She stopped, shaking her head. "No, 
 
 Jordan, that was not our little friend or if it was, 
 she was in that car by some curious chance, not be 
 cause she belonged there." 
 
 "So you re going on trusting her?" was King s 
 abstract of these reflections. He scanned her 
 closely. 
 
 She nodded. "Until I have stronger proof to the 
 contrary than your looking into a pair of beautiful 
 eyes. Have you never observed, my friend, how
 
 JORDAN IS A MAN 153 
 
 many pairs of beautiful eyes there are in the 
 world?" 
 
 He shook his head. "I haven t bothered much 
 about them, except now and then for a bit of non 
 sense making." 
 
 "But this pair you, too, are going to go on 
 trusting?" 
 
 "I am. If that girl was Miss Linton she had a 
 reason for not speaking. If it wasn t" he drew a 
 deep breath "well, I don t know exactly how to 
 explain that!" 
 
 "I do," said Ellen Burns, smiling. "She thought 
 she would never see you again, and she yielded to a 
 girlish desire to look hard at a real man." 
 
 It was this speech which, in spite of himself, lin 
 gered in King s mind after she was gone, for the 
 balm there was in it a balm she had perfectly 
 understood and meant to put there. Well she 
 guessed what his disablement meant to him in 
 spite of the hope of complete recovery how little 
 he seemed to himself like the man he was before. 
 
 Certainly it was nothing short of real manhood 
 which prompted the talk he had with his mother 
 one day not long after this. She brought him a 
 letter, and she was scrutinizing it closely as she 
 came toward him. He was fathoms deep in his 
 work and did not observe her until she spoke. 
 
 "Whom can you possibly have as a correspond-
 
 154 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 ent in this town, my son?" she inquired, her eyes 
 upon the postmark, which was that of a small city 
 a hundred miles away. It was one in which lived 
 an old school friend of whom she had never spoken, 
 to her recollection, in King s hearing, for the rea 
 son that the family had since suffered deep disgrace 
 in the eyes of the world, and she had been inex 
 pressibly shocked thereby. ( 
 
 King looked up. He was always hoping for a 
 word from Anne Linton, and now, suddenly, it had 
 come, just a week after the encounter with the girl 
 in the car which had been going, as it happened, 
 in the opposite direction from the city of the post 
 mark. He recognized instantly the handwriting 
 upon the plain, white business envelope an inter 
 esting handwriting, clear and black, without a sin 
 gle feminine flourish. He took the letter in his hand 
 and studied it. 
 
 " It is from Miss Linton," he said, " and I am very 
 glad to hear from her. It is the first time she has 
 written since she went away over two months ago." 
 
 He spoke precisely as he would have spoken if 
 it had been a letter from any friend he had. It was 
 like him to do this, and the surer another man 
 would have been to try to conceal his interest in 
 the letter the surer was Jordan King to proclaim it. 
 The very fact that this announcement was certain 
 to rouse his mother s suspicion that the affair was
 
 JORDAN IS A MAN 155 
 
 }f moment to him was enough to make him tell her 
 frankly that she was quite right. 
 
 He laid the letter on the desk before him un 
 opened, and went on with his work. Mrs. King 
 stood still and looked at him a moment before mov 
 ing quietly away, and disturbance was written upon 
 her face. She knew her son s habit of finishing 
 one thing before he took up another, but she under 
 stood also that he wished to be alone when he should 
 read this letter. She left the room, but soon after 
 ward she softly passed the open door, and she saw 
 that the letter lay open before him and that his head 
 was bent over it. The words before him were these: 
 
 DEAR MR. KING: 
 
 I had not meant to write to you for much longer than 
 this, but I find myself so anxious to know how you are that 
 I am yielding to the temptation. I may as well confess that 
 I am just a little lonely to-night, in spite of having had a pretty 
 good day with the little book rather better than usual. 
 Sometimes I almost wish I hadn t spent that fortnight with 
 Mrs. Burns, I find myself missing her so. And yet, how can 
 one be sorry for any happy thing that comes to one? As I look 
 back on them now, though I am well and strong again, those 
 days of convalescence in the hospital stand out as among the 
 happiest in my life. The pleasant people, the flowers, the 
 notes, all the incidents of that time, not the least among them 
 Franz s music, stay in my memory like a series of pictures. 
 
 Do you care to tell me how you come on? If so you may 
 write to me, care of general delivery, in this town, at any time 
 for the next five days. I shall be so glad to hear. 
 
 ANNE LINTON.
 
 i S 6 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 King looked up as his mother approached. He 
 folded the letter and put it into his pocket. 
 
 "Mother," he said, "I may as well tell you some 
 thing. You won t approve of it, and that is why I 
 must tell you. From the hour I first saw Miss 
 Linton I ve been unable to forget her. I know, 
 by every sign, that she is all she seems to be. I 
 can t let her go out of my life without an effort to 
 keep her. I m going to keep her, if I can." 
 
 Two hours later R. P. Burns, M.D., was sum 
 moned to the bedside of Mrs. Alexander King. He 
 sat down beside the limp form, felt the pulse, laid 
 his hand upon the shaking shoulder of the prostrate 
 lady, who had gone down before her son s decision, 
 gentle though his manner with her had been. She 
 had argued, prayed, entreated, wept, but she had 
 not been able to shake his purpose. Now she was 
 reaping the consequences of her agitation. 
 
 "My son, my only boy," she moaned as Burns 
 asked her to tell him her trouble, "after all these 
 years of his being such a man, to change suddenly 
 into a willful boy again! It s inconceivable; it s 
 not possible! Doctor, you must tell him, you must 
 argue with him. He can t marry this girl, he can t! 
 Why, he doesn t even know the place she comes 
 from, to say nothing of who she is her family, her 
 position in life. She must be a common sort of crea 
 ture to follow him up so; you know she must. I
 
 JORDAN IS A MAN 157 
 
 can t have it; I will not have it! You must tell 
 him so!" 
 
 Burns considered. There was a curious light in 
 his eyes. "My dear lady," he said gently at length, 
 "Jordan is a man; you can t control him. He is a 
 mighty manly man, too as his frankly telling you 
 his intention proves. Most sons would have kept 
 their plans to themselves, and simply have brought 
 the mother home her new daughter some day with 
 out any warning. As for Miss Linton, I assure you 
 she is a lady as it seems to me you must have seen 
 for yourself." 
 
 " She is clever; she could act the part of a lady, no 
 doubt," moaned the one who possessed a clear title 
 to that form of address. " But she might be any 
 thing. Why didn t she tell you something of her 
 self? Jordan could not say that you knew the least 
 thing about her. People with fine family records 
 are not so mysterious. There is something wrong 
 about her I know it I know it! Oh, I can t have 
 it so; I can t! You must stop it, Doctor; you 
 must ! " 
 
 "She spent two weeks in our home," Burns said. 
 "During that time there was no test she did not 
 stand. Come, Mrs. King, you know that it doesn t 
 take long to discover the flaw in any metal. She 
 rang true at every touch. She s a girl of education, 
 vf refinement why, Ellen came to feel plenty oC
 
 i 5 8 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 real affection for her before she left us, and you 
 know that means a good deal. As for the mystery 
 about her, what s that? Most people talk too 
 much about their affairs. If, as we think, she has 
 been brought up in circumstances very different 
 from these we find her in, it isn t strange that she 
 doesn t want to tell us all about the change." 
 
 But his patient continued to moan, and he could 
 give her no consolation. For a time he sat quietly 
 beside the couch where lay the long and slender 
 form, and he was thinking things over. The room 
 was veiled in a half twilight, partly the effect of 
 closing day and partly that of drawn shades. The 
 deep and sobbing breaths continued until sud 
 denly Burns s hand was laid firmly upon the hand 
 which clutched a handkerchief wet with many 
 tears. He spoke now in a new tone, one she had 
 never before heard from him addressed to her 
 self: 
 
 "This, * he said, "isn t worthy of you, my 
 friend." 
 
 It was as if her breath were temporarily sus 
 pended while she listened. People were not accus 
 tomed to tell Mrs. Alexander King that her course 
 of action was unworthy of her. 
 
 "No man or woman has a right to dictate to 
 another what he shall do, provided the thing con 
 templated is not an offense against another. You
 
 JORDAN IS A MAN 159 
 
 have no right to set your will against your son s 
 when it is a matter of his life s happiness." 
 
 She seized on this last phrase. " But that s why 
 J do oppose him. I want him to be happy- 
 heaven knows I do! He can t be happy this 
 way." 
 
 "How do you know that? You don t know it. 
 You are just as likely to make him bitterly un 
 happy by opposing him as by letting him alone. 
 And I can tell you one thing surely, Mrs. King: 
 Jordan will do as he wishes in spite of you, and all 
 you will gain by opposition will be not a gain, but 
 a sacrifice of his love." 
 
 She shivered. "How can you think he will be so 
 selfish?" 
 
 Burns had some ado to keep his rising temper 
 down. "Selfish to marry the woman he wants 
 instead of the woman you want? That s an old, 
 old argument of selfish mothers." 
 
 The figure on the couch stiffened. "Doctor 
 Burns! How can you speak so, when all I ask for 
 is my son s best good?" The words ended in a 
 wail. 
 
 "You think you do, dear lady. What you 
 really want is your own way." 
 
 Suddenly she sat up, staring at him. His clear 
 gaze met her clouded one, his sane glance con 
 fronted her wild one. She lifted her shaking hand
 
 i6o RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 svith a gesture of dismissal. But there was a new 
 experience in store for Jordan King s mother. 
 
 Burns leaned forward, and took the delicate hand 
 of his hysterical patient in his own. 
 
 "No, no," he said, smiling, "you don t mean 
 that; you are not quite yourself. I am Jordan s 
 friend and yours. I have said harsh things to you; 
 it was the only way. I love your boy as I would a 
 younger brother, and I want you to keep him be 
 cause I can understand what the loss of him would 
 mean to you. But you must know that you can t 
 tie a man s heart to you with angry commands, nor 
 with tears and reproaches. You can tie it tight 
 by showing sympathy and understanding in this 
 crisis of his life. Believe me, I know." 
 
 His tone was very winning; his manner now 
 that he had said his say though firm, was gentle, 
 and he held her hand in a way that did much to 
 ward quieting her. Many patients in danger of 
 losing self-control had known the strengthening, 
 soothing touch of that strong hand. Red Pepper 
 was not accustomed to misuse this power of his, 
 which came very near being hypnotic, but neither 
 did he hesitate to use it when the occasion called 
 as loudly as did this one. 
 
 And presently Mrs. King was lying quietly on 
 her couch again, her eyes closed, the beating of her 
 agitated pulses slowly quieting. And Burns, bend-^
 
 JORDAN IS A MAN 161 
 
 ing close, was saying before he left her: "That s a 
 brave woman. Ladies are lovely things, but I re 
 spect women more. Only a mighty fine one could 
 be the mother of my friend Jord, and I knew she 
 would meet this issue like the Spartan she knows 
 how to be." 
 
 If, as he stole away downstairs leaving his pa 
 tient in the hands of a somewhat long-suffering 
 maid he was saying to himself things of a quite 
 different sort, let him not be blamed for insincer 
 ity. He had at the last used the one stimulant 
 against which most of us are powerless : the call to 
 be that which we believe another thinks us.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE 
 
 CJ, I ve something great to tell you," an 
 nounced Red Pepper Burns, one evening 
 in August, as he came out from his office 
 where he had been seeing a late patient, and joined 
 his wife, who was wandering about her garden in 
 the twilight. "To-day I ve had the compl ment of 
 my life. Whom do you think I m to operate on day 
 after to-morrow?" 
 
 She looked up at him as he stood, his hands in 
 his pockets, looking down at her. In her sheer 
 white frock, through which gleamed her neck and 
 arms, her hands full of pink and white snapdragon, 
 she was worth consideration. Her eyes searched 
 his face and found there a curious exultation of a 
 very human sort. "How could I guess ? Tell me." 
 
 "Who should you say was the very last man 
 on earth to do me the honour of trusting me in a 
 serious emergency?" 
 
 She turned away her head, gazing down at a fra 
 grant border of mignonette, while he watched her, 
 a smile on his lips. She looked up again. "I can t 
 
 162
 
 THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE 163 
 
 think, Red. It seems to me everybody trusts 
 you." 
 
 "Not by a long shot, or the rest of the profes 
 sion would stand idle. But there s one man who 
 I should have said, to use a time-honoured phrase, 
 wouldn t let me operate on a sick cat. And he s 
 the man who is going to put his life in my hands 
 Wednesday morning at ten o clock. Len, if I am 
 ever on my mettle to do a perfect job, it ll be 
 then!" 
 
 "Of course. But who " 
 
 "I should think the name would leap to your 
 lips. Who s mine ancient enemy, the man who has 
 fought me by politely sneering at me, and circum 
 venting me when he could, ever since I began 
 practice, and whom I ve fought back in my way? 
 Why, Len- 
 
 Her dark eyes grew wide. " Red ! Not Doctor 
 Van Horn?" 
 
 "Even so." 
 
 "Oh, Red! That is a compliment and more 
 than a compliment. But I should never have 
 thought of him somehow because, I suppose 
 
 "Because nobody ever thinks of a doctor s being 
 sick or needing an operation. But doctors do 
 sometimes and usually pretty badly, too, before 
 they will submit to it. Van Horn s in dreadful 
 shape, and has been keeping it dark until it s got
 
 164 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 the upper hand of him completely. Mighty plucky 
 the way he s been going on with his work, with 
 trouble gnawing at his vitals." 
 
 "How did he come to call you?" 
 
 "That s what I m wondering. But call me he 
 did, yesterday, and I ve seen him twice since. And 
 when I told him what had to be done he took it like 
 a soldier without wincing. But when he said he 
 wanted me to do the trick you could have knocked 
 me down with a lead pencil. My word, Len, I have 
 been doing Van an injustice all these years! The 
 real stuff is in him, after all, and plenty of it, 
 too." 
 
 "It is he who has done you the injustice," Ellen 
 said with a little lift of the head. 
 
 "I know I have given you reason to think so 
 the times I ve come home raving mad at some cut 
 of his. But, Len, that s all past and he wipes it out 
 by trusting me now. The biggest thing I ve had 
 against him was not his knifing me but his ap 
 parent toadying to the rich and influential. But 
 there s another side to that and I see it now. Some 
 people have to be coddled, and though it goes 
 against my grain to do it, I don t know why a man 
 who can be diplomatic and winning, like Van Horn, 
 hasn t his place just as much as a rough rider like 
 me. Anyhow, the thing now is to pull him through 
 bis operation, and if I can do it well, Van and I
 
 THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE 165 
 
 will be on a new basis, and a mighty comfortable 
 one it will be." 
 
 His voice was eager and his wife understood just 
 how his pulses were thrilling, as do those of the 
 born surgeon, at the approach of a great oppor 
 tunity. 
 
 "I m very, very glad, dear," Ellen said warmly. 
 "It s a real triumph of faith over jealousy, and I 
 don t wonder you are proud of such a commission. 
 I know you will bring him through." 
 
 " If I don t but that s not to be thought of. It s 
 a case that calls for extremely delicate surgery and 
 a sure hand, but the ground is plainly mapped out 
 and only some absolutely unforeseen complication is 
 to be dreaded. And when it comes to those com 
 plicationswell, Len, sometimes I think it must be 
 the good Lord who works a man s brain for him at 
 such crises, and makes it pretty nearly super 
 human. It s hard to account any other way, 
 sometimes, for the success of the quick decisions 
 you make under necessity that would take a lot of 
 time to work out if you had the time. Oh, it s a 
 great game, Len, no doubt of that when you win. 
 And when you lose" he stopped short, staring 
 into the shadows where a row of dark-leaved 
 laurel bushes shut away the garden in a soft 
 seclusion "well, that s another story, a heart 
 breaking story."
 
 166 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 He was silent for a minute, then, in another tone, 
 he spoke confidently: "But this isn t going to be 
 a story of that kind. Van Horn has a big place in 
 the city and he s going to keep it. And I m going 
 to spend the rest of this evening making a bit of a 
 tool I ve had in mind for some time that there s a 
 remote chance I shall need in this case. But if 
 that remote chance should come well, there s 
 nothing like a state of preparedness, as the military 
 men say." 
 
 "That s why you succeed, Red; you always are 
 prepared." 
 
 "Not always. And it s in the emergency you 
 can t foresee that heaven comes to the rescue. You 
 can t expect it to come to the rescue when you 
 might have foreseen. Trust the Lord and keep 
 your powder dry is a pretty good maxim for tbe 
 surgical firing line, too eh ? " 
 
 With his arm through his wife s he paced several 
 times up and down the flowery borders, then went 
 away into the small laboratory and machine shop 
 where he was accustomed to do much of the work 
 which showed only in its final results. Through the 
 rest of the hot August evening, his attire stripped 
 to the lowest terms compatible with possible un 
 expected visitors, he laboured with all the en 
 thusiasm characteristic of him at tasks which to 
 another mind would have been drudgery indeed.
 
 THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE 167 
 
 To him, at about ten o clock, came his neigh 
 bour and friend, Arthur Chester. Standing with 
 arms on the sill outside of the lighted window, clad 
 in summer vestments of white and looking as cool 
 and fresh as the man inside looked hot and dirty, 
 Chester attempted to lure the worker forth. 
 
 "Win s serving a lot of cold, wet stuff on our 
 porch," he announced. "Ellen s there, and the 
 Macauleys, and Jord King has just driven up and 
 stopped for a minute. He s got Aleck with him 
 and he s pleased as Punch because he s rigged a 
 contrivance so that Aleck can drive himself with 
 one hand. What do you think of that?" 
 
 "Good work," replied Burns absently after a 
 minute, during which he tested a steel edge with an 
 experimental finger and shook his head at it. 
 
 "Did you expect Jord to keep Aleck, when 
 he s got to have another man besides for the things 
 Aleck can t do now?" 
 
 Burns nodded. "Expect anything of him." 
 
 "Put down that murderous-looking thing and 
 come along over. Ellen said you were here, and 
 Win sent word to you not to bother to change your 
 clothes." 
 
 "Thanks I won t." 
 
 "Won t bother or won t come?" 
 
 "Both." 
 
 Chester sighed. "Do vou know what you re-
 
 168 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 mind me of when you get in this holeof aworkshop; 
 A bull pup with his teeth in something, and only 
 growls issuing." 
 
 "Better keep away then." 
 
 "I suppose that s a hint a bull-pup hint." 
 
 Silence from inside, while the worker stirred 
 something boiling over a flame, poured a dark fluid 
 from one retort into another, dropped in a drop or 
 two of something from a small vial inflammatorily 
 labelled, and started an electric motor in a corner. 
 Chester could see the shine of perspiration on the 
 smooth brow below the coppery hair, and drops 
 standing like dew on the broad white chest from 
 which the open shirt was turned widely back. 
 
 "It must be about a hundred and fifty Fah 
 renheit in there," he commented. Burns grunted 
 an assent. "It s only eighty-four on our porch, 
 and growing cooler every minute. The things 
 we have to drink are just above thirty-two, right 
 off the ice." Chester s words were carefully 
 chosen. 
 
 "Dangerous extremes. But I wouldn t mind 
 having a pint or two of something cold. Go, bring 
 it to me." 
 
 "Well, I like that." 
 
 "So llI, I hope." 
 
 Chester laughed and strolled away. When he 
 returned he carried a b> ; crystal pitcher filled with
 
 THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE 169 
 
 a pleasantly frothing home-made amber brew in 
 which ice tinkled. With him came Jordan King. 
 Chester shoved aside the screen and pushed the 
 pitcher inside, accompanied by a glass which Wini 
 fred had insisted on sending. 
 
 Burns caught up the pitcher, drank thirstily, 
 drew his arm across his mouth and grinned through 
 the window, meeting Jordan King s smiling gaze in 
 return. 
 
 "Company manners don t go when your hands 
 are black, eh?" remarked the man inside. 
 
 "Mechanics and surgeons seem a good deal alike 
 at times," was the laughing reply. 
 
 "Can t tell em apart. Your lily-handed sur 
 geon is an anomaly. I hear Aleck came out under 
 his own steam to-night. How does it go?" 
 
 " First rate. It was great fun. He s like a boiling 
 kettle full of steam, with the lid off just in time." 
 
 "Good. Be on your guard when he s driving, 
 though, for a while. Don t let him stay at the 
 wheel down Devil s Hill just yet." 
 
 "Why not? He has absolute control the way 
 I ve fixed it. You see the spark and gas are right 
 where 
 
 "I don t want you to take one chance in a mil 
 lion on that back of yours yet. See ? Or do I have 
 to drive that order in and spike it down?" 
 
 "He seems to have a lot of conversation in him
 
 i 7 o RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 for you," observed Chester to King as the two 
 outside laughed at this explosion from within. 
 
 "Such as it is/ replied King with an audacious 
 wink. "I thought I d got about through taking 
 orders." 
 
 "I ll give you both two minutes to clear out," 
 came from inside the window as Burns caught up a 
 piece of steel and began narrowly to examine it. 
 Over it he looked at Jordan King, and the two ex 
 changed a glance which spoke of complete under 
 standing. "Come again, boy," Burns said with a 
 sudden flashing smile at his friend. 
 
 "I will day after to-morrow in the afternoon,** 
 King returned, and his eyes held Burns s. 
 
 "What? Do you know?" 
 
 King nodded, with a look of pride. "You bet 
 I do." 
 
 "Who told you?" 
 
 "Himself." 
 
 "Didn t know you knew him well enough for 
 that." 
 
 "Oh, yes, through mother; they re old friends. 
 She sent me to see him for her." 
 
 "I see. Well, wish me luck!" 
 
 "I wish you your own skill at its highest 
 power," said Jordan King fervently. 
 
 "Thanks, youngster," was Burns s answer, and 
 this time there was no smile on the face which lie
 
 THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE 171 
 
 lifted again for an instant from above the tiny piece 
 of steel which held in it such potentialities in his 
 hands. 
 
 "You seem to have got farther in under his skin 
 than the rest of us," observed Chester to King as 
 they walked slowly away. There was a touch of 
 unconscious jealousy in his tone. He had known 
 R. P. Burns a long while before Jordan King had 
 reached man s estate. "I never knew him to say a 
 word about a coming operation before." 
 
 "He didn t say it now; I happened to know. 
 Come out and see the rigging we ve put on the 
 car so Aleck can work everything with one hand 
 and two feet." 
 
 "And a few brains, I should say," Chester sup 
 plemented. 
 
 IThough Burns had plenty of other work to keep 
 him busy during the interval before he should lay 
 hands upon Doctor Van Horn, his mind was seldom 
 off his coming task. In spite of all that Ellen 
 knew of the past antagonism between the two men 
 she was in possession of but comparatively few of 
 the facts. Except where his fiery temper had en 
 tirely overcome him Burns had been silent con 
 cerning the many causes he had had to dislike and 
 distrust the older man. 
 
 As what is called "a fashionable physician,"
 
 172 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 having for his patients few outside of the wealthy 
 class, Dr. James Van Horn had occupied a field of 
 practice entirely different from that of R. P. Burns. 
 Though Burns numbered on his list many of the 
 city s best known and most prosperous citizens, he 
 held them by virtue of a manner of address and a 
 system of treatment differing in no wise from that 
 which he employed upon the poorest and humblest 
 who came to him. If people liked him it was 
 for no blandishments of his, only for his sturdy 
 manliness, his absolute honesty, and a certain not 
 unattractive bluntness of speech whose humour 
 often atoned for its thrust. 
 
 As for his skill, there was no question that it 
 ranked higher than that of his special rival. As for 
 his success, it had steadily increased. And, as all 
 who knew him could testify, when it came to that 
 "last ditch" in which lay a human being fighting 
 for his life, Burns s reputation for standing by, 
 sleeves rolled up and body stiff with resistance of 
 the threatening evil, was such that there was no 
 man to compete with him. 
 
 It was inevitable that in a city of the moderate 
 size of that in which these two men practised there 
 should arise situations which sometimes brought 
 about a clash between them. The patient of one, 
 having arrived at serious straits, often called for a 
 consultation with the other. The very professional
 
 THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE 173 
 
 bearing and methods of the two were so different, 
 strive though they might to adapt themselves to 
 each other at least in the presence of the patient, 
 that trouble usually began at once, veiled though it 
 might be under the stringencies of professional 
 etiquette. Later, when it came to matters of life 
 and death, these men were sure to disagree radi 
 cally. Van Horn, dignified of presence, polished of 
 speech, was apt to impress the patient s family 
 with his wisdom, his restraint, his modestly assured 
 sense of the fitness of his own methods to the needs 
 of the case; while Burns, burning with indignation 
 over some breach of faith occasioned by his senior s 
 orders in his absence, or other indignity, flaming 
 still more hotly over being forced into a course 
 which he believed to be against the patient s in 
 terest, was likely to blurt out some rough speech at 
 a moment when silence, as far as his own interests 
 were concerned, would have been more discreet 
 and then would come rupture. 
 
 Usually those most concerned never guessed at 
 the hidden fires, because even Burns, under bonds 
 to his wife to restrain himself at moments of 
 danger, was nearly always able to get away from 
 such scenes without open outbreak. But more than 
 once a situation had developed which could be 
 handled only by the withdrawal of one or the other 
 physician from the case and then, whether he
 
 174 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 went or stayed, Burns could seldom win through 
 without showing what he felt. 
 
 Now, however, he was feeling as he had never 
 dreamed he could feel toward James Van Horn. 
 The way in which the man was facing the present 
 crisis in his life called for Burns s honest and un 
 grudging admiration. With that same cool and un- 
 flurried bearing with which Van Horn was accus 
 tomed to hold his own in a consultation was he now 
 awaiting the uncertain issue of his determination to 
 end, in one way or the other, the disability under 
 which he was suffering.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE ONLY SAFE PLACE 
 
 WHEN Red Pepper Burns visited James 
 Van Horn, at the hospital, on the even 
 ing before the operation, he found him 
 lying quietly in bed, ready for the night and the 
 morning. He looked up and smiled the same 
 slightly frosty smile Burns knew so well, but which 
 he now interpreted differently. As he sat down 
 by the bedside the younger man s heart was un 
 believably warm. 
 
 He looked straight, with his powerful hazel eyes 
 slightly veiled by a contraction of the eyelids, into 
 the steady gray eyes of his patient his patient 
 he could not believe it yet. He laid exploring 
 fingers upon the pulse of the hand he had just 
 grasped. 
 
 "If they were all like you," he said gently, "we 
 should have better chances for doing our best. 
 How do you manage it, Doctor?" 
 
 "Temperament, I suppose," returned the other 
 lightly. "Or" and now he spoke less lightly 
 "belief or lack of it. If we get through very 
 
 1 75
 
 176 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 well; I shall go on with my work. If we don t get 
 through that ends it. I have no belief in any 
 hereafter, as you may know. A few years more or 
 less what does it matter?" 
 
 Burns studied the finely chiselled face in silence 
 for a minute, then he spoke slowly: "It matters 
 this much to me. If by a chance, a slip, a lack of 
 skill, I should put an end to a life which would never 
 live again, I could not bear it." 
 
 Van Horn smiled and somehow the smile was 
 not frosty at all. "I am trusting you. Your hand 
 won t slip; there will be no lack of skill. If you 
 don t pull me through, it will be because destiny 
 is too much for us. To be honest, I don t care 
 how it comes out. And yet, that s not quite true 
 either. I do care; only I want to be entirely well 
 again. I can t go on as I have gone." 
 
 "You shall not. We re going to win; I m con 
 fident of it. Only Doctor, if the unforeseen 
 
 should happen I don t want you to go out of this 
 life believing there s no other. Listen." He 
 pulled out a notebook and searching, found a 
 small newspaper clipping. "A big New York 
 paper the other day printed this headline: Fell 
 Eight Stories to Death A smaller city paper 
 copied it with this ironical comment: Headlines 
 cannot be too complete. But what a great story it 
 would have been if he had fallen eight stories to life! 9
 
 THE ONLY SAFE PLACE 177 
 
 And then one of the biggest and most influential 
 and respected newspapers in the world copied both 
 headlines and comment and gave the whole thing 
 a fresh title: Falls to Life Immortal. Doctor 
 you can t afford to lie to-night where you do and 
 take chances on that last thing s not being true. 
 The greatest minds the world knows believe it is 
 true." 
 
 A silence fell. Then Van Horn spoke: "Burns, 
 do you think it s wise to turn a patient s thoughts 
 into this channel on the eve of a crisis?" 
 
 Burns regarded him closely. "Can you tell me, 
 Doctor," he asked, "that your thoughts weren t 
 already in that channel?" 
 
 "Suppose they were. And suppose I even ad 
 mitted the possibility that you were right which, 
 mind you, I don t what use is it to argue the 
 question at this late hour?" 
 
 "Because the hour is not too late. If you want 
 to sleep quietly to-night and wake fit for what s 
 coming, put yourself in the hands of the Maker of 
 heaven and earth before you sleep. Then, whether 
 there s a hereafter or not won t matter for you; 
 you ll leave that to Him. But you ll be in 
 His hands and that s the only place it s safe 
 to be." 
 
 "Suppose I told you I didn t believe in any such 
 Being."
 
 178 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "I should tell you you knew better and knew it 
 with every fibre of you." 
 
 The two pairs of eyes steadily regarded each 
 other. In Burns s flamed sincerity and conviction. 
 In Van Horn s grew a curious sort of suffering. He 
 moved restlessly on his pillow. 
 
 "If I had known you were a fanatic as well as a 
 fighter I might have hesitated to call you, even 
 though I believe in you as a surgeon," he said 
 somewhat huskily. 
 
 "It s surgery you re getting from me to-night, 
 but I cut to cure. A mind at rest will help you 
 through to-morrow." 
 
 "Why should you think my mind isn t at rest? 
 You commended me for my quiet mind when you 
 came in." 
 
 "For your cool control. But your unhappy 
 spirit looked out of your eyes at me, and I ve 
 spoken to that. I couldn t keep silence. Forgive 
 me, Doctor; I m a blunt fellow, as you have reason 
 to know. I haven t liked you, and you haven t 
 liked me. We ve fought each other all along the 
 line. But your calling me now has touched me 
 very much, and I find myself caring tremendously 
 to give you the best I have. And not only the best 
 my hands have to give you, but the best of my 
 brain and heart. And that belief in the Almighty 
 and His power to rule this world and other
 
 THE ONLY SAFE PLACE 179 
 
 worlds is the best I have. I d like to give it to 
 you." 
 
 He rose, his big figure towering like a mountain 
 of strength above the slender form in the bed. 
 
 Van Horn stretched up his hand to say good 
 night. "I know you thought it right to say this to 
 me, Burns," he said, "and I have reason to know 
 that when you think a thing is right you don t 
 hesitate to do it. I like your frankness betterthan 
 I seem to. I trust you none the less for this talk; 
 perhaps more. Do your best by me in the morn- 
 .ing, and whatever happens, your conscience will be 
 free." 
 
 Burns s two sinewy hands clasped the thin but 
 still firm one of Van Horn. "As I said just now, 
 I ve never wanted more to do my best than for 
 you," came very gently from his lips. "And I can 
 tell you for your comfort that the more anxious I 
 am to do good work the surer I am to do it. I don t 
 know why it should be so; I ve heard plenty of men 
 say it worked just the other way with them. Yes, 
 I do know why. I think I ll tell you the explana 
 tion. The more anxious I am the harder I pray to 
 my God to make me fit. And when I go from my 
 knees to the operating-room I feel armed to the 
 teeth." 
 
 He smiled, a brilliant, heart-warming smile, and 
 suddenly he looked, to the man on the bed who
 
 i8o RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 gazed at him, more like a conqueror than any on* 
 he had ever seen. And all at once James Van 
 Horn understood why, with all his faults of temper 
 and speech, his patients loved and clung to Red 
 Pepper Burns; and why he, Van Horn himself, had 
 not been able to defeat Burns as a rival. There 
 was something about the man which spoke of 
 power, and at this moment it seemed clear, even to 
 the skeptic, that it was not wholly human power. 
 
 Burns bent over the bed. "Good-night, Doctor," 
 he said softly, almost as he might have spoken to a 
 child. Then, quite as he might have spoken to a 
 child, he added: "Say a bit of a prayer before you 
 go to sleep. It won t hurt you, and who knowr v 
 even unbelieving, you may get an answer." 
 
 Van Horn smiled up at him wanly. "Good 
 night, Doctor," he replied. "Thank you for com- 
 ing in whether I sleep the better or the worse for 
 it." 
 
 If there were anything of the fanatic about Red- 
 field Pepper Burns and the term was one which 
 no human being but Van Horn had ever applied to 
 him it was the fighting, not the fasting, side of his 
 character which showed uppermost at ten next 
 morning. He came out of his hospital dressing- 
 room with that look of dogged determination 
 written upon brow and mouth which his associates
 
 THE ONLY SAFE PLACE 181 
 
 knew well, and they had never seen it written 
 larger. From Doctor Duller, who usually gave the 
 anesthetics in Burns s cases, and from Miss 
 Mathewson, who almost invariably worked upon 
 the opposite side of the operating table, to the 
 newest nurse whose only mission was to be at hand 
 for observation, the staff more or less acutely sensed 
 the situation. Not one of those who had been 
 for any length of time in the service but under 
 stood that it was an unusual situation. 
 
 That James Van Horn and R. P. Burns had long 
 been conscious or unconscious rivals was known to 
 everybody. Van Horn was not popular with the 
 hospital staff, while Burns might have ordered 
 them all to almost any deed of valour and have 
 been loyally obeyed. But Van Horn s standing 
 in the city was well understood; he was admired 
 and respected as the most imposing and influential 
 figure in the medical profession there represented. 
 He held many posts of distinction, not only in the 
 city, but in the state, and his name at the head of 
 an article in any professional magazine carried 
 weight and authority. And that he should have 
 chosen Burns, rather than have sent abroad for 
 any more famous surgeon, was to be considered an 
 extraordinary honour indicative of a confidence not 
 to have been expected. 
 
 Altogether, there was more than ordinary tension
 
 182 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 observable in the operating-room just before the 
 appointed hour. A number of the city s surgeons 
 were present Grayson, Fields, Lenhart, Steven 
 son men accustomed to see Burns at work and to 
 recognize his ability as unccmmon. Not that they 
 often admitted this to themselves or to one another, 
 but the fact remains that they understood pre 
 cisely why Van Horn, if he chose a local man at all 
 which of itself had surprised them very much 
 had selected Burns. Not one of them, no matter 
 how personally he felt antagonistic to this most 
 constantly employed member of the profession, but 
 would have felt safer in his hands in such a crisis 
 than in those of any of his associates. 
 
 Burns held a brief conference with Miss Mathew- 
 jon, who having been with him in his office and his 
 operative work for the entire twelve years of his 
 practice, was herself all but a surgeon and suited 
 him better than any man, with her deft fingers 
 and sure response to his slightest indication of in 
 tention. The others found themselves watching 
 the two as they came forward, cool, steady, ready 
 for the perfect team work they had so long played. 
 If both hearts were beating a degree faster than 
 usual there was nothing to show it. Nobody knew 
 what had passed between the two. If they had 
 known they might have understood why they 
 worked so perfectly together.
 
 THE ONLY SAFE PLACE 183 
 
 "You re going to give me your best to-day, Amy, 
 eh?" 
 
 "You know that, Doctor Burns." 
 
 "Of course I know it. But I want a little better 
 than your best. This is one of the cases where 
 every second is going to count. We have to make 
 all the speed that s in us without a slip. I can trust 
 you. I didn t tell you before because I didn t want 
 you thinking about it. But I tell you now be 
 cause I ve got to have the speed. All right; that s 
 all." 
 
 He gave her one quick smile, then his face was 
 set and stern again, as always at this moment, for 
 it was the moment when he caught sight of his 
 patient, quietly asleep, being brought to him. And 
 it was the moment when one swift echo of the 
 prayer he had already made upon his knees leaped 
 through his mind to be gone again as lightning 
 flashes through a midnight sky. After that there 
 was to be no more prayer, only action. 
 
 The watching surgeons unconsciously held their 
 breath as the operation began. For the patient on 
 the table was James Van Horn, and the man who 
 had taken Van Horn s life into his hands was not a 
 great surgeon from New York or Boston, as was to 
 have been anticipated, but their everyday colleague
 
 i84 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Burns. And at that moment not one of them 
 envied him his chance. 
 
 Ellen had seldom waited more anxiously for 
 the word her husband always sent her at such 
 times. He fully recognized that the silent partner 
 in crises like these suffered a very real and trying 
 suspense, the greater that there was nothing she 
 could do for him except to send him to his work 
 heartened by the thought of her and of her belief 
 in him. 
 
 It was longer than usual, on this more than ordi 
 narily fateful morning, before Ellen received the 
 first word from the hospital. When it came it wa? 
 from an attendant and it was not reassuring: 
 
 "Doctor Burns wishes me to tell you that the 
 patient has come through the operation, but is 
 in a critical condition. He will not leave him at 
 present." 
 
 This meant more hours of waiting, during which 
 Ellen could set her mind and hand to nothing which 
 was not purely mechanical. She was realizing to 
 the full that it was the unknown factor of which 
 Burns had often spoken, the unforeseen contin 
 gency, which might upset all the calculations and 
 efforts of science and skill. Well she knew that, 
 though her husband s reputation was an assured 
 one, it might suffer somewhat from the loss of this 
 prominent case. Ellen felt certain that this last
 
 THE ONLY SAFE PLACE 185 
 
 consideration was one to weigh little with Burns 
 himself compared with his personal and bitter re 
 gret over an unsuccessful effort to save a life. But 
 it seemed to her that she cared from every point 
 of view, and to her the time of waiting was espe 
 cially hard to bear. 
 
 There was one relief in the situation never had 
 she had her vigils shared as Jordan King was shar 
 ing this one. As the hours went by, both by mes 
 sages over the telephone and by more than one 
 hurried drive out to see Ellen in person, did he let 
 her know that his concern for Burns s victory was 
 only second to her own. 
 
 "He s got to save him!" was his declaration, 
 standing in her doorway, late in the evening, hat 
 in hand, bright dark eyes on Ellen s. "And the 
 way he s sticking by, I m confident he will. That 
 bull-dog grip of his we know so well would pull a 
 ton of lead out of a quicksand. He won t give up 
 while there s a breath stirring, and even if it stops 
 he ll start it again with his will!" 
 
 "You are a loyal friend." Ellen s smile re 
 warded him for this blindly assured speech, well 
 as she knew how shaky was the foundation on 
 which he might be standing. "But the last mes 
 sage he sent was only that no ground had been 
 lost." 
 
 "Well, that s a good deal after ten hours " He
 
 1 86 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 looked at his watch. "Keep a brave heart, Mrs. 
 Burns. I m going to the hospital now to see if I 
 can get just a glimpse of our man before we settle 
 down for the night. And I want to arrange with 
 Miss Dwight she was my nurse to let me know 
 any news at any hour in the night." 
 
 It was at three in the morning that King called 
 her to say with a ring of joy in his voice: "There s 
 a bit of a gain, Mrs. Burns. It looks brighter." 
 
 It was at eight, five hours later, that Burns him 
 self spoke to her. His voice betrayed tension in 
 spite of its steadiness. "We re holding hard, Len; 
 that s about all I can say." 
 
 "Dear are you getting any rest?" 
 
 "Don t want any; I m all right. I ll not be home 
 till we re out of this, you know. Good-bye, my 
 girl." And he was gone, back to the bedside. She 
 knew, without being told, that he had hardly left it. 
 
 Thirty-six hours had gone by, and Ellen and 
 Jordan King had had many messages from the 
 hospital before the one came which eased their 
 anxious minds: "Out of immediate danger." It 
 was almost another thirty-six before Burns came 
 home. 
 
 She had never seen him look more radiantly 
 happy, though the shadows under his eyes were 
 heavy, and there were lines of fatigue about his 
 mouth. Although she had been watching for him
 
 THE ONLY SAFE PLACE 187 
 
 he took her by surprise at last, coming upon her in 
 the early morning just as she was descending the 
 stairs. With both arms around her, as she stood on 
 the bottom stair, he looked into her eyes. 
 
 "The game s worth the candle, Len," he said. 
 
 "Even though you ve been burning the candle 
 at both ends, dear? Yes, I know it is. I m so glad 
 -so glad!" 
 
 "We re sworn friends, Van and I. Can you be 
 lieve it? Len, he s simply the finest ever." 
 
 She smiled at him. "I m sure you think 
 so; it s just what you would think, my generous 
 boy." 
 
 "I ll prove it to you by and by, when I ve had a 
 wink of sleep. A bath, breakfast, and two hours 
 of rest then I ll be in service again. Van s rest 
 ing comfortably, practically out of danger, and 
 Len, his eyes remind me of a sick child s who has 
 waked out of a delirium to find his mother by his 
 side." 
 
 "Is that the way his eyes look when they meet 
 yours?" 
 
 He nodded. "Of course. That s how I know." 
 
 "0 Red," she said softly "to think of the 
 eyes that look at you like that!" 
 
 "They don t all," he answered as the two went 
 up the stairs side by side. "But Van well, he s 
 been through the deep waters, and he s found a
 
 i88 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 footing on rock where he expected shifting sands. 
 Ah, there s my boy! Give him to me quick!" 
 
 The Little-Un, surging plumply out of the 
 nursery, tumbled into his father s arms, and sub 
 mitted, shouting with glee, to the sort of huggings, 
 kissings, and general inspection to which he was 
 happily accustomed when Burns came home after 
 a longer absence than usual. 
 
 Just before he went back to the hospital, re 
 freshed by an hour s longer sleep than he had 
 meant to take, because Ellen would not wake him 
 sooner, Burns opened the pile of mail which had 
 accumulated during his absence. He sat on the 
 arm of the blue couch, tossing the letters one by 
 one upon the table behind it, in two piles, one for 
 his personal consideration, the other for Miss 
 Mathewson s answering. Ellen, happily relaxing 
 in a corner of the couch, her eyes watching the 
 letter opening, saw her husband s eyes widen as he 
 stooped to pick up a small blue paper which had 
 fallen from the missive he had just slitted. As he 
 unfolded the blue slip and glanced at it, an aston 
 ished whistle leaped to his lips. 
 
 "Well, by the powers what s this?" he mur 
 mured. "A New York draft for a thousand dol 
 lars, inclosed in a letter which says nothing except 
 a typewritten * From one of the most grateful of all 
 grateful patients? Len, what do you think of that ?
 
 THE ONLY SAFE PLACE 189 
 
 Who on earth sent it? I haven t had a rich patient 
 who hasn t paid his bill, or who won t pay it in due 
 form when he gets around to it. And the poor ones 
 don t send checks of this size." 
 
 "I can t imagine," she said, studying the few 
 words on the otherwise blank sheet, and the post 
 mark on the typewritten envelope, which showed 
 the letter also to have come from New York. 
 "You haven t had a patient lately who was travel 
 ling a hotel case, or anything of that sort?" 
 
 He shook his head None that didn t pay be 
 fore he left and none that seemed particularly 
 grateful anyhow. Well, I must be off. The thou 
 sand s all right, wherever it came from, eh? Aivd 
 I want to get back to Van. I d put that draft 
 in the fire rather than go back to find the slightest 
 slip in his case. I think, if I should, I d lose my 
 nerve at last."
 
 CHAPTER XH 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 JORDAN KING, directing his car with neces 
 sary caution through the traffic of a small 
 but crowded city, two hundred miles from 
 home, suddenly threw out his clutch and jammed 
 his brakes into urgent use. Beside him Aleck, 
 flinging out a hasty arm to warn drivers pressing 
 closely behind, gazed at his employer in wonder. 
 There was absolutely nothing to stop them, and an 
 autocratic crossing policeman just ahead was im 
 patiently waving them forward. 
 
 But King, his eyes apparently following some 
 thing or some one in the throng, which had just 
 negotiated the crossing of the street at right angles 
 to his own direction, spoke hurriedly: "Turn to 
 the right here, Aleck, and wait for me at the first 
 spot clown that street where they ll let you stop." 
 
 He was out of the car and off at a dangerous 
 slant through the procession of moving vehicles, 
 dodging past great trucks and slipping by the 
 noses of touring cars and coupes with apparent 
 recklessness of consequences. 
 
 190
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 191 
 
 Aleck, sliding into the driver s seat and forced 
 to lose sight of King s tall figure because of the 
 urgency of the crowding mass behind, was moved 
 to curious speculation. As he turned the desig 
 nated corner, he was saying to himself with a 
 chuckle: "He always was quick on the trigger, but 
 I ll be darned if that wasn t about the hastiest 
 move I ever saw him make. What s he after, any 
 how, in this town where he just told me he didn t 
 know a soul ? Well, it s some wait for me, I ll bet." 
 
 If he could have seen his master as that young 
 man plunged along through the crowd Aleck would 
 have found plenty to interest him. King was doing 
 his best to pursue and catch up with a figure which 
 he now and again lost sight of in the throng, so 
 that he slowed his pace lest he go by it unawares. 
 The fear that he might thus miss and lose it 
 sharpened his gaze and gave to his face an intent 
 look, so that many people stared at him as he 
 passed them, wondering what the comely, dark- 
 eyed young man was after that he was rushing at 
 such a pace. 
 
 There came a moment when King paused, un 
 certain, his heart standing still with the certainty 
 that he was off the track and that his quarry had 
 unconsciously doubled and eluded him. An in 
 stant later he drew a quick breath of relief, his 
 gaze following a slender black figure as it mounted
 
 i 9 2 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 the steps of an old church which stood, dingy but 
 still dignified, close by the highway, its open doors 
 indicating that it had remained in this downtown 
 district for a purpose. King sprang up the steps, 
 then paused in the great doorway, beyond which 
 the darkness and quiet of an empty interior 
 silently invited passers-by to rest and reflect. At 
 that moment a deep organ note sounded far 
 away upon the stillness, and King took a step in 
 side, looking cautiously about him. The figure he 
 pursued had vanished, and after a moment more 
 he crossed the vestibule and stood, hat in hand, 
 gazing into the dim depths beyond. 
 
 For a little, coming as he had from the strong 
 light of the September afternoon, he could see ab 
 solutely nothing; but as his vision cleared he was 
 able to make out a small group of people far toward 
 the front of the spacious interior, and the form of 
 the organist himself before his manuals low at the 
 right of the choir. But he had to look for some 
 time before he could descry at the farthermost 
 side of the church a solitary head bent upon the 
 rail before it. Toward this point the young man 
 slowly made his way, his heart hammering a most 
 unwonted tattoo within his broad breast. 
 
 Several pews behind and to one side of the kneel 
 ing figure he took his place, his gaze fastened upon 
 it. He looked his fill, secure in his own position,
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 193 
 
 which was in the shadow of a great stone pillar, 
 where the dim light from the sombre-toned win 
 dows did not touch him. And, as he looked, the 
 conviction he had had since his first meeting with 
 this girl deepened and strengthened into resolution. 
 He would not lose her again, no matter what it 
 might cost to hold her. He would not believe a 
 man could be mistaken in that face, in that ex 
 quisite and arresting personality. There was not 
 such another in the whole wide world. 
 
 Suddenly she turned, and evidently she saw 
 that some one was near her, though he knew it 
 was not possible that she had recognized him. 
 She sat quite still for another five minutes, 
 then rose very quietly, gathering up the remem 
 bered black handbag, and moved like a young 
 nun into the aisle, head downbent. King slipped 
 out of his pew, made a quick circuit around the 
 pillar, and met her squarely as she came toward 
 him. 
 
 He stood still in her path, and she, looking par 
 tially up to pass him with that complete ignoring 
 of his presence which young women of breeding 
 employ when strangers threaten to take notice, 
 heard his low voice: "Please don t run away 
 from your friend!" 
 
 "Oh Mr. King!" Her eyes, startled, met his 
 indeed, and into her face, as she spoke his name,
 
 194 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 poured a flood of beautiful colour, at sight of which 
 King all but lost his head. 
 
 He managed, however, to retain sufficient san 
 ity to grasp her hand after the fashion approved 
 as the proper sign of cordiality in meeting a valued 
 acquaintance, and to say, in an outwardly re 
 strained manner: "Won t you sit down again 
 here? We can talk so much better than outside 
 and I must talk with you. You have no idea how 
 hard I have tried to find you." 
 
 She seemed to hesitate for an instant, but ended 
 by slipping into the pew by the pillar where King 
 had been sitting, and to which he pointed her, 
 as the most sheltered spot at hand, where the group 
 of people at the front of the church were hidden 
 from view, and only the now low and throbbing 
 notes of the organ could remind the pair that they 
 were not absolutely alone. 
 
 "This is wonderful for me," King began, in 
 the hushed tone befitting such a place and the 
 tone which suited his feelings as well. "I have 
 thought of you a million times in these months 
 and longed to know just how you were looking. 
 Now that I see for myself my mind is a bit easier 
 and yet I m somehow more anxious about you 
 than ever." 
 
 "There s no reason why you should be anxious 
 about me, Mr. King," she answered, her eves re-
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 195 
 
 leasing themselves from his in spite of his effort to 
 hold them. "I m doing very well, and quite en 
 joying my work. How about yourself? I hardly 
 need to ask." 
 
 "Oh, I m coming on finely, thank you. I ve 
 plunged into my work with all the zest I ever had. 
 Only one thing has bothered me: I seemed unable 
 to get out of the habit of watching the mails. And 
 they have been mighty disappointing." 
 
 "You surely couldn t expect," she said, smiling 
 a little, "that once you were well again you should 
 be pampered with frequent letters." 
 
 "I certainly haven t been pampered. One letter 
 in all this time 
 
 "Book agents haven t much time for writing 
 letters. And surely engineers must be busy 
 people." 
 
 He was silent for a minute, studying her. She 
 seemed, in spite of her youth and beauty, wonder 
 fully self-reliant. Again, as in the room at the hos 
 pital, her quiet poise of manner struck him. And 
 though she was once more dressed in the plainest 
 and least costly of attire as well as he could 
 judge he knew that he should be entirely willing 
 to take her anywhere where he was known, with 
 no mental apologies for her appearance. This 
 thought immediately put another into his mind, 
 on which he lost no time in acting.
 
 196 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "This is a great piece of luck," said he, and 
 went on hurriedly, trying to use diplomacy, which 
 always came hard with him: "I don t want it to 
 slip away too soon. Why couldn t we spend the 
 rest of the day together? I m just on my way back 
 home from a piece of work I ve been superintending 
 outside this city. I ve plenty of time ahead of me, 
 and I m sure the book business can t be so pressing 
 that you couldn t take a few hours off. If you ll 
 venture to trust yourself to me we ll go off into the 
 country somewhere, and have dinner at some 
 pleasant place. Then we can talk things over all 
 sorts of things," he added quickly, lest this seem 
 too pointed. "Won t you please?" 
 
 She considered an instant, then said frankly: 
 "Of course that would be delightful, and I can t 
 think of a real reason why I shouldn t do it. What 
 time is it, please?" 
 
 "Only three o clock. We ll have time for a 
 splendid drive and I ll promise to get you back at 
 any hour you say after dinner." 
 
 "It must be early." 
 
 "It shall be. Well, then will you wait in the 
 vestibule out here two minutes, please? I ll have 
 the car at the door." 
 
 Thus it happened that Aleck, four blocks away, 
 having just comfortably settled to the reading of 
 a popular magazine on mechanics, found himself
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 197 
 
 summarily ejected from his seat, and sent off upon 
 his own resources for a number of hours. 
 
 "Take care of yourself, Al, and have a good time 
 out of it if you can," urged his master, and Aleck 
 observed that King s eyes were very bright and 
 his manner indicative of some fresh mental stimu 
 lus received during the brief time of his absence. 
 "Have the best sort of a dinner wherever you 
 like." 
 
 "All right, Mr. King," Aleck responded. "I 
 hope you re going to have a good time yourself," 
 he added, " after all the work you ve done to-day. 
 T . was some anxious for fear you d do too much." 
 
 "No chance, Aleck, with Doctor Burns s orders 
 >hat they are. And I didn t do a thing but stand 
 around and talk with the men. I m feeling fit as a 
 fiddle now." And King drove off in haste. 
 
 Back at the church he watched with intense 
 satisfaction Miss Anne Linton s descent of the 
 dusty steps. The September sunshine was hazily 
 bright, the air was warmly caressing, and there 
 were several hours ahead containing such an op 
 portunity as he had not yet had to try at finding 
 out the things he had wanted to know. Not this 
 girl s circumstances though he should be inter 
 ested in that topic not any affairs of hers which 
 she should not choose to tell him; but the future 
 relationship between herself and him this was
 
 I 9 8 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 what he must establish upon some sort of a definite 
 basis, if it were possible. 
 
 Out through the crowded streets into the sub 
 urbs, on beyond these to the open country, the car 
 took its way with as much haste as was compatible 
 with necessary caution. Once on the open road, 
 however, and well away, King paid small attention 
 to covering distance. Indeed, when they had 
 reached a certain wooded district, picturesque 
 after the fashion of the semi-mountainous country 
 of that part of the state, he let his car idle after 
 a fashion most unaccustomed with him, who was 
 usually principally concerned with getting from 
 one place to another with the least possible waste of 
 time. 
 
 And now he and Anne Linton were talking as 
 they never had had the chance to talk before, and 
 they were exploring each other s minds with the 
 zest of those who have many tastes in common. 
 King was confirming that of which he had been 
 convinced by her letters, that she was thoroughly 
 educated, and that she had read and thought along 
 lines which had intensely interested him ever since 
 he had reached the thinking age. To his delight he 
 found that she could hold her own in an argument 
 with as close reasoning, as logical deduction, as 
 keen interpretation, as any young man he knew. 
 And with it all she showed a certain quality of ap-
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 199 
 
 preciation of his own side of the question which 
 especially pleased him, because it proved that she 
 possessed that most desirable power, rare among 
 those of her sex as he knew them the ability to 
 hold herself free from undue bias. 
 
 Yet she proved herself a very girl none the less 
 by suddenly crying out at sight of certain tall 
 masses of shell-pink flowers growing by the road 
 side in a shady nook, and by insisting on getting 
 out to pick them for herself. 
 
 "It s so much more fun," she asserted, "to 
 choose one s own than to watch a man picking all 
 the poorest blossoms and leaving the very best." 
 
 "Is that what we do?" King asked, his eyes 
 feasting upon the sight of her as she filled her arms 
 with the gay masses, her face eager with her pleas 
 ure in them. 
 
 "Yes, indeed. Or else you get out a jackknife 
 and hack off great handfuls of them at once, and 
 bring them back all bleeding from your ruthless 
 attack." 
 
 "I see. And you gather them delicately, so 
 they don t mind, I suppose. Yet I was given to 
 understand that Susquehanna died first. I ve 
 always wondered what you did to her. I d banked 
 on her as the huskiest of the lot." 
 
 She flashed a quick look at him, compounded of 
 surprise, mirth, and something else whose nature
 
 200 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 he could not guess. Susquehanna was certainly 
 a wonderful rose," she admitted. 
 
 "Yet only next morning she was sadly drooping. 
 I know, because I received a report of her. And 
 I lost my wager." 
 
 "You should have known better," she said de 
 murely, her head bent over her armful of flowers, 
 "than to make a wager on the life of a rose sent to 
 a girl who was just coming back to life herself." 
 
 "You weren t so gentle with Susquehanna, 
 then, I take it, as you are with those wild things 
 you have there." 
 
 "I was not gentle with her at all." Anne lifted 
 her head with a mischievously merry look. "If 
 you must know I kissed her hard!" 
 
 "Ah!" Jordan King sat back, laughing, with 
 suddenly rising colour. " I thought as much. But I 
 suppose I m to take it that you did it solely be 
 cause she was * Susquehanna not because " 
 
 "Certainly because she was her lovely self, cool 
 and sweet and a glorious colour, and she reminded 
 me of other roses I had known. Flowers to a 
 convalescent are only just a little less reviving 
 than food. Susquehanna cheered me on toward 
 victory." 
 
 "Then she died happy, I m sure." 
 
 He would have enjoyed keeping it up with non 
 sense of this pleasurable sort, but as soon as Anne
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 201 
 
 was back in the car she somehow turned him 
 aside upon quite different ground, just how he 
 could not tell. He found himself led on to talk 
 about his work, and he could not discover in her 
 questioning a trace of anything but genuine in 
 terest. No man, however modest about himself, 
 finds it altogether distressing to have to tell a 
 charming girl some of his more exciting expe 
 riences. In the days of his early apprenticeship 
 King had spent many months with a contracting 
 engineer of reputation, who was executing a not 
 able piece of work in a wild and even dangerous 
 country, and the young man s memory was full of 
 adventures connected with that period. In contrast 
 with his present work, which was of a much more 
 prosaic sort, it formed a chapter in his history to 
 which it stirred him even yet to turn back, and at 
 Anne s request he was soon launched upon it. 
 
 So the afternoon passed amidst the sights and 
 sounds of the September country. And now and 
 again they stopped to look at some fine view from a 
 commanding height, or flew gayly down some in 
 viting stretch of smooth road. By and by they 
 were at an old inn, well up on the top of the 
 world, which King had had in mind from the start, 
 and to which he had taken time, an hour before, to 
 telephone and order things he had hoped she would 
 like. When the two sat down at a table in a quiet
 
 202 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 corner there were flowers and shining silver upon a 
 snowy cloth, and the food which soon arrived was 
 deliciously cooked, sustaining the reputation the 
 place had among motorists. And in the very way 
 in which Anne Linton filled her position opposite 
 Jordan King was further proof that, in spite of all 
 evidence to the contrary, she belonged to his class. 
 
 Their table was lighted with shaded candles, and 
 in the soft glow Anne s face had become startlingly 
 lovely. She had tucked a handful of the shell-pink 
 wild flowers into the girdle of her black dress, 
 and their hue was reflected in her cheeks, glowing 
 from the afternoon s drive in the sun. As King 
 talked and laughed, his eyes seldom off her face, he 
 felt the enchantment of her presence grow upon him 
 with every minute that went by. 
 
 Suddenly he blurted out a question which had 
 been in his mind all day. "I had a curious ex 
 perience a while back," he said, "when I first got 
 out into the world. I was in Doctor Burns s car, and 
 we met some people in a limousine, touring. They 
 stopped to ask about the road;, and there was a girl 
 in the car who looked like you. But she didn t 
 recognize me by the slightest sign, so I knew of 
 course it couldn t be you." 
 
 He looked straight at Anne as he spoke, and 
 saw her lower her eyes for a moment with an 
 odd little smile on her lips. She did not long evade
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 203 
 
 his gaze, however, but gave him back his look 
 unflinchingly. 
 
 "It was I," she said. " But I m not going to tell 
 you how I came to be there, nor why I didn t bow 
 to you. All I want to say is that there was a reason 
 for it all, and if I could tell you, you would under 
 stand." 
 
 Well, he could not look into her face and not 
 trust her in whatever she might elect to do, and he 
 said something to that effect. Whereupon she 
 smiled and thanked him, and said she was sorry to 
 be so mysterious. He recalled with a fresh thrill 
 how she had looked at him at that strange meeting, 
 for now that he knew that it was surely she, the 
 great fact which stayed by him was that she had 
 given him that look to remember, given it to him 
 with intent, beyond a doubt. 
 
 They came out presently upon a long porch 
 overhanging the shore of a small lake. The Sep 
 tember sun was already low, and the light upon the 
 blue hills in the distance was turning slowly to a 
 dusky purple. The place was very quiet, for it was 
 growing late in the tourist season, and the inn was 
 remote from main highways of travel. 
 
 " Can t we stay here just a bit?" King asked 
 pleadingly. " It won t take us more than an hour to 
 get back if we go along at a fair pace. We came 
 by a roundabout way."
 
 204 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 With each hour that passed he was realizing 
 more fully how he dreaded the end of this unex 
 pected and absorbing adventure. So far none of 
 his attempts to pave the way for other meetings, in 
 other towns to which she might be going in the 
 course of her book selling, had resulted in anything 
 satisfactory. And even now Anne Linton was 
 shaking her head. 
 
 "I think I must ask you to take me back now, * 
 she said. "I want to come into the house where I 
 am staying not later than I usually do." 
 
 So he had to leave the pleasant, vine-clad porch 
 and take his place beside her in the car again. It 
 did not seem to him that he was having a fair 
 chance. But he thought of a plan and proceeded 
 to put it into execution. He drove steadily and in 
 silence until the lights of the nearing city were be 
 ginning to show faintly in the twilight, with the sky 
 still rich with colour in the west. Then, at a certain 
 curve in the road far above the rest of the country 
 side, he brought the car to a standstill. 
 
 "I can t bear to go on and end this day," he said 
 in a low voice of regret. "How can I tell when I 
 shall see you again ? Do you realize that every time 
 I have said a word about our meeting in the future 
 you ve somehow turned me aside? Do you want 
 me to understand that you would rather never see 
 me again?"
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 205 
 
 Her face was toward the distant lights, and she 
 did not answer for a minute. Then she said 
 slowly: "I should like very much to see you again, 
 Mr. King. But you surely understand that I 
 couldn t make appointments with you to meet me 
 in other towns. This has happened and it has been 
 very pleasant, but it wouldn t do to make it keep 
 happening. Even though I travel about with a 
 book to sell, I shall never lose the sense of being 
 under the protection of a home such as other girls 
 have." 
 
 "I wouldn t have you lose it good heavens, no! 
 I only well And now he stopped, set his 
 
 teeth for an instant, and then plunged ahead. 
 "But there s something I can t lose either, and it s 
 you!" 
 
 She looked at him then, evidently startled. 
 "Mr. King, will you drive on, please?" she said 
 very quietly, but he felt something in her tone 
 which for an instant he did not understand. In the 
 next instant he thought he did understand it. 
 
 He spoke hurriedly: "You don t know me very 
 well yet, do you ? But I thought you knew me well 
 enough to know that I wouldn t say a thing like 
 that unless I meant all that goes with it and 
 follows it. You see I love you. If if you are not 
 afraid of a man in a plaster jacket it ll come off 
 some day, you know I ask you to marry me."
 
 2o6 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 There was a long silence then, in which King 
 felt his heart pumping away for dear life. He had 
 taken the bit between his teeth now, certainly, and 
 offered this girl, of whom he knew less than of any 
 human being in whom he had the slightest interest, 
 all that he had to give. Yet hewas so sureheknew 
 her that, the words once out, he realized that he 
 was glad he had spoken them. 
 
 At last she turned toward him. "You are a very 
 brave man," she said, "and a very chivalrous man." 
 
 He laughed rather huskily. "It doesn t take 
 much of either bravery or chivalry for a man to 
 offer himself to you." 
 
 "It must take plenty of both. You are what 
 you are, in the big world you live in. And you dare 
 to trust an absolute stranger, whom you have no 
 means of knowing better, with that name of yours. 
 Think, Mr. Jordan King, what that name means to 
 you and to your mother." 
 
 "I have thought. And I offer it to you. And I 
 do know what you are. You can t disguise your 
 self any more than the Princess in the fairy tale. 
 Do you think all those notes I had from you at the 
 hospital didn t tell the story? I don t know 
 why you are selling books from door to door and I 
 don t want to know. What I do understand is 
 that you are the first of your family to do it!" 
 
 "Mr. King," she said gravely, "women are very
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 207 
 
 clever at one thing cleverer than men. With a 
 little study, a little training, a little education, they 
 can make a brave showing. I have known a shop 
 girl who, after six months of living with a very 
 charming society woman, could play that woman s 
 part without mistake. And when it came to talk 
 ing with men of brains, she could even use a few 
 clever phrases and leave the rest of the conversa 
 tion to them, and they were convinced of her 
 brilliant mind." 
 
 "You have not been a shopgirl," he said steadily. 
 "You belong in a home like mine. If you have 
 lost it by some accident, that is only the fortune of 
 life. But you can t disguise yourself as a common 
 place person, for you re not. And I can t let you 
 go out of my life I can t." 
 
 Again silence, while the sunset skies slowly faded 
 ;nto the dusky blue of night, and the lights over the 
 distant city grew brighter and brighter. A light 
 wind, warmly smoky with the pleasant fragrance 
 of burning bonfires, touched the faces of the two in 
 the car and blew small curly strands of hair about 
 Anne Linton s ears. 
 
 Presently she spoke. "I am going to promise to 
 write to you now and then," she said, "and give 
 you each time an address where you may answer, 
 if you will promise not to come to me. I am going 
 to tell you frankly that I want your letters. *
 
 208 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "You want my letters but not me?" 
 
 "You put more of yourself into your letters than 
 any one else I know. So in admitting that I want 
 your letters I admit that I want yourself as a good 
 friend." 
 
 "No more than that?" 
 
 "That s quite enough, isn t it, for people who 
 know each other only as we do ? " 
 
 "It s not enough for me. If it s enough for you, 
 then well, it s as I thought." 
 
 "What did you think?" 
 
 He hesitated, then spoke boldly: "No woman 
 really wants a mangled human being for her own." 
 
 Impulsively she laid her hand on his. Instantly 
 he grasped it. "Please," she said, "will you never 
 say or think that, again?" 
 
 He gazed eagerly into her face, still duskily vis 
 ible to his scrutiny. "I won t," he answered, "if 
 you ll tell me you care for me. Oh, don t you ? 
 don t you ? not one bit ? Just give me a show of a 
 chance and I ll make you care. I ve got to make 
 you care. Why, I ve thought of nothing but you 
 for months dreamed of you, sleeping and waking. 
 I can t stop; it s too late. Don t ask me to stop 
 Anne dear!" 
 
 No woman in her senses could have doubted the 
 sincerity of this young man. That he was no adept 
 at love making was apparent in the way he
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 209 
 
 stumbled over his phrases; in the way his voice 
 caught in his throat; in the way it grew husky to 
 ward the last of this impassioned pleading of his. 
 
 He still held her hand close. "Tell me you care 
 a little," he begged of her silence. 
 
 "No girl can be alone as I am now and not be 
 touched by such words," she said very gently after 
 a moment s hesitation. " But promising to marry 
 you is a different matter. I can t let you rashly 
 offer me so much when I know what it would mean 
 to you to bring home a book agent to your 
 mother!" 
 
 He uttered a low exclamation. "My life is my 
 own, to do with as I please. If I m satisfied, that s 
 enough. You are what I want all I want. As for 
 my mother when she knows you But we ll 
 not talk of that just yet. What I must know is 
 do you can you care for me enough to marry 
 me?" His hand tightened on hers, his voice 
 whispered in her ear: "Anne, darling can t you 
 love me? I want you so oh I want you so! 
 Let me kiss you just once, dear. That will tell 
 you- 
 
 But she drew her hand gently but efficiently 
 away; she spoke firmly, though very low: "No 
 no! Listen Jordan King. Sometime by next 
 spring perhaps, I shall be in the place I call home. 
 When that time comes I will let you know. If you
 
 210 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 still care to, you may come and see me there. Now 
 won t you drive on, please?" 
 
 "Yes if you ll let me just once once to live 
 on all those months ! Anne " 
 
 But when he would have made action follow close 
 upon the heels of pleading he found himself gently 
 but firmly prevented by an uplifted small hand 
 which did not quite touch his nearing face. "Ah, 
 don t spoil that chivalry of yours," said her mellow, 
 low voice. "Let me go on thinking vou what I 
 have believed you all along. Be patient, and prove 
 whether this is real, instead of snatching at what 
 might dull your judgment!" 
 
 "It wouldn t dull it only confirm it. And I 
 want to make you remember me." 
 
 "You have provided for that already," she ad 
 mitted, at which he gave an ejaculation as of relief 
 and of longing and possibly of recognition of 
 her handling of the whole from her point of view 
 rather difficult situation. At the back of his 
 mind, in spite of his disappointment at being kept 
 at arm s length when he wanted something much 
 more definite, was the recognition that here was 
 precisely the show of spirit and dignity which his 
 judgment approved and admired. 
 
 "I ll let you go, if I must; but I ll come to you 
 if you live in a hovel if you live in a cave if you 
 Uve Oh, I know how you live!"
 
 THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA 211 
 
 "How do I live?" she asked, laughing a little un 
 steadily, and as if there were tears in her eyes, 
 though of this he could not be sure. 
 
 "You live in a plain little house, with just a 
 few of the things you used to have about you 
 rows of books, and a picture or two, and some 
 old china. Things may be a bit shabby, but 
 everything is beautifully neat, and there are 
 garden flowers on the table perhaps white 
 lilacs!" 
 
 "Oh, what a romanticist!" she said through her 
 soft laughter. "One would think you wrote novels 
 instead of specifications for concrete walls. What 
 if you come and find me living with my older sister, 
 who sews for a living plain sewing, at a dollar a 
 day? And we have a long credit account at the 
 grocery, which we can t pay? And at night our 
 little upstairs room is full of neighbours untidy, 
 loud-talking, commonplace women ? And the lamp 
 smokes 
 
 "It wouldn t smoke; you would have trimmed 
 it," he answered quickly and with conviction. 
 " But, even if it were all like that, you would still be 
 the perfect thing you a -e. And I would take you 
 away " 
 
 "If you don t drive on, Mr. King," she inter 
 posed gently, "you will soon be mentally unfit to 
 drive at all. And I must be back betore the dark-
 
 212 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 ness has quite fallen. And don t you think we 
 have talked enough about ourselves?" 
 
 "I like that word," he declared as he obediently 
 set the car in motion. "Ourselves that sounds 
 good to me. As long as you keep me with you that 
 way I ll try to be satisfied. One thing I m sure of: 
 I ve something to work for now that I didn t have 
 this morning. Oh, I know; you haven t given me a 
 thing. But you re going to let me come to see you 
 next spring, and that s worth everything to me. 
 Meanwhile, I ll do my level best for you." 
 
 When he drew up before the door of the church, 
 where, in spite of nis entreaties that he be allowed 
 to take her to her lodging place, Anne insisted on 
 being left, he felt, in spite of all he had gained that 
 day, a sinking of the heart. Though the hour was 
 early and the neighbourhood at this time of day a 
 quiet one, and though she assured him that she had 
 not far to go, he was unhappy to leave her thus un 
 accompanied. 
 
 " I wish I could possibly imagine why it must be 
 this way," he said to himself as he stood hat in hand 
 beside his car, watching Anne Linton s quickly de 
 parting figure grow more and more shadowy as the 
 twilight enveloped it. "Well, one thing is certain: 
 whatever she does there s a good and sufficient 
 reason; and I trust her."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 RED HEADED AGAIN 
 
 CROWDING his hat upon his head with a 
 vigorous jerk after his reluctant parting 
 with Anne Linton at the church door, 
 Jordan King jumped into his car and made his way 
 slowly through the streets to the hotel where Aleck 
 awaited him. For the first few miles out of the 
 city he continued to drive at a pace so moderate 
 that Aleck more than once glanced surreptitiously 
 at him, wondering if he were actually going to 
 sleep at the wheel. It was not until they were be 
 yond the last environs and far out in the open 
 country that, quite suddenly, the car was released 
 from its unusual restraint and began to fly down 
 the road toward home at the old wild speed. 
 
 Somehow or other, after this encounter, King 
 could not settle down to his work till he had seen 
 Red Pepper Burns. He could not have explained 
 why this should be so, for he certainly did not in 
 tend to tell his friend of the meeting with Anne 
 Linton, or of the basis upon which his affairs now 
 stood. But he wanted to see Burns with a sort of
 
 214 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 hunger which would not be satisfied, and he went 
 to look him up one evening when he himself had re 
 turned early from his latest trip to the concrete 
 dam. 
 
 He found Burns just setting forth on a drive to 
 see a patient in the country, and King invited him 
 self to go with him, running his own car off at one 
 side of the driveway and leaping into Burns s 
 machine with only a gay by-your-leave apology. 
 But he had not more than slid into his seat before 
 he found that he was beside a man whom he did not 
 know. 
 
 King had long understood that Red Pepper s 
 significant cognomen stood for the hasty temper 
 which accompanied the coppery hair and hazel 
 eyes of the man with the big heart. But such ex 
 hibitions of that temper as King had witnessed had 
 been limited to quick explosions from which the 
 smoke had cleared away almost as soon as the 
 sound of warfare had died upon the air. He was in 
 no way prepared, therefore, to find himself in the 
 company of a man who was so angry that he could 
 not or would not speak to one of his best friends. 
 
 " Fine night," began the young man lightly, try 
 ing again, after two silent miles, to make way 
 against the frost in the air. "I don t know when 
 we ve had such magnificent September weather." 
 
 No answer.
 
 RED HEADED AGAIN 215 
 
 "I hope you don t mind my going along. You 
 needn t talk at all, you know and I ll be quiet, too, 
 if you prefer." 
 
 No answer. King was not at all sure that Burns 
 heard him. The car was running at a terrific pace, 
 and the profile of the man at the wheel against the 
 dusky landscape looked as if it were carved out of 
 stone. The young man fell silent, wondering. 
 Almost, he wished he had not been so sure of his 
 welcome, but there was no retreating now. 
 
 Five miles into the country they ran, and King 
 soon guessed that their destination might be Sunny 
 Farm, a home for crippled children which was Ellen 
 Burns s special charity, established by herself on a 
 small scale a few years before and greatly grown 
 since in its size and usefulness. Burns was its head 
 surgeon and its devoted patron, and he was 
 accustomed to do much operative work in its well- 
 equipped surgery, bringing out cases which he 
 found in the city slums or among the country poor, 
 with total disregard for any considerations except 
 those of need and sufFering. King knew that the 
 place and the work were dearer to the hearts of 
 both Doctor and Mrs. Burns than all else outside 
 their own home, and he began to understand that 
 if anything had gone wrong with affairs there Red 
 Pepper would be sure to take it seriously. 
 
 Quite as he had foreseen since there were few
 
 216 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 homes on this road, which ran mostly through 
 thickly wooded country the car rushed on to the 
 big farmhouse, lying low and long in the night, with 
 pleasant lights twinkling from end to end. Burns 
 brought up with a jerk beside the central porch, 
 leaped out, and disappeared inside without a word 
 of explanation to his companion, who sat wonder 
 ing and looking in through the open door to the 
 wide hall which ran straight through the house t 
 more big porches on the farther side. 
 
 Everything was very quiet at this hour, accord 
 ing to the rules of the place, all but the oldest 
 patients being in bed and asleep by eight o clock. 
 Therefore when, after an interval, voices became 
 faintly audible, there was nothing to prevent their 
 reaching the occupant of the car. 
 
 In a front room upstairs at one side of the hall 
 two people were speaking, and presently through 
 the open window Burns was heard to say with in 
 cisive sternness: "I ll give you exactly ten minutes 
 to pack your bag and go and I ll take you to 
 make sure you do go." 
 
 A woman s voice, in a sort of deep-toned wail, 
 answered: "You aren t fair to me, Doctor Burns; 
 you aren t fair! You " 
 
 "Fair!" The word was a growl of suppressed 
 thunder. " Don t talk of fairness you ! You don t 
 know the meaning of the word. You haven t been
 
 RED HEADED AGAIN 217 
 
 fair to a single kid under this roof, or to a nurse 
 or to any one of us you with your smiles and 
 your hypocrisy you who can t be trusted. That s 
 the name for you She-Who-Can t-Be-Trusted. 
 Go pack that bag, Mrs. Soule; I won t hear another 
 word!" 
 
 "Oh, Doctor " 
 
 "Go, I said!" 
 
 Outside, in the car, Jordan King understood that 
 if the person to whom Burns was speaking had not 
 been a woman that command of his might have 
 been accompanied by physical violence, and the 
 offending one more than likely have been ejected 
 from the door by the thrust of two vigorous hands 
 on his shoulders. There was that in Burns s tone 
 all that and more. His wrath was quite evidently 
 no explosion of the moment, but the culmination 
 of long irritation and distrust, brought to a head by 
 some overt act which had settled the offender s case 
 in the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 Burns came out soon after, followed by a woman 
 well shrouded in a heavy veil. 
 
 King jumped out of the car. "I m awfully 
 sorry," he tried to say in Burns s ear. "Just leave 
 me and I ll walk back." 
 
 "Ride on the running board," was the answer, in 
 a tone which King knew meant that he was re 
 quested not to argue about it.
 
 218 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 Therefore when the woman to whom he was 
 not introduced was seated, he took his place at 
 her feet. To his surprise they did not move off in 
 the direction from which they had come, but went 
 on over the hills for five miles farther, driving in 
 absolute silence, at high speed, and arriving at a 
 small station as a train was heard to whistle far ofl 
 somewhere in the darkness. 
 
 Burns dashed into the station, bought a ticket^ 
 and had his passenger aboard the train before it 
 had fairly come to a standstill at the platform 
 King heard him say no word of farewell beyond 
 the statement that a trunk would be forwarded 
 in the morning. Then the whole strange event 
 was over; the train was only a rumble in the dis 
 tance, and King was in his place again beside thfi 
 man he did not know. 
 
 Silence again, and darkness, with only the stars 
 for light, and the roadside rushing past as the car 
 flew. Then suddenly, beside the deep woods, a 
 stop, and Burns getting out of the car, with the 
 first voluntary words he had spoken to King that 
 night. 
 
 " Sit here, will you ? I ll be back sometime." 
 
 "Of course. Don t hurry." 
 
 It was an hour that King sat alone, wondering. 
 Where Burns had gone, he had no notion, and no
 
 RED HEADED AGAIN 219 
 
 sound came back to give him hint. As far as King 
 knew there was no habitation back there in the 
 depths into which his companion had plunged; he 
 could not guess what errand took him there. 
 
 At last came a distant crashing as of one making 
 his way through heavy undergrowth, and the noise 
 drew nearer until at length Burns burst through 
 into the road, wide of the place where he had gone 
 in. Then he was at the car and speaking to King, 
 and his voice was very nearly his own again. 
 
 "Missed my trail coming back," he said. "I ve 
 kept you a blamed long time, haven t I?" 
 
 "Not a bit. Glad to wait." 
 
 "Of course that s a nice, kind lie at this time of 
 night, and when you ve no idea what you ve been 
 waiting for. Well, I ll tell you, and then maybe 
 you ll be glad you assisted at the job." 
 
 He got in and drove off, not now at a furious 
 pace, but at an ordinary rate of speed which made 
 speech possible. And after a little he spoke again. 
 " Jord," he said, "you don t know it, but I can be a 
 fiend incarnate." 
 
 "I don t believe it," refused King stoutly. 
 
 "It s absolutely true. When I get into a red rage 
 I could twist a neck more easily than I can get a 
 grip on myself. Sometimes I m afraid I ll do it. 
 Years back when I had a rush of blood to the head 
 of that sort I used to take it out in swearing till the
 
 220 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 atmosphere was blue; but I can t do that any 
 more." 
 
 "Why not?" King asked, with a good deal of 
 curiosity. 
 
 "I did it once too often and the last time I sent 
 a dying soul to the other world with my curses in 
 its ears the soul of a child, Jord. I lost my head 
 because his mother had disobeyed my orders, and 
 the little life was going out when it might have 
 stayed. When I came to myself I realized what 
 I d done and I made my vow. Never again, no 
 matter what happened! And I ve kept it. But 
 
 sometimes, as to-night Well, there s only one 
 
 thing I can do: keep my tongue between my teeth 
 as long as I can, and then get away somewhere 
 and smash things till I m black and blue." 
 
 "That s what you ve been doing back in the 
 woods?" King ventured to ask. 
 
 " Rather. Anyhow, it s evened up my circula 
 tion and I can be decent again. I m not going to 
 tell you what made me rage like the bull of 
 Bashan, for it wouldn t be safe yet to let loose on 
 that. It s enough that I can treat a good comrade 
 like you as I did and still have him stand by." 
 
 "I felt a good deal in the way, but I m glad now 
 I was with you." 
 
 "I m glad, too, if it s only that you ve dis 
 covered at last what manner of man I am when the
 
 RED HEADED AGAIN 221 
 
 evil one gets hold of me. None of us likes to be per 
 sistently overrated, you know." 
 
 "I don t think the less of you for being angry 
 when you had a just cause, as I know you must 
 have had." 
 
 "It s not the being angry; it s the losing con 
 trol." 
 
 "But you didn t." 
 
 "Didn t I?" A short, grim laugh testified to 
 Burns s opinion on this point. "Ask that woman I 
 put on the train to-night. Jord, on her arm is a 
 black bruise where I gripped her when she lied to 
 me; I gripped her a woman. You might as well 
 know. Now keep on respecting me if you can." 
 
 "But I do," said Jordan King.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 A STRANGE DAY 
 
 EF, will you go for a day in the woods 
 with me?" 
 Ellen Burns looked up from the old ma 
 hogany secretary which had been hers in the 
 southern-home days. She was busily writing let 
 ters, but the request, from her busy husband, was 
 so unusual that it arrested her attention. Her 
 glance travelled from his face to the window and 
 back again. 
 
 "I know it s pretty frosty," he acknowledged, 
 "but the sun is bright, and I ll build you a wind 
 break that ll keep you snug. I m aching for a day 
 off with you." 
 
 "Artful man! You know I can t resist when you 
 put it that way, though I ought not to leave this 
 desk for two hours. Give me half an hour, and tell 
 me what you want for lunch." 
 
 "Cynthia and I ll take care of that. She s put 
 ting up the stuff now, subject to your approval." 
 
 He was off to the kitchen, and Ellen finished the 
 note she had begun, put away the writing material" 
 
 222
 
 A STRANGE DAY 223 
 
 and letters, and ran up to her room. By the end 
 of the stipulated half hour she was down again, 
 trimly clad in a suit of brown tweeds, with a big 
 coat for extra warmth and a close hat and veil for 
 breeze resistance. 
 
 "That s my girl! You never look prettier to my 
 eyes than when you are dressed like this. It s the 
 real comrade look you have then, and I feel as if 
 we were shoulder to shoulder, ready for anything 
 that might come." 
 
 "Just as if it weren t always that," she said in 
 merry reproach as she took her place beside him 
 and the car rolled off. 
 
 "It s always great fun to go off with you un 
 expectedly like this," she went on presently. "It 
 seems so long since we ve done it. It s been such 
 a busy year. Is everybody getting well to-day, 
 that you can manage a whole day?" 
 
 "All but one, and he doesn t need me just now. 
 I could keep busy, of course, but I got a sudden 
 hankering for a day all alone with you in the woods; 
 and after that idea once struck me I d have made 
 way for it anyhow, short of actually running away 
 from duty." 
 
 "You need it, I know. We ll just leave all care 
 behind and remember nothing except how happy 
 we are to be together. That never grows old, does 
 k, Red?"
 
 224 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "Never!" He spoke almost with solemnity, and 
 gave her a long look as he said it, which she met 
 with one to match it. "You dear!" he murmured. 
 "Len, do you know I never loved you so well as I 
 do to-day?" 
 
 "I wonder why?" She was smiling, and her 
 colour, always duskily soft in her cheek, grew a 
 shade warmer. "Is it the brown tweeds?" 
 
 "It s the brown tweeds, and the midnight-dark 
 hair, and the beautiful black eyes, and the lovely 
 soul of my wife." 
 
 "Why, Red, dear and all this so early in the 
 morning? How will you end if you begin like 
 this?" 
 
 "I don t know or care." Something strange 
 looked out of his eyes for a minute. " I know what 
 I want to say now and I m saying it. So much of 
 the time I m too busy to make love to my wife, 
 I m going to do it to-day all day. I warn you 
 now, so you can sidetrack me if you get tired of it." 
 
 "I m very likely to," she said with a gay ten 
 derness. "To have you make love to me without 
 the chance of a telephone call to break in will be a 
 wonderful treat." 
 
 "It sure will to me." 
 
 It was a significant beginning to a strange day. 
 They drove for twenty miles, to find a certain 
 place upon a bluff overlooking a small lake of un-
 
 A STRANGE DAY 225 
 
 usual beauty, far out of the way of the ordinary 
 motor traveller. They climbed a steep hill, coming 
 out of the wooded hillside into the full sunlight of 
 the late October day, where spread an extended 
 view of the countryside, brilliant with autumn 
 foliage. The air was crisp and invigorating, and a 
 decided breeze was stirring upon this lofty point, 
 so that the windbreak which Burns began at once 
 to build was a necessary protection if they were to 
 remain long. 
 
 An hour of hard work, at which Ellen helped 
 as much as she was allowed, established a snug 
 camp, its back against a great bowlder, its wind 
 ward side sheltered by a thick barrier of hemlocks 
 cleverly placed, a brisk bonfire burning in an angle 
 where an improvised chimney carried off its smoke 
 and left the corner clear and warm. 
 
 "There!" Burns exclaimed in a tone of satisfac 
 tion as he threw himself down upon the pine needle- 
 strewn ground at Ellen s side. "How s this for a 
 comfortable nest? Think we can spend six con 
 tented hours here, my honey?" 
 
 "Six days if you like. How I wish we could!" 
 
 "So do I. Jove, how I d like it! I haven t had 
 enough of you to satisfy me for many a moon. And 
 there s no trying to get it, except by running away 
 like this." 
 
 "We ought to do it oftener."
 
 226 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "We ought, but we can t. At least we couldn t. 
 Perhaps now " 
 
 He broke off, staring across the valley where the 
 lake lay to the distant hills, smoky blue and purple 
 in spite of the clear sunlight which lay upon them. 
 
 " Perhaps now what?" 
 
 "Well I might not be able to keep up my ac 
 tivity forever, and the time might come when I 
 should have to take less work and more rest." 
 
 "But you said now." 
 
 " Did I ? I was just looking ahead a bit. Len, 
 are you hungry, or shall we wait a while for lunch ? " 
 
 "Don t you want a little sleep before you eat? 
 You haven t had too much of it lately." 
 
 "It would taste rather good if I might take it 
 with my head in your lap." 
 
 She arranged her own position so that she could 
 maintain it comfortably, and he extended his big 
 form at full length upon the rug he had brought up 
 from the car and upon which she was already sit 
 ting. He smiled up into her face as he laid his head 
 upon her knees, and drew one of her hands into 
 his. "Now your little boy is perfectly content," 
 he said. 
 
 It was an hour before he stirred, an hour in 
 which Ellen s eyes had silently noted that which 
 had escaped them hitherto, a curious change in his
 
 A STRANGE DAY 227 
 
 colour as he lay with closed eyes, a thinness of the 
 flesh over the cheek bones, dark shadows beneath 
 the eyes. Whether he slept she could not be sure. 
 But when he sat up again these signs of wear and 
 tear seemed to vanish at the magic of his smile, 
 which had never been brighter. Nevertheless she 
 watched him with a new sense of anxiety, wonder 
 ing if there might really be danger of his splendid 
 physique giving way before the rigour of his life. 
 
 She noted that he did not eat heartily at lunch, 
 though he professed to enjoy it; and afterward he 
 was his old boyish self for a long time. Then he 
 grew quiet, and a silence fell between the pair while 
 they sat looking off into the distance, the Octobei 
 sunlight on their heads. 
 
 And then, quite suddenly, something happened. 
 
 Red! What is the matter?" Ellen asked, star 
 tled. 
 
 In spite of the summer warmth of the spot in 
 which they sat her husband s big frame had begun 
 to quiver and shake before her very eyes. Evi 
 dently he was trying hard to control the strange fit 
 of shivering which had seized him. 
 
 "Don t be s-scared, d-dear," he managed to get 
 out between rigid jaws. "It s just a bit of a ch- 
 chill. I ll b-be all right in a m-minute." 
 
 "In all this sunshine? Why, Red!" Ellen caught 
 up the big coat she had brought to the place and
 
 228 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 laid it about his shoulders "you must have taken 
 cold. But how could you ? Come we must go at 
 once." 
 
 "N-not just yet. I ll g-get over this s-soon." 
 
 He drew his arms about his knees, clasping 
 them and doing his best to master the shivering, 
 while Ellen watched him anxiously. Never in her 
 life with Red had she seen him cold. His rugged 
 frame, accustomed to all weathers, hardened by 
 years of sleeping beside wide-opened windows in 
 the wintriest of seasons, was always healthily 
 glowing with warmth when others were frankly 
 freezing. 
 
 The chill was over presently, but close upon its 
 heels followed reaction, and Red Pepper s face 
 flushed feverishly as he said, with a gallant at 
 tempt at a smile: "Sit down again a minute, dear, 
 while I tell you what I m up against. I wasn t 
 sure, but this looks like it. You ve got to know 
 now, because I m undoubtedly in for a bit of 
 trouble and that means you, too." 
 
 She waited silently, but her hand slipped into 
 his. To her surprise he drew it gently away. "Try 
 the other one," he said. "It s in better shape for 
 holding." 
 
 She looked down at the hand he had withdrawn 
 and which now lay upon his knee. It was the 
 firmly knit and sinewy hand she knew so well, the
 
 A STRANGE DAY 229 
 
 typical hand of the surgeon with its perfectly kept, 
 finely sensitive fingertips, its broad and powerful 
 thumb, its strong but not too thick wrist. Not a 
 blemish marked its fair surface, yet was it very 
 slightly swollen? She could hardly be sure. 
 
 "Dear, tell me," she begged. "What has hap 
 pened? Are you hurt or ill and haven t let me 
 know?" 
 
 "I thought it might not amount to anything; it s 
 only a scratch in the palm. But 
 
 "Red did you get it operating? On what?" 
 
 He nodded. "Operating. It s the usual way, 
 the thing we all expect to get some day. I ve been 
 lucky so far; that s all." 
 
 "But you didn t give yourself a scratch; you 
 never have done that?" 
 
 "No, not up to date anyhow. I might easily 
 enough; I just haven t happened to." 
 
 "Amy didn t? She couldn t!" 
 
 "She didn t and couldn t, thank heaven. She d 
 kill herself if she ever did that unlucky trick. No, 
 she wasn t assisting this time. It was an emergency 
 case, early yesterday morning one of the other 
 men brought in the case. It was hopeless, but the 
 family wanted us to ay." 
 
 "What sort of a case, Red?" Ellen s very lips 
 had grown white. 
 
 "Now see here, sweetheart, I had to tell you be-
 
 2 3 o RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 cause I knew I was in for a little trouble, but there s 
 no need of your knowing any more than this 
 about it. It was just an accident nobody s fault. 
 The blamed electric lights went off for not over 
 ten seconds, but it was the wrong ten seconds. I 
 didn t even know I was scratched till the thing be 
 gan to set up a row. I don t even yet understand 
 how I got it in the palm. That s unusual." 
 
 "Who did it?" 
 
 "I m not going to tell you. He feels badly 
 enough now, and it wasn t his fault. He asked me 
 at the time if he had touched me in the dark and I 
 said no. It was as slight a thing as that. If we d 
 known it at the time we d have fixed it up. We 
 didn t, and that s all there was to it." 
 
 "You must tell me what sort of a case it was, 
 Red." 
 
 He looked down at her. The two pairs of eyes 
 met unflinchingly for a minute, and each saw 
 straight into the depths of the other. Burns 
 thought the eyes into which he gazed had never 
 been more beautiful; stabbed though they were 
 now with intense shock, they were yet speaking to 
 him such utter love as it is not often in the power 
 of man to inspire. 
 
 He managed still to talk lightly. "I expect you 
 know. What s the use of using scientific terms? 
 The case was rottenly septic; never mind the
 
 A STRANGE DAY 231 
 
 cause. But I m going to be able to throw the 
 thing off. Just give me time." 
 
 "Let me see it, Red." 
 
 Reluctantly he turned the hand over, showing 
 the small spot in which was quite clearly the begin 
 ning of trouble. "Doesn t look like much, does 
 it?" he said. 
 
 "And it is not even protected." 
 
 "What was the use? The infection came at the 
 time." 
 
 "And you did all that work in the windbreak. 
 Oh, you ought not to have done that!" 
 
 "Nonsense, dear. I wanted to, and I did it 
 mostly with my left hand anyhow." 
 
 "Your blood must be of the purest," she said 
 steadily. 
 
 "It sure is. I expect I ll get my reward now for 
 letting some things alone that many men care for, 
 and that I might have cared for, too if it hadn t 
 been for my mother and my wife." 
 
 "You are strong strong." 
 
 "I am a regular Titan. Yes, we ll fight this 
 thing through somehow; only I have to warn you 
 it ll likely be a fight. I ll go to the hospital." 
 
 "No!" It was a cry. 
 
 "No? Better think about that. Hospital s the 
 best place for such cases." 
 
 "It can t be better than home when it s liLe
 
 232 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 ours. We ? ll fight our fight there, Red and no 
 where else." 
 
 He put one hand to his arm suddenly with an 
 involuntary movement and a contraction of the 
 brow. But in the next breath he was smiling 
 again. "Perhaps we d better be getting back," he 
 admitted. "My head s beginning to be a trifle un 
 steady. But I m glad a thousand times we ve had 
 this day/ 
 
 "Was it wise to take it, dear?" 
 
 " I m sure of it. What difference could it make ? 
 Now we ve had it to remember." 
 
 She shivered, there in the warm October sun 
 light. A chill seemed suddenly to have come into 
 the air, and to have struck her heart. 
 
 No more words passed between them until they 
 were almost home. Then Ellen said, very quietly: 
 "Red, would you be any safer in the hospital than 
 at home ? " 
 
 "Not safer, but where it would be easier for all 
 concerned, in case things get rather thick." 
 
 "Easier for you, too?" 
 
 He looked at her. "Do I have to speak the 
 truth?" 
 
 "You* must. If you would rather be there " 
 
 "I would rather be as near you as I can stay. 
 There s no use denying that. But Van Horn wants 
 me at the hospital."
 
 A STRANGE DAY 233 
 
 "Is he to look after you?" 
 
 "Yes. Queer, isn t it? But he wants the job. 
 No," at the unspoken question in her face, "it 
 wasn t Van. But he came in just as the trouble 
 began to show and well, you know we re the best 
 of friends now, and I think I d rather have him 
 and Buller, good old Buller than anybody else." 
 
 "Oh, but you won t need them both?" she cried, 
 and then bit her lip. 
 
 "Of course not. But you know how the profes 
 sion are if one of them gets down they all fall 
 over one another to offer their services." 
 
 "They may all offer them, but they will have to 
 come to you. You are going to stay at home. You 
 shall have the big guest room made as you want 
 it. Just tell me what to do 
 
 "You may as well strip it," he told her quietly. 
 "And Len, I d rather be right there than any 
 where else in the world. I think, when it s ready, 
 I ll just go to bed. I d bluff a bit longer if I could, 
 but perhaps 
 
 "I m sure you ought," she said as quietly as he. 
 But she was very glad when the car turned in at 
 the driveway.
 
 XV 
 
 CLEARED DECKS 
 
 (WO hours later, under her direction and 
 with her efficient help, Cynthia and 
 Johnny Carruthers in medical parlance 
 had "stripped" the guest room, putting it into the 
 cleared bare order most useful for the purpose 
 needed. If Ellen s heart was heavy as she saw the 
 change made she let nothing show. And when, 
 presently, she called her husband from the couch 
 where he had lain, feverish and beginning to be tor 
 tured by pain, and put him between the cool, fresh 
 sheets, she had her reward in the look he gave, first 
 at the room and then at her. 
 
 "Decks all cleared for action," he commented 
 with persistent cheerfulness, "and the captain on 
 deck. Well let them begin to fire; we re ready. 
 All I know is that I m glad I m on your ship. Just 
 pray, Len, will you that I keep my nerve?" 
 
 This was the beginning, as Burns himself had 
 foreseen, of that which proved indeed to be a long 
 fight. Strong of physique though he unquestion 
 ably was, pure as was the blood which flowed in his 
 
 234
 
 CLEARED DECKS 235 
 
 veins, the poison he had received unwittingly and 
 therefore taken no immediate measures to combat 
 was able to overcome his powers of resistance and 
 take shattering hold upon his whole organism. 
 There followed day after day and week after week 
 of prostrating illness, during which he suffered 
 much torturing pain in the affected hand and arm, 
 with profound depression of mind and body, 
 though he bore both as bravely as was to have been 
 expected. Two nurses, Amy Mathewson and 
 Selina Arden, alternated in attendance upon him, 
 day and night, and Ellen herself was always at 
 hand to act as substitute, or to share in the care of 
 the patient when it was more than ordinarily ex 
 acting. 
 
 As she watched the powerful form of her hus 
 band grow daily weaker before the assaults of one 
 of the most treacherous enemies modern science 
 has to face, she felt herself in the grip of a great 
 dread which could not be for an hour thrown off. 
 She did not let go of her courage; but beneath all 
 her serenity of manner remarked often in wonder 
 by the nurses and physicians lay the fear which 
 at times amounted to a conviction that for her had 
 come the end of earthly happiness. 
 
 She was able to appreciate none the less the de 
 voted and skillful attention given to Burns by his 
 colleagues. Dr. Max Duller had long been his at-
 
 236 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 tached friend and ally, and of him such service as 
 he now rendered was to have been counted on. 
 But concerning Dr. James Van Horn, although 
 Ellen well knew how deeply he felt in Burns s debt 
 for having in all probability saved his life only a 
 few months earlier, she had had no notion what 
 he had to offer in return. She had not imagined 
 how warm a heart really lay beneath that polished 
 urbanity of manner with its suggestion of coldness 
 in the very tone of his voice hitherto. She grew 
 to feel a distinct sense of relief and dependence 
 every time he entered the door, and his visits were 
 so many that it came to seem as if his motor were 
 always standing at the curb. 
 
 "You know, Len, Van s a tremendous trump," 
 Burns himself said to her suddenly, in the middle of 
 one trying night when Doctor Van Horn had looked 
 in unexpectedly to see if he might ease his patient 
 and secure him a chance of rest after many hours 
 of pain. "It seems like a queer dream, sometimes, 
 to open my eyes and see him sitting there, looking 
 at me as if I were a younger brother and he cared 
 a lot. * 
 
 "He does care," Ellen answered positively. 
 "You would be even surer of it if you could hear 
 him talk with me alone. He speaks of you as if he 
 loved you and what is there strange about that ? 
 Everybody loves you, Red. I m keeping a list of
 
 CLEARED DECKS 237 
 
 the people who come to ask about you and send 
 you things. You haven t heard of half of them. 
 And to-day Franz telephoned to offer to come and 
 play for you some night when you couldn t sleep 
 with the pain. He begged to be allowed to do the 
 one thing he could to show his sympathy." 
 
 "Bless his heart! I d like to hear him. I often 
 wish my ears would stretch to reach him in his 
 orchestra." Burns moved restlessly as he spoke. 
 A fresh invasion of trouble in his hand and arm 
 was reaching a culmination, and no palliative 
 measures could ease him long. "You ve no idea, 
 Len," he whispered as Ellen s hand strayed 
 through his heavy coppery locks with the soothing 
 touch he loved well, "what it means to me to have 
 you stand by me like this. If I give in now it 
 won t be for want of your supporting courage." 
 
 "It s you who have the courage, Red wonder 
 ful courage." 
 
 He shook his head. "It s just the thought of 
 you and the Little-Un and Bobby Burns 
 that s all. If it wasn t for you 
 
 He turned away his head. She knew the thing 
 he had to fear the thing she feared for him. 
 Though his very life was in danger it was not that 
 which made the threatening depths of black 
 shadow into which he looked. If he should come 
 out of this fight with a crippled right hand there
 
 238 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 <, 
 would be no more work for him about which he 
 
 could care. Neither Van Horn nor Buller would 
 admit that there was danger of this; but Grayson, 
 who had seen the hand yesterday; Fields, who was 
 making blood counts for the case; Lenhart and 
 Stevenson, who had come to make friendly calls 
 every few days and who knew from Fields how 
 things were going all were shaking their heads 
 and saying in worried tones that it looked pretty 
 "owly" for the hand, and that Van Horn and Bui 
 ler would do well if they pulled Burns through at all 
 
 Outside of the profession Jordan King wa; 
 closest in touch with Burns s case. He persistently 
 refused to believe that all would not come out as 
 they desired. He came daily, brought all sorts of 
 offerings for the patient s comfort, and always ran 
 up to see his friend, hold his left hand for a minute 
 and smile at him, without a hint in his ruddy face of 
 the wrench at the heart he experienced each time at 
 sight of the steadily increasing devastation showing 
 in the face on the pillow. 
 
 "You re a trump, Jord," Burns said weakly to 
 him one morning. King had just finished a heart 
 warming report of certain messages brought 
 from some of Burns s old chronic patients in 
 the hospital wards, where it was evident the young 
 man had gone on purpose to collect them. " Every 
 time I look at you I think what an idiot I was ever
 
 CLEARED DECKS 239 
 
 to imagine you needed me to put backbone into 
 you, last spring." 
 
 " But I did and you did it. And if you think I 
 showed more backbone to go through a thing that 
 hardly took it out of me at all than you to stand 
 this devilish slow torture and weakness well, it 
 just shows you ve lost your usual excellent judg 
 ment. See?" 
 
 "I see that you re one of the best friends a man 
 ever had. There s only one other who could do as 
 much to keep my head above water and he isn t 
 here." 
 
 "Why isn t he? Who is he?" demanded King 
 eagerly. "Tell me and I ll get him." 
 
 "No, no. He could do no more than is being 
 done. I merely get to thinking of him and wishing 
 I could see him. It s my old friend and chum of 
 college days, John Leaver, of Baltimore." 
 
 "The big surgeon I ve heard you and Mrs. 
 Burns speak of? Great heavens, he d come in a 
 minute if he knew!" 
 
 "I ve no doubt he w T ould, but I happen to know 
 he s abroad just now." 
 
 King studied his friend s face, saw that Burns 
 was already weary with the brief visit, and soon 
 went away. But it was to a consultation with Mrs. 
 Burns as to the possibility of communicating with 
 Doctor Leaver.
 
 240 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "I wrote his wife not long ago of Red s illness," 
 Ellen said, "but I didn t state all the facts; some 
 how I couldn t bring myself to do that. They are 
 in London; they go over every winter. I had a card 
 only yesterday from Charlotte giving a new address 
 and promising to write soon." 
 
 "Wasn t he the man you told me of who had a 
 bad nervous breakdown a few years ago? The one 
 Red had stay with you here until he got back his 
 nerve ? " 
 
 "Yes; and he has been even a more brilliant 
 operator ever since." 
 
 "I remember the whole story; there was a lot of 
 thrill in it as you told it. How Red made him rest 
 and build up and then fairly forced him to operate, 
 against his will, to prove to him that he had got 
 his nerve back? Jove! Do you think that 
 man wouldn t cross the ocean in a hurry if he 
 thought he could lift his -finger to help our poor 
 boy?" 
 
 King s speech had taken on such a fatherly tone 
 of late that Ellen was not surprised to hear him 
 thus allude to his senior. 
 
 "Yes, Jack Leaver would do anything for Red, 
 but I know Red would never let us summon him 
 from so far." 
 
 "Summon him from the antipodes I would. 
 And we don t have to consult Red. His wish is
 
 CLEARED DECKS 241 
 
 enough. Leave it to me, Mrs. Burns; I ll take all 
 the responsibility." 
 
 She smiled at him, feeling that she must not 
 express the very natural and unwelcome thought 
 that to call a friend from so far away was to admit 
 that the situation was desperate. Burns had said 
 many times that Doctor Van Horn was using the 
 very latest and most acceptable methods for his re 
 lief, and that his confidence in him was absolute. 
 None the less she knew that the very sight of John 
 Leaver s face would be like that of a shore light to a 
 ship groping in a heavy fog. 
 
 Within twenty-four hours Jordan King came 
 dashing in to wave a cable message before her. 
 "Read that, and thank heaven that you have such 
 friends in the world." 
 
 At a glance her eyes took in the pregnant line, 
 and the first tears she had shed leaped to her eyes 
 and misted them, so that she had to wipe them 
 away to read the welcome words again. 
 
 We sail Saturday. Love to Doctor and Mrs. Burns. 
 
 LEAVER. 
 
 A week later, Burns, waking from an uneasy 
 slumber, opened his eyes upon a new figure at his 
 bedside. For a moment he stared uncomprehend 
 ing into the dark, distinguished face of his old
 
 242 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 friend, then put out his uninjured hand with a 
 weak clutch. 
 
 "Are you real, Jack ? " he demanded in a whisper. 
 
 "As real as that bedpost. And mighty glad to 
 see you, my dear boy. They tell me the worst is 
 over, and that you re improving. That s worth the 
 journey to see." 
 
 "You didn t come from England?" 
 
 "Of course I did. I d come from the end of the 
 world, and you know it! Why in the name of 
 friendship didn t somebody send me word be 
 fore?" 
 
 "Who sent it now?" 
 
 "That s a secret. I hoped to be able to do some 
 thing for you, Red, just to even up the score a little, 
 but the thing that s really been done has been by 
 yourself. You put your own clean blood into this 
 tussle and it s brought you through." 
 
 "I don t feel so very far through yet, but I sup 
 pose I m not quite so much of a dead fish as I was a 
 week ago. There s only one thing that bothers 
 me." 
 
 "I can guess. Well, Red, I saw Doctor Van Horn 
 on my way upstairs, and he tells me you re going to 
 get a good hand out of this. He ll be up shortly to 
 dress it, and then I may see for myself." 
 
 "That will be a comfort. I ve wished a thousand 
 times you might, though nobody could have given
 
 CLEARED DECKS 243 
 
 me better care than these bully fellows have. But 
 I ve a sort of superstition that one look at trouble 
 from Jack Leaver is enough to make it cut and 
 run." 
 
 By and by Dr. John Leaver came downstairs and 
 joined his wife and Ellen. His face was grave with 
 its habitual expression, but it lighted as the two 
 looked up. "He s had about as rough a time as a 
 man can and weather it," he said; "but I think the 
 trouble is cornered at last, and there ll be no further 
 outbreak. And the hand will come out better than 
 could have been expected. He will be able to use it 
 perfectly in time. But it will take him a good while 
 to build up. He must have a sea voyage a long 
 one. That will do you all kinds of good, too," he 
 added, his keen eyes on the face of his friend s wife. 
 
 "She looks etherealized," Charlotte Leaver 
 said, studying Ellen affectionately. "You ve had 
 a long, anxious time, haven t you, Len, darling?" 
 Mrs. Leaver went on. "And we knew nothing we 
 who care more than anybody in the world. You 
 can t imagine how glad we are to be here now, even 
 though we can t help a bit." 
 
 "You can help, you do. And I know what it 
 means to Red to have his beloved friend come to 
 him." 
 
 "Then I hope you know what it means to me to 
 come," said John Leaver.
 
 244 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 The Leavers stayed for several days, while Burns 
 continued to improve, and before they left they 
 had the pleasure of seeing him up and partially 
 dressed, the bandages on his injured hand reduced 
 in extent, and his eyes showing his release from 
 torture. His face and figure gave touching evidence 
 of what he had endured, but he promised them 
 that before they saw him again he would be looking 
 like himself. 
 
 "I wonder," Burns said, on the March day when 
 he first came downstairs and dropped into his old 
 favourite place in a corner of the big blue couch, 
 "whether any other fellow was ever so pampered 
 as I. I look like thirty cents, but I feel, in spite of 
 this abominable limpness, as if my stock were 
 worth a hundred cents on the dollar. And when 
 we get back from the ocean trip I expect to be a 
 regular fighting Fijian." 
 
 "You look better every day, dear," Ellen assured 
 him. "And when it s all over, and you have done 
 your first operation, you ll come home and say 
 you were never so happy in your life." 
 
 Burns laughed. He looked over at Jordan King, 
 who had come in on purpose to help celebrate 
 the event of the appearance downstairs. "She 
 promises me an operation as she would promise the 
 Little-Un a sweetie, eh ? Well, I can t say she isn t 
 right. I was a bit tired when this thing began, but
 
 CLEARED DECKS 245 
 
 when I get my strength back I know how my little 
 old lab and machine shop will call to me. Just 
 to-day I got an idea in my head that I believe 
 will work out some day. My word, I know it 
 will!" 
 
 The other two looked at each other, smiling 
 joyously. 
 
 "He s getting well," said Ellen Burns. 
 
 "No doubt of it in the world," agreed Jordan 
 King. 
 
 "Sit down here where I can look at you both," 
 commanded the convalescent. "Jord, isn t my 
 wife something to look at in that blue frock she s 
 vearing? I like these things she melts into even 
 ings, like that smoky blue she has on now. It seems 
 to satisfy my eyes." 
 
 "Not much wonder in that. She would satisfy 
 anybody s eyes." 
 
 "That s quite enough about me," Ellen de 
 clared. "The thing that s really interesting is that 
 your eyes are brighter to-night, Red, than they 
 have been for two long months. I believe it s 
 getting downstairs." 
 
 "Of course it is. Downstairs has been a mythical 
 sort of place for a good while. I couldn t quite be 
 lieve in it. I ve thought a thousand times of this 
 blue couch and these pillows. I ve thought of that 
 old grand piano of yours, and of how it would seem
 
 246 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 to hear you play it again. Play for me now, will 
 you, Len?" 
 
 She sat down in her old place, and his eyes 
 matched her hungrily, as King could plainly see. 
 To the younger man the love between these two 
 was something to study and believe in, something to 
 hope for as a wonderful possibility in his own case. 
 
 When Ellen stopped playing Burns spoke 
 musingly. Speech seemed a necessity for him to 
 night happiness overflowed and must find ex 
 pression. 
 
 "I ve had a lot of stock advice for my patients 
 that ll mean something I understand for myself 
 now," he said. He sat almost upright among the 
 blue pillows, his arm outstretched along the back 
 of the couch, his long legs comfortably extended, 
 It was no longer the attitude of the invalid but of 
 the well man enjoying earned repose. "I wonder 
 how often I ve said to some tired mother or too- 
 busy housewife who longed for rest: If you were 
 to become crippled or even forbidden to work any 
 more and made to rest for good, how happy these 
 past years would seem to you when you were tired 
 because you had accomplished something. I can 
 say that now with personal conviction of its truth. 
 It looks to me as if to come in dog-tired and drop 
 into this corner with the memory of a good job done 
 would be the best fun I ve ever had."
 
 CLEARED DECKS 247 
 
 "I know," King nodded. "I learned that, too, 
 last spring." 
 
 "Of course you did. And now, instead of going 
 to work, I ve got to take this blamed sea voyage 
 of a month. Van and Leaver are pretty hard on me, 
 don t you think? The consolation in that, though, 
 is that my wife needs it quite as much as I do. I 
 want to tan those cheeks of hers. Len, will you 
 wear the brown tweeds on shipboard?" 
 
 "Of course I will. How your mind seems to run 
 to clothes to-night. What will Your Highness wear 
 himself?" 
 
 "The worst old clothes I can find. Then when I 
 get back I ll go to the tailor s and start life all over 
 again, with the neatest lot of stuff he can make me 
 a regular honeymoon effect." Burns laughed, 
 lifting his chin with the old look of purpose and 
 power touching his thin face. 
 
 "I m happy to-night," he went on; "there s no 
 use denying it. I m not sorry, now it s over, I ve 
 had this experience, for I ve learned some things 
 I ve never known before and wouldn t have found 
 out any other way. I know now what it means to 
 be down where life doesn t seem worth much, and 
 how it feels to have the other fellow trying to pull 
 you out. I know how the whisper of a voice you 
 love sounds to you in the middle of a black night, 
 when you think you can t bear another minute of
 
 248 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 pain. Oh, I know a lot of things I can t talk about, 
 but they ll make a difference in the future. If 
 I don t have more patience with my patients it ll 
 be because memory is a treacherous thing, and I ve 
 forgotten what I have no business to forget be 
 cause the good Lord means me to remember!"
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 WHITE LILACS AGAIN 
 
 IT WAS the first day of May. Burns and Ellen 
 had not been at home two days after their 
 return from the long, slow sea voyage which 
 had done wonders for them both, when Burns re 
 ceived a long-distance message which sent him 
 to his wife with his eyes sparkling in the old 
 way. 
 
 "Great luck, Len!" he announced. "I m to get 
 my first try-out in operating, after the late un 
 pleasantness, on an out-of-town case. Off in an 
 hour with Amy for a place two hundred miles 
 away in a spot I never heard of promises to be in 
 teresting. Anyhow, I feel like a small boy with his 
 first kite, likely to go straight off the ground hitched 
 to the tail of it." 
 
 "I m glad for you, Red. And I wish" she bit 
 her lip and turned away "it may be a wonderful 
 case." 
 
 "That s not what you started to say." He 
 came close, laid a hand on either side of her face, 
 and turned it up so that he could look into it, his
 
 2 5 o RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 lips smiling. "Tell me. I ll wager I know what 
 you wish." 
 
 "No, you can t." 
 
 "That you could go with me to take Amy s 
 place and assist." 
 
 A flood of colour poured over her face, such a 
 telltale, significant colour as he had rarely seen 
 there before. She would have concealed it from 
 him, but he was merciless. A strange, happy look 
 came into his own face. " Len, don t hide that from 
 me. It s the one thing I ve always wished you d 
 show, and you never have. I m such a jealous 
 beggar myself I ve wanted you to care that way, 
 and I ve never been able to discover a trace of it." 
 
 " But I m not really jealous in the way you think. 
 How could I be ? with not the slightest cause. It r 
 only envy of Amy because she is so necessary 
 to you. O Red, I never, never meant to say it!" 
 
 "I d rather hear you say it than anything else on 
 earth. I d like to hear you own that you were mad 
 with jealousy, because I ve been eaten up with it 
 myself ever since I first laid eyes on you. Not that 
 you ve ever given me a reason for it, but because 
 it s my red-headed nature. Now I must go; but 
 I ll take your face with me, my Len, and if I do a 
 good piece of work it ll be for love of you." 
 
 "And of your work, Red. I m not jealous of 
 that; I m too proud of it."
 
 WHITE LILACS AGAIN 251 
 
 "I know you are, bless you." 
 
 Then he was off, all his old vigour showing in his 
 preparations for the hurried trip, and as he went 
 away Ellen felt as might those on shore watching 
 a lusty life-saver put off in a boat to pull for a sink 
 ing ship. 
 
 Burns and Amy Mathewson were away three 
 days, during which Red kept Ellen even more 
 closely in touch with himself than usual, by means 
 of the long wire. When he returned it was with the 
 bearing of a conqueror, for the case had tried his 
 regained mettle and he had triumphed more surely 
 than he could have hoped. 
 
 "The hand s as good as new, Len, and the touch 
 not a particle affected. Van s a trump, and I 
 stopped on the way out to tell him so. He was 
 pleased as a boy; think of it, Len my ancient 
 enemy and my new good friend! And the case is 
 fine as silk. They ve a good local man to look after 
 it till I come again, which will be Thursday. And 
 I m going to drive there and take you and Jord 
 King and Jord s mother. How s that for a 
 plan?" 
 
 "It sounds very jolly, Red, but will the Kings 
 go ? And why Mrs. King ? Will she care to ? " 
 
 "Because I ve found some old friends of hers in 
 the place, though I ll not tell her whom. Besides,
 
 252 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 I want to keep on her right side, for reasons. And 
 Jord s back has been bothering him lately and I ve 
 prescribed a rest. We ll take the Kings limousine 
 and go in state. It ll be arranged in five minutes, 
 see if it won t. By the way, Jord says Aleck s new 
 arm is really going to do him some service besides 
 improving his looks." 
 
 He pulled her away to the telephone and held her 
 on his knee while he talked to Jordan King, giving 
 her a laughing hug, when, to judge by the things he 
 was saying into the transmitter, he had brought 
 about his effect. 
 
 "Yes, I know I sound crazy," he admitted to 
 King, "but you must give something to a man who 
 has been buried alive and dug up again. I ve taken 
 this notion and I m going to carry it through. Mrs. 
 King will enjoy every foot of the way, and you and 
 I will jump out and pick apple blossoms for the 
 ladies whenever they ask. It s a peach of a plan, 
 and the whole idea is to minister to my pride. I 
 want to arrive in a great prince of a car like yours 
 and impress the natives down there. See? Yes, 
 go and put it up to your mother, and then call me 
 up. Don t you dare say no!" 
 
 "No wonder he s astonished," Ellen com 
 mented while they waited. "For you, who are 
 never content except when you re at the steering 
 wheel, to ask Jordan, who is another just like you,
 
 WHITE LILACS AGAIN 253 
 
 to elect to travel in a limousine with a liveried 
 chauffeur well, I admit I am puzzled myself." 
 
 "Why, it s simple enough. I want to take you 
 and Mrs. Alexander King. She wouldn t go a step 
 in Jord s roadster at his pace. And if she would, 
 and we went in pairs, Jord would be always want 
 ing to change off and take you with him and as 
 you very well know I m not made that way. Stop 
 guessing, Len, and prepare yourself to break down 
 Mrs. King s opposition, if she makes any which 
 I don t expect." 
 
 Mrs. King made no opposition, or none which 
 her son thought best to convey to the Burnses, and 
 the trip was arranged. 
 
 "Is there a good hotel in the place?" Ellen 
 asked. 
 
 "No hotel within miles nor anything else. 
 We re to stay overnight with the family. You 
 won t mind. They can put us up pretty comfort 
 ably, even if not just as we re accustomed to be." 
 Burns s eyes were twinkling, and he refused to say 
 more on the subject. 
 
 It did not matter. It was early May, and the 
 world was a wilderness of budding life, and to go 
 motoring seemed the finest way possible to get into 
 sympathy with spring at her loveliest. And al* 
 though Ellen would have much preferred to drive 
 alone with her husband in his own car, she found
 
 254 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 herself anticipating the affair, as it was now 
 arranged, with not a little curiosity to stimulate 
 her interest. Mrs. Alexander King, for her son s 
 sake, was sure to be a complaisant and agreeable 
 companion, and Ellen was glad to feel that such a 
 pleasure might come her way. 
 
 "This is great stuff! " exulted Jordan King early 
 on Thursday morning as the big, shining car, 
 standing before Burns s door, received its full com 
 plement of passengers. "Mother and I are tre 
 mendously honoured, aren t we, mother?" 
 
 "Even though we had the audacity to invite our 
 selves and ask for this magnificent car?" Burns 
 inquired, grasping Mrs. Alexander King s gloved 
 hand, and smiling at her as her delicate face was 
 lifted to him with a look of really charming greet 
 ing. He knew well enough that she liked him in 
 spite of certain pretty plain words he had said to 
 her in the past, and he had prepared himself to 
 make her like him still better on this journey to 
 gether. " I m the one who is responsible, you know. 
 I ve merely broken out in a new place." 
 
 "We appreciate your caring to include us in your 
 party," Mrs. King said cordially. "The car is all 
 too little used, for Jordan prefers his own, and I go 
 about mostly in the small coupe. I have never 
 taken so long a drive as you plan, and it will 
 doubtless be a pleasant experience. I see so little oi
 
 WHITE LILACS AGAIN 255 
 
 my son I am happy to be with him on such a 
 trip." 
 
 "Altogether we re mightily pleased with the 
 whole arrangement," declared Jordan King, re 
 garding Mrs. Burns with high approval. "Mother, 
 did you ever see a more distinguished-looking 
 pair?" 
 
 "In spite of our brown faces?" Ellen challenged 
 him gayly. 
 
 "My wife s face simply turns peachy when she 
 tans. I look like an Indian," observed Burns, be 
 stowing certain professional luggage where it would 
 be most out of the way. 
 
 "That s it; you ve said it. Great Indian Chief go 
 make big medicine for sick squaw; take along whole 
 wigwam; wigwam tickled to death to go!" And 
 King settled himself with an air of complete satis 
 faction. 
 
 He had had no word from Anne Linton for nearly 
 two months, and was as restless as a young man 
 may well be when his affairs do not go to please 
 him. She had kept her promise and had written 
 from time to time, but though her letters were the 
 most interesting human documents King had ever 
 dreamed a woman could write, they were, from the 
 point of view of the suitor, extremely unsatisfying. 
 As she had agreed, she had given him with each 
 letter an address to which he might send an in>
 
 25 6 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 mediate reply, and he had made the most of each 
 such opportunity; but, since it takes two to seal a 
 bargain, he had not been able to feel his cause 
 much advanced by all his efforts. He had wel 
 comed this chance to accompany Burns as a 
 diversion from his restless thoughts, for a few days 
 interval in his engineering plans, caused by a delay 
 in the arrival of certain necessary material, was 
 making him wild with eagerness for something 
 anything to happen. 
 
 Two hundred miles in a high-powered car over 
 finely macadamized roads are more quickly and 
 comfortably covered in these days than a thirty- 
 mile drive behind horses over such country high 
 ways as existed a decade ago. Aleck, at the wheel, 
 his master s orders in his willing ears from time to 
 time, gradually accelerated his rate of speed unti? 
 by the end of the first two hours he was carrying 
 his party along at a pace which Mrs. King had 
 frequently condemned as one which would be to 
 her unbearable. Burns and King exchanged 
 glances more than once as the car flew past other 
 travellers, and the good lady, talking happily with 
 Ellen or absorbed in some far-reaching view, took 
 no note of the fact that she was annihilating space 
 with a smooth swiftness comparable only to the 
 flight of some big, strong-winged bird. 
 
 "Over halfway there, and plenty of time for
 
 WHITE LILACS AGAIN 257 
 
 lunch," Burns announced. "And here s the best 
 roadside inn in the country. If it hadn t been for 
 our coming this way I should have suggested 
 bringing our own hampers, but I wanted you to 
 have some of this little Englishman s brook trout 
 and hot scones." 
 
 Mrs. King enjoyed that hot and delicious meal 
 as she had seldom enjoyed a luncheon anywhere. 
 As she sat at the faultlessly served table, her eyes 
 travelling from the wide view at the window to 
 the faces of her companions, she grew more and 
 more cheerful in manner, and was even heard to 
 laugh softly aloud now and then at one of Burns s 
 gay quips, turning to Ellen in appreciation of her 
 husband s wit, or to Jordan himself as he came back 
 at his friend with a rejoinder worth hearing. 
 
 "This is doing my mother a world of good," 
 King said in Ellen s ear as the party came out on 
 a wide porch to rest for a half hour before taking to 
 the car again. "I don t know when I ve seen her 
 expand like this and seem really to be forgetting 
 her cares and sorrows." 
 
 "It s a pleasure to watch her," Ellen agreed. 
 "Red vowed this morning that he meant to bring 
 about that very thing, and he s succeeding much 
 better than I had dared to hope." 
 
 "Who wouldn t be jolly in a party where Red 
 was one ? Did you ever see the dear fellow so abso-
 
 2$8 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 lutely irresistible? Sometimes I think there s a 
 bit of hypnotism about Red, he gets us all so com 
 pletely." 
 
 "What are you two whispering about?" said a 
 voice behind them, and they turned to look into 
 the brilliant hazel eyes both were thinking of at 
 the moment. 
 
 "You," King answered promptly. 
 
 "Rebelling against the autocracy of the Indian 
 Chief?" 
 
 "No. Prostrating ourselves before his bulky 
 form. He s some Indian to-day." 
 
 "He will be before the day is over, I promise 
 you. He ll call a council around the campfire to 
 night, and plenty pipes will be smoked. Everybody 
 do as Big Chief says, eh?" 
 
 "Sure thing, Geronimo; that s what we came 
 for." 
 
 "You don t know what you came for. Abso 
 lutely preposterous this thing is surgeon going to 
 visit his case and bringing along a lot of people 
 who don t know a mononuclear leucocyte from an 
 eosinophile cell." 
 
 "Do you know a vortex filament from a dia 
 metral plane?" demanded King. 
 
 Burns laughed. "Come, let s be off! I must 
 spare half an hour to show Mrs. King a certain view 
 somewhat off the main line."
 
 WHITE LILACS AGAIN 259 
 
 The afternoon was gone before they could have 
 believed it, detours though there were several, 
 as there usually are in a road-mending season. As 
 the car emerged from a long run through wooded 
 country and passed a certain landmark carefully 
 watched for by Red Pepper, he spoke to Aleck. 
 
 " Run slowly now, please. And be ready to turn 
 to the left at a point that doesn t show much be 
 forehand." 
 
 They were proceeding through somewhat 
 sparsely settled country, though marked here and 
 there by comfortable farmhouses of a more than 
 ordinarily attractive type apparently homes of 
 prosperous people with an eye to appearances. 
 Then quite suddenly the car, rounding a turn, 
 came into a different region, one of cultivated 
 wildness, of studied effects so cleverly disguised 
 that they would seem to the unobservant only 
 the efforts of nature at her best. A long, heavily 
 shaded avenue of oaks, with high, untrimmed 
 hedges of shrubbery on each side, curved entic- 
 .ngly before them, and all at once, Burns, looking 
 sharply ahead, called, "There, by that big pine, 
 Aleck to the left." In a minute more the car 
 turned in at a point where a rough stone gateway 
 marked the entrance to nothing more extraordi 
 nary than a pleasant wood. 
 
 "Patient live in a hut in the forest?" King in-
 
 26o RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 quired with interest. "Or a rich man s hunting 
 lodge?" 
 
 "You ll soon see." Burns s eyes were ahead; a 
 slight smile touched his lips. 
 
 The car swept around curve after curve of the 
 wood, came out upon the shore of a small lake and, 
 skirting it halfway round, plunged into a grove of 
 pines. Then, quite without warning, there showed 
 beyond the pines a long, white-plumed row of small 
 trees of a sort unmistakable in May. Beside 
 the row lay a garden, gay with all manner of 
 spring flowers, and farther, through the trees, 
 began to gleam the long, low outlines of a great 
 house. 
 
 "Stop just here, Aleck, for a minute," Burns re 
 quested, and the car came to a standstill. Burns 
 looked at Jordan King. 
 
 "Ever see that row of white lilacs before, Jord ?" 
 he asked with interest. 
 
 King was staring at it, a strange expression 
 of mingled perplexity and astonishment upon his 
 fine, dark face. After a minute he turned to Burns. 
 
 "What when where he stammered, and 
 
 stopped, gazing again at the lilac hedge and the 
 box-bordered beds with their splashes of bright 
 colour. 
 
 "Well, I don t know what, when, or where, if you 
 don t," Burns returned.
 
 WHITE LILACS AGAIN 261 
 
 But evidently King did know, or it came to him 
 at that instant, for he set his lips in a certain 
 peculiar way which his friend understood meant an 
 attempt at quick disguise of strong feeling. He 
 gave his mother one glance and sat back in his 
 seat. Then he looked again at Burns. "What is 
 this, anyway?" he asked rather sternly. "The 
 home of your patient, or a show place you ve 
 stopped to let us look at?" 
 
 "My patient s in the house up there. Drive on, 
 Aleck, please. They ll be expecting us at the back 
 of the house, where the long porches are, and 
 where they re probably having afternoon tea at this 
 minute." He glanced at his watch. "Happy time 
 to arrive, isn t it?" 
 
 Ellen found herself experiencing a most extraor 
 dinary sensation of excitement as the car rounded 
 the drive and approached the porch, where she 
 could see a number of people gathered. The place 
 was not more imposing than many with which she 
 was familiar, and if it had been the home of one of 
 the world s greatest there would have been noth 
 ing disconcerting to her in the prospect. But some 
 thing in her husband s manner assured her that he 
 had been preparing a surprise for them all, and she 
 had no means of guessing what it might be. The 
 little hasty sketch of lilac trees against a spring 
 sky, though she had seen it, had naturally made
 
 262 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 no such impression upon her as upon King, and 
 she did not even recall it now. 
 
 The car rolled quietly up to the porch steps, and 
 immediately a tall figure sprang down them. "It s 
 Gardner Coolidge, my old college friend, Len," 
 Burns said in his wife s ear. "Remember him?" 
 The afternoon sunlight shone upon the smooth, 
 dark hair and thin, aristocratic face of a man who 
 spoke eagerly, his quick glance sweeping the occu 
 pants of the car. 
 
 "Mrs. King! This is a great pleasure, I assure 
 you a great pleasure. Mrs. Burns we are de 
 lighted. And this is your son, Mrs. King welcome 
 to you, my dear sir! Red, no need to say we re 
 glad to see you back. Let me help you, Mrs. King. 
 Don t tell me you wouldn t have known me; that 
 would be a blow. Alicia" he turned to the grace 
 ful figure approaching across the porch to meet 
 the elder lady of the party as she came up the 
 steps upon the arm of the man who had taken her 
 from the car "Mrs. King, this is my wife." 
 
 Red Pepper Burns, laughing and shaking hands 
 warmly with Alicia Coolidge, was watching Mrs. 
 Alexander King as, after the first look of bewil 
 derment, she cried out softly with pleasure at 
 recognizing the son of an old friend. 
 
 "But it has all been kept secret from me," she 
 was saying. " I had no possible idea of where we
 
 WHITE LILACS AGAIN 263 
 
 were coming, and I am sure my son had not." 
 She turned to that son, but she could not get his 
 attention, for the reason that his astonished gaze 
 was fastened upon a person who had at that mo 
 ment appeared in the doorway and paused there.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 
 
 JORDAN KING looked, and looked again, and 
 it was a wonder he did not rub his eyes to 
 make sure he was fully awake. As he looked 
 the figure in the doorway came forward. It was 
 that of a girl in a white serge coat and skirt, with 
 a smart little white hat upon her richly ruddy hair, 
 and the look, from head to foot, of one who had 
 just returned to a place where she belonged. And 
 the next instant Anne Linton was greeting Ellen 
 Burns and coming up to be presented to Mrs. 
 Alexander King. 
 
 "This is my little sister, Mrs. King," said Gard 
 ner Coolidge, smiling, and putting his arm about 
 the white-serge-clad shoulders. "She is your 
 hostess, you know. Alicia and I are only making 
 her a visit." 
 
 "I am so glad you are here, Mrs. King," said a 
 voice Jordan King well remembered, and Anne 
 Linton s eyes looked straight into those of her 
 oldest guest, whose own were puzzled. 
 
 "I think," said Mrs. King, holding the firm 
 264
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 265 
 
 young hand which she had taken, "I have seen 
 you before, my dear, though my memory 
 
 "Yes, Mrs. King," the girl replied and there 
 was not the smallest shadow of triumph discernible 
 in her tone or look "you have. I came to see your 
 son in the hospital, with Mrs. Burns, just before I 
 left. It s not strange you have forgotten me, for we 
 went away almost at once. We are so delighted to 
 have you come to see us. Isn t it delightful that 
 you knew our mother so well at school?" 
 
 Well, it came Jordan King s turn in the end, al 
 though Anne Linton, so extraordinarily labelled 
 "hostess" by her brother, discharged every duty 
 of greeting her other guests before she turned to 
 him. Meanwhile he had stood, frankly staring, 
 hat in hand and growing colour on his cheek, while 
 his eyes seemed to grow darker and darker under 
 his heavily marked brows. When Anne turned to 
 him he had no words for her, and hardly a smile, 
 though his good breeding came to his rescue and 
 put him through the customary forms of action, 
 dazed though he yet was. He found himself pre 
 sented to other people on the porch, whom he 
 recognized as undoubtedly those whom he had 
 met in the passing car at the time when he was in 
 doubt as to Anne s identity. Her aunt, uncle, and 
 cousins they proved to be, though the young man 
 whom he remembered as being present on that
 
 266 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 occasion was now happily absent. Jordan King 
 found himself completely reconciled to this at once. 
 
 "How is our patient?" Burns said to Anne at 
 the first opportunity. " Shall I go up at once ? " 
 
 "Oh, please wait a minute, Doctor Burns; I want 
 to go with you, and I must see my guests having 
 some tea first." 
 
 There followed, for King, what seemed an in 
 terminable interval of time, during which he was 
 forced to sit beside one of Anne s girl cousins and 
 a very pretty girl she was, too, only he didn t seem 
 able to appreciate it drinking tea, and handing 
 sugar, and doing all the proper things. ID the 
 midst of this Anne vanished with Red Pepper at 
 her heels, leaving the tea table to Mrs. Coolidge. 
 At this point, however, King found himself glad 
 to listen to Miss Stockton. 
 
 "I don t suppose anybody in the world but 
 Anne Linton Coolidge would have thought of 
 sending two hundred miles for a surgeon to oper 
 ate on her housekeeper," she was saying when his 
 attention was arrested by her words. "But she 
 thinks such a lot of Timmy Mrs. Timmins she 
 would pay any sum to keep her in the world. She 
 was Anne s nurse, you see, and of course Anne is 
 fond of her. And I m sure we re glad she did send 
 for him, for it gave us the pleasure of meeting 
 Doctor Burns, and of course we understand now
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 267 
 
 why she thought nobody else in the world could 
 pull Timmy through. He s such an interesting per 
 sonality, don t you think so ? We re all crazy about 
 him." 
 
 "Oh, yes, everybody s crazy about him," King 
 admitted readily. "And certainly two hundred 
 miles isn t far to send for a surgeon these days." 
 
 "Of course not only I don t suppose it s done 
 every day for one s housekeeper, do you? But no 
 body ever knows what Anne s going to do least 
 of all now, when she s just back, after the most 
 extraordinary performance." She stopped, look 
 ing at him curiously. "I suppose you know all 
 about it much more than we, in fact, since you 
 met her when she was in that hospital. Did you 
 ever hear of a rich girl s doing such a thing any 
 way ? Going off to sell books for a whole year just 
 because" she stopped again, and bit her lip, then 
 went on quickly: "Everybody knows about it, 
 and you would be sure to hear it sooner or later. 
 Doctor Burns knows, anyhow, and 
 
 "Please don t tell me anything I oughtn t to 
 hear," Jordan s sense of honour impelled him to 
 say. He recognized the feminine type before him, 
 and though he longed to know all about everything 
 he did not want to know it in any way Anne 
 would not like. 
 
 But there was no stopping the fluffy-haired
 
 268 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 young person. "Really, everybody knows; the 
 countryside fairly rang with it a year ago. You 
 might even have read it in the papers, only you 
 wouldn t remember. A girl book agent killed her 
 self in Anne s house here because Anne wouldn t 
 buy her book. Did you ever hear of anything so 
 absurd as Anne s thinking it was her fault? Of 
 course the girl was insane, and Anne had abso 
 lutely nothing to do with it. And then Anne took 
 the girl s book and went off to sell it herself and 
 find out, she said, how such things could happen. 
 I don t know whether she found out." Miss 
 Stockton laughed very charmingly. "All I know 
 is we re tremendously thankful to have her back. 
 Nothing s the same with her away. We don t 
 know if she ll stay, though. Nobody can tell 
 about Anne, ever." 
 
 "Is this your home, too?" King managed to ask. 
 His brain was whirling with the shock of this 
 astonishing revelation. He wanted to get off by 
 himself and think about it. 
 
 "Oh, no, indeed, no such luck. We live across 
 the lake in a much less beautiful place, only of 
 course we re here a great deal when Anne s home. 
 My mother would be a mother to Anne if Anne 
 would let her, but she s the most independent 
 creature prefers to live here with just Timmy and 
 old Campbell, the butler who s been with the
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 269 
 
 Family since time began. Timmy s more than a 
 housekeeper, of course. Anne s made almost a real 
 chaperon out of her, and she is very dignified and 
 nice." 
 
 King would have had the entire family history, 
 he was sure, if a diversion had not occurred in the 
 nature of a general move to show the guests to their 
 rooms, with the appearance of servants, and the 
 removal of luggage. In his room presently, there 
 fore, King had a chance to get his thoughts to 
 gether. One thing was becoming momentarily clear 
 to him: his being here was with Anne s permis 
 sion and she was willing to see him; she had kept 
 her promise. As for all the rest, he didn t care 
 much. And when he thought of the moment dur 
 ing which his mother had looked so kindly into 
 Anne s eyes, not recognizing her, he laughed aloud. 
 Let Mrs. King retreat from that position now if 
 she wanted to. As for himself, he was not at all 
 sure that he ca-red a straw to have it thus so clearly 
 proved that Anne was what she had seemed to be. 
 Had he not known it all along? His heart sang 
 with the thought that he had been ready to many 
 her, no matter what her position in the world. 
 
 And now he wondered how many hours it would 
 be before he should have his chance to see her 
 alone, if for but five minutes. Well, at least he 
 could look at her. And that, as he descended the
 
 270 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 stairs with the others, he found well worth do 
 ing. Anne and Gardner Coolidge were meeting 
 them at the foot, and the young hostess had 
 changed her white outing garb for a most enchant 
 ing other white, which showed her round arms 
 through soft net and lace and made her yet a new 
 type of girl in King s thought of her. 
 
 She had a perfectly straightforward way of 
 meeting his eyes, though her own were bewildering 
 even so, without any coquetry in her use of them. 
 She was not blushing and shy, she was self- 
 possessed and radiant. King could understand, as 
 he looked at her now, how she had felt over that 
 affair of the tragedy suddenly precipitated into her 
 life, and what strength of character it must have 
 taken to send her out from this secluded and per 
 fect home into a rough world, that she might find 
 out for herself "how such things could happen." 
 And as he watched her, playing hostess in this 
 home of hers, looking after everybody s comfort 
 with that ease and charm which proclaims a life 
 time of previous training and custom, his heart 
 grew fuller and fuller of pride and love and longing. 
 
 The dinner hour passed, a merry hour at a dig 
 nified table, served by the old butler who made a 
 rite of his service, his face never relaxing though 
 the laughter rang never so contagiously. Burnc 
 and Coolidge were the life of the company, the lat-
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 271 
 
 ter seeming a different man from the one who had 
 come to consult his old chum as to the trouble in 
 his life. Mrs. Coolidge, quiet and very attractive 
 in her reserved, fair beauty, made an interesting 
 foil to Ellen Burns, and the two, beside the rather 
 fussy aunt and cousins, seemed to belong together. 
 
 "Anne, we must show Doctor Burns our plans 
 for the cottage," Coolidge said to his sister as they 
 left the table. He turned to Ellen, walking beside 
 her. "She s almost persuaded us to build on a 
 corner of her own estate at least a summer place, 
 for a starter. You know Red prescribed for us a 
 cottage, and we haven t yet carried out his pre 
 scription. But this sister of mine, since she met 
 him, has acquired the idea that any prescription 
 of his simply has to be filled, and she won t let 
 Alicia and me alone till we ve done this thing. 
 Shall we all walk along down there? There ll be 
 just about time before dark for you to see the site, 
 and the plans shall come later." 
 
 The whole party trooped down the steps into the 
 garden. King was a clever engineer, but he could 
 not do any engineering which seemed to count in 
 this affair. Never seeming to avoid him, Anne was 
 never where he could get three words alone with 
 her. She devoted herself to his mother, to Ellen, 
 or to Burns himself, and none of these people gave 
 him any help. Not that he wanted them to. He
 
 272 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 bided his time, and meanwhile he took some pleas 
 ure in showing his lady that he, too, could play his 
 part until it should suit her to give him his chance. 
 
 But when, as the evening wore on, it began to 
 look as if she were deliberately trying to prevent 
 any interview whatever, he grew unhappy. And 
 at last, the party having returned to the house and 
 gathered in a delightful old drawing-room, he took 
 his fate in his hands. At a moment when Anne 
 stood beside Red Pepper looking over some photo 
 graphs lying on the grand piano, he came up 
 behind them. 
 
 "Miss Coolidge," he said, "I wonder if you 
 would show me that lilac hedge by moonlight." 
 
 "I m afraid there isn t any moon," she an 
 swered with a merry, straightforward look. "It 
 will be as dark as a pocket down by that hedge, 
 Mr. King. But I ll gladly show it to you to-mor 
 row morning as early as you like. I m a very- 
 early riser." 
 
 "As early as six o clock?" he asked eagerly. 
 
 She nodded. "As early as that. It is a perfect 
 time on a May morning." 
 
 "And you won t go anywhere now?" 
 
 "How can I?" she parried, smiling. "These are 
 my guests." 
 
 Burns glanced at his friend, his hazel eyes full of 
 suppressed laughter. "Better be contented with
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 273 
 
 that, old fellow. That row of lilacs will be very- 
 nice at six o clock to-morrow morning. Mayn t I 
 zome, too, Miss Coolidge?" 
 
 "Of course you may." Her sparkling glance met 
 his. Evidently they were very good friends, and 
 understood each other. 
 
 "If he does," said King, in a sort of growl, "he ll 
 have something to settle with me." 
 
 He went to bed in a peculiar frame of mind. 
 Why had she wanted to waste all these hours 
 when at nine in the morning the party was to leave 
 for its return trip? Well, he supposed morning 
 would come sometime, though it seemed, at mid 
 night, a long way off. 
 
 "Want me to call you at five-thirty, Jord?" 
 Burns had inquired of him at parting. 
 
 "No, thanks," he had replied. " I ll not miss it." 
 
 "A fellow might lie awake so long thinking about 
 it that he d go offinto a sound sleep just before day 
 light, and sleep right through his early morning 
 appointment," urged his loyal friend. "Better let 
 me " 
 
 "Oh, you go on to bed!" requested King irri 
 tably. 
 
 "No gratitude to one who has brought all this to 
 pass, eh?" 
 
 "Heaps of it. But this evening has been rather 
 a facer "
 
 274 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 "Not at all. There were a dozen times when 
 you might have rushed in and got a little quiet 
 place all to yourself, with only the stars looking 
 on. Plenty of openings." 
 
 " I didn t see em. You were always in the way." 
 
 "I was! Well, I like that. Had to be ordinarily 
 attentive to my hostess, hadn t I ? It wasn t for 
 me to take shy little boys by the hand and lead 
 them up to the little girls they fancied." 
 
 "I don t want to be led up by the hand, thank 
 you. Good-night!" 
 
 King was up at daybreak, which in May comes 
 reasonably early. Stealing down through the 
 quiet house, the windows of which seemed to be all 
 wide open to the morning air, he came out upon 
 the porch and took the path to the lilac hedge. 
 Arrived there at only twenty minutes before the 
 appointed hour, he had so long a wait that he be 
 gan to grow both impatient and chagrined. At 
 quarter-past six he was feeling very much like 
 stalking back to the house and retiring to his room, 
 when the low sound of a motor arrested him, and 
 he wheeled, to discover a long, low, gray car, of a 
 type with which he was not familiar, sailing grace 
 fully around the long curve of the driveway toward 
 him. A trim figure in gray, with a small gray 
 velvet hat pulled close over auburn hair, was at the
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 275 
 
 wheel, and a vivid face was smiling at him. But 
 the air of the driver as she drew up beside him was 
 not at all sentimental, rather it was businesslike. 
 
 "I m awfully sorry to be late," she said, "but 
 I couldn t possibly help it. I got up at four, to 
 make a call I had to make and be back, but I was 
 detained. And even now I must be off again, with 
 out any lingering by lilac hedges. What shall we do 
 about it?" 
 
 "I ll go with you." And King stepped into the 
 car. 
 
 "With or without an invitation?" Her eyes 
 were laughing, though her lips had sobered. 
 
 "\Vith or without. And you know you came 
 back for me." 
 
 "I came back for a basket of things I must get 
 from the house. Also, of course, to explain my 
 detention." 
 
 "Out selling books, I suppose?" he questioned, 
 not caring much what he said, now that he had her 
 to himself. "You must make a great impression as 
 a book agent. If only you had tried that way in our 
 town. And I I took you in my car under the 
 pleasant impression that I was giving you a treat 
 on that first trip, you know. By the second trip I 
 had acquired a sneaking suspicion that motoring 
 wasn t such a novelty to you as I had at first 
 Supposed/
 
 276 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 They had flown around the remaining carves and 
 were at a rear door of the house. Anne jumped out, 
 was gone for ten minutes or so, and emerged with a 
 servant following with a great hamper. This was 
 bestowed at King s feet, and the car was off again, 
 Anne driving with the ease of a veteran. 
 
 "You see," she explained, "late last evening I 
 had news of the serious illness of a girl friend of 
 mine. I went to see her, but after I came back I 
 couldn t be easy about her, and so I got up quite 
 early this morning and went again. She was much 
 better, precisely as Doctor Burns had assured me 
 she would be. By and by perhaps I shall learn 
 to trust him as absolutely as all the rest of you 
 do." 
 
 "Burns! You don t mean to say you had him 
 out to see a case last night after " 
 
 She nodded, and her profile, under the snug gray 
 hat, was a little like that of a handsome and some 
 what mischievous but strong-willed boy. "Was 
 that so dreadful of me as a hostess? I admit 
 that a doctor ought to be allowed to rest when he is 
 away from home, but I knew that he was just back 
 from a long voyage and was feeling fit as a fiddle, 
 as he himself said. And there is really no very 
 competent man in the town where my friend is ill; 
 it was such a wonderful chance for her to have great 
 skill at her service. And such skill! Oh, how he
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 277 
 
 went to work for her! It made one feel at once that 
 something was being done, where before people had 
 merely tried to do things." 
 
 King was making rapid calculation. At the end 
 of it, "Would you mind telling me whether you 
 have had any sleep at all?" he begged. 
 
 She turned her face toward him for an instant. 
 " Do I look so haggard and wan ? " she queried with 
 a quick glance. "Yes, I had a good two hours. 
 And I m so happy now to know that Estelle is 
 sleeping quietly that it s much better than to have 
 slept myself." 
 
 "Do you do this sort of thing often?" 
 
 "Not just such spectacular night work, but I do 
 try to see that a little is done to look after a few 
 people who have had a terribly hard time of it. 
 But this is all or mostly since I came back from 
 my year away. I learned just a few things during 
 that year, you know." 
 
 "Your cousin do you mind? gave me just a 
 bit of an idea why you went," he ventured. 
 
 "Oh, Leila Stockton." Her lips took on an 
 amused curl. "Of course Leila would. She- 
 chatters. But she s a dear girl; it s just that she 
 can t easily get a new point of view." 
 
 He pressed her with his questions, for his discern 
 ment told him that it was of no use, while they were 
 flying along the road at this pace, with a hamper at
 
 278 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 their feet or at his feet, crowding him rather un 
 comfortably and forcing him to sit with cramped 
 legs no use for him to talk of the subject upper 
 most in his anxious mind. So he got from her, as 
 well as he could, the story of the year, and presently 
 had her telling him eagerly of the people she had 
 met, and the progress she had made in the study of 
 human beings. It was really an engrossing tale, 
 quietly as she told it, and many as were the details 
 he saw that she kept back. 
 
 " I found out one thing very early," she said. " I 
 knew that I could never come back and live as I had 
 lived before, with no thought of any one but my 
 self." 
 
 "I don t believe you had ever done that." 
 
 " I had I had, if ever any one did. I went away 
 to school in Paris for two years; I wouldn t go to 
 college how I wish I had ! I was the gayest, most 
 thoughtless girl you ever knew until the thing 
 happened that sent my world spinning upside 
 down. Why, Mr. King, I was so selfish and so 
 thoughtless that I could turn that poor girl away 
 from my door with a careless denial, and never see 
 that she was desperate that it wanted only one 
 more such turning away to make her do the thing 
 she did." 
 
 He saw her press her lips together, her eyes fixed 
 QIX the road ahead, and he saw the beautiful brows
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 279 
 
 contract, as if the memory still were too keen for 
 her to bear calmly. 
 
 "You have certainly atoned a hundred times 
 over," he said gently, "for any carelessness in the 
 past. How could you know how she was feeling ? 
 And she was insane, Miss Stockton said." 
 
 "No more insane than I am now simply des 
 perate with weariness and failure. And I should 
 have seen; I did see. I just didn t care. I was 
 busy trying on a box of new frocks from a French 
 dressmaker, frocks of silk and lace of silk and lace, 
 Jordan King, while she hadn t clothes enough to 
 keep her warm! And I couldn t spare the time to 
 look at the girl s book ! Well, I learned what it was 
 to have people turn me from their doors I, with 
 plenty of money at my command, no matter how I 
 elected to dress cheaply and go to cheap boarding 
 places, and insist on cheap beds at hospitals." 
 Her tone was full of scorn. "After all, did I ever 
 really suffer anything of what she suffered ? Never, 
 for always I knew that at any minute I could turn 
 from a poor girl into a rich one, throw my book in 
 the faces of those who refused to buy it, and tele 
 phone my anxious family. They did come on and 
 try to get me away once. I went with them for 
 the day. It was the day you met me. And always 
 there was the interest of the adventure. It was an 
 adventure, you know, a big one."
 
 280 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 * 
 
 "I should say it was. And when you were at the 
 hospital " 
 
 "Accepting expensive rooms and free medical at 
 tendance oh, wasn t I a fraud ? How I felt it I can 
 never tell you. But I could and did send back 
 Doctor Burns a draft in part payment, though I 
 thought he would never imagine where it came 
 from. He did, though. What do you suppose he 
 told me last night when we were driving home? 
 this morning it was, of course. 5 * 
 
 "I can t guess," King admitted, suffering a dis 
 tinct and poignant pang of jealousy at thought of 
 Red Pepper Burns driving through the night with 
 this girl, on an errand of mercy though it had 
 been. 
 
 "He told me," she said slowly, "that he learned 
 all about me while I was in the hospital. One night, 
 when I was at the worst, he sent Miss Arden out for 
 a rest and sat beside me himself. And in my foolish, 
 delirious wanderings I gave him the whole story, 
 or enough of it so that he pieced out the rest. 
 And he never told a soul, not even his wife; wasn t 
 that wonderful of him ? And treated me exactly 
 the same as if he didn t practically know I wasnit 
 what I seemed. You see, I wasn t far enough 
 away from that poor girl s suicide, when I was so ill 
 last year, but that it was always in my mind. Even 
 yet I dream of it at times."
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 281 
 
 They were entering a large manufacturing town, 
 the streets in the early morning full of factory 
 operatives on their way to work, dinner-pails in 
 hands and shawls over heads. Anne drove care 
 fully, often throwing a smile at a group of children 
 or slowing down more than the law decreed to 
 avoid making some weary-faced woman hurry. 
 And when at length she drew up before a dingy 
 brick tenement house, of a type the most un 
 promising, King discovered that her "friend" was 
 one of these very people. 
 
 He carried the hamper up two flights of ram 
 shackle stairs and set it inside the door she indi 
 cated. Then he unwillingly withdrew to the car, 
 where he sat waiting and wondering. It was not 
 long he had to wait, in point of time, but his im 
 patience was growing upon him. All this was very 
 well, and threw interesting lights upon a girl s 
 character, but it would be nine o clock all too 
 soon. To be sure, though Red Pepper bore him 
 away, he knew the road back he could come back 
 as soon as he pleased, with nobody to set hours of 
 departure for him. But he did not mean to go 
 away this first time without the thing he wanted, if 
 it was to be his. 
 
 She came running downstairs, face aglow with 
 relief and pleasure, and sent the car smoothly 
 away. And now it was that King discovered how a
 
 282 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 girl may fence and parry, so that a man may not 
 successfully introduce the subject he is burning to 
 speak of, without riding roughshod over her 
 objection. And presently he gave it up, bid 
 ing his time. He sat silent while she talked, 
 and then finally, when she too grew silent, he 
 let the minutes slip by without another word. 
 Thus it was that they drew up at the house, still 
 speechless concerning the great issue between 
 them. 
 
 It was only a little past seven; nobody was in 
 sight except a maid servant, who slipped dis 
 creetly away. King took one look into a small 
 room at the right of the hall, a sort of small den or 
 office it seemed to be. Then he turned to Anne and 
 put out his hand. "Will you come in here, 
 please? * he requested. 
 
 She looked at him for a moment without giving 
 him her hand, then preceded him into the room. 
 There was a heavy curtain of dull blue silk hanging 
 by the door frame, and King noiselessly drew this 
 across. Then he turned and confronted the girl. 
 She had drawn off her motoring gloves, but made 
 no motion to remove either the rough gray coat in 
 which she had been driving or the small gray velvet 
 hat drawn smoothly down over her curls with a 
 clever air of its own. Altogether she looked not in 
 the least like a hostess, but very like a traveller
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 283 
 
 who has only paused for a brief stop on a journey 
 to be immediately continued. 
 
 He stood there watching her for a minute, him 
 self a challenging figure with his dark, bright face, 
 his fine young height, his air of quite suddenly 
 commanding the situation. And he was between 
 the girl and the door. The two pairs of eyes looked 
 straight into each other. 
 
 "Well? "he said. 
 
 "Well?" said Anne Linton Coolidge in re 
 turn. 
 
 "Did you expect me to wait any longer?" 
 
 "I was afraid you might come and go anJ 
 never say so much as Well? " said she. 
 
 This was more than mortal man could bear 
 and there was no more waiting done by anybody. 
 When Jordan King had temporarily done satis 
 fying the hunger of his lips and arms, he spoke 
 again, looking down searchingly at a face into 
 which he had brought plenty of splendid col 
 our. 
 
 "If I had found you in that poor place I thought 
 I should, it would have been just the same," he 
 said. 
 
 "I really believe it would," admitted Anne. 
 
 Half an hour afterward, emerging from the small 
 room which had held such a big experience, the
 
 284 RED PEPPER S PATIENTS 
 
 pair discovered Red Pepper Burns just descending 
 the stairway. He scrutinized their faces sharply, 
 then advanced upon them. They met him half 
 way. He gravely took Anne s hand and set his 
 fingers on her pulse. 
 
 "Too rapid," he said with a shake of the head. 
 "Altogether too rapid. You have been under 
 going much excitement and so early in the morn 
 ing, too. As your physician I must caution you 
 against such untimely hours." 
 
 He felt of King s wrist, and again he shook his 
 head. "Worse and worse," he announced. "Not 
 only rapid, but bounding. The heart is plainly 
 overworked. These cases are contagious. One 
 acts upon the other no doubt of it no doubt at 
 all. I would suggest " 
 
 He found both his arms grasped by Jordan 
 King s strong hands, and he allowed himself to be 
 held tightly by that happy young man. "Give us 
 your best wishes!" demanded his captor. 
 
 "Why, you ve had those from the first. I saw 
 this coming before either of you," Burns replied. 
 
 "Not before I did," asserted King. 
 
 "Not before I did," declared Anne. 
 
 Then the two looked at each other, and Burns, 
 smiling at them, his hazel eyes very bright, re 
 quested to be restored the use of his arms. This 
 being conceded, he laid those arms about the
 
 RED S DEAREST PATIENTS 285 
 
 i 
 shoulders before him and drew the two^young 
 
 people close within them. 
 
 "You two are the most satisfactory and the 
 dearest patients I ve ever had," declared Red 
 Pepper Burns.
 
 The greatest pleasure in life is 
 that of reading. Why not then 
 own the books of great novelists 
 when the price is so small 
 
 C Of all the amusements -which can possibly 
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 Ask your dealer for a list of the titles 
 in Burt s Popular Priced Fiction 
 
 In buying the books bearing the 
 A. L. Purt Company imprint 
 you arc assured of wholesome, en 
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 Crimson Gardenia, The, and Other Tales of Adventure. 
 Rex Beach,
 
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 Crimson Tide, The. Robert W. Chambers. 
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 Fighting Shepherdess, The. Caroline Lockhart 
 
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 Galusha the Magnificent. Joseph C. Lincoln. 
 
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 Burnett 
 
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 can of the Lazy A. B. M. Bower. 
 
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 eeves. P. G. Wodehouse.
 
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 Edition). 
 
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 Kelland. 
 
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 Edition). 
 
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 Lydia of the Pine Honore Willsie.
 
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 "Lynch Lawyers. William Patterson White; 
 
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 Marqueray s Duel. Anthony Pryde. 
 
 Martin Conisby s Vengeance. Jeffery FarnoL 
 
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 Master of Man. Hall Caine. 
 
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 Men Who Wrought; The. Ridgrwell Cullum. 
 
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 Mystery of the Hasty Arrow, The. Anna K. Green. 
 
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 North. James B. Hendryx. 
 
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 Ordeal of Honor, An. Anthony Pryde. 
 
 Outlaw, The. Jackson Gregory. 
 
 Owner of the Lazy D. William Patterson White. 
 
 Panelled Room, The. Rupert Sargent Holland. 
 
 Paradise Bend. William Patterson White. 
 
 Pardners, Rex Beach. 
 
 Partnsrs of the Tide. Joseph C. Lincoln. 
 
 Patricia Brent, Spinster. Anonymous. 
 
 Patrol of the Sun Dance Trail, The. Ralph Connor. 
 
 Paul Anthony, Christian. Hiram W. Hayes. 
 
 Pawned. Frank L. Packard. 
 
 Pawns Count, The. E. Phillips Oppenheim. 
 
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 Peter Ruff and the Double Four. E. Phillips Oppenheim, 
 
 Phantom Wires. Arthur Stringer. 
 
 Pointed Tower, The. Vance Thompson. 
 
 Pollyanna; "The Glad Book." Eleanor H. Porter. (Lim. Ed.). 
 
 Trade Mark Trade-Mark. 
 Poor Man s Rock. Bertrand W. Sinclair. 
 Poor Wise Man, A. Mary Roberts Rinehart.
 
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 Poisoned Paradise, The. Robert W. Service. (Photoplay Ed.). 
 
 Portygee, The. Joseph C. Lincoln. 
 
 Possession. Olive Wadsley. 
 
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 Prairie Child, The. Arthur Stringer. 
 
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 Prairie Mother, The. Arthur Stringer. 
 
 Prairie Wife, The. Arthur Stringer. 
 
 Pretender, The. Robert W. Service. 
 
 Prince of Sinners, A. E. Phillips Oppenheim. 
 
 Prodigal Daughters, The. Joseph Hocking. (Photoplay Ed./. 
 
 Prodigal Son. Hall Caine. (Photoplay Ed.). 
 
 Profiteers, The. E. Phillips Oppenheim. 
 
 Promise, The. J. B. Hendryx. 
 
 Public Square, The. Will Levington Comfort 
 
 Purple Mask, The. Louise Jordan Miln. 
 
 Purple Pearl, The. Anthony Pryde. 
 
 Quemado. William West Winter. 
 
 Quest of the Sacred Slipper, The. Sax Rohmer. 
 
 Quill s Window. George Barr McCutcheon. 
 
 Rainbow s End, The. Rex Beach. 
 
 Rainbow Valley. L. M. Montgomery. 
 
 Ramshackle House. Hulbert Footner. 
 
 Ranch at the Wolverine, The. B. M. Bower. 
 
 Ranching for Cylvia. Harold Bindloss. 
 
 Rangy Pete. Guy Morton. 
 
 Raspberry Jam. Carolyn Wells. 
 
 Reclaimers, The. Margaret Hill McCarter. 
 
 Re-Creation of Brian Kent, The, Harold Bell Wright 
 
 Red and Black. Grace S. Richmond. 
 
 Red Pepper Burns, Grace S. Richmond. 
 
 Red Pepper s Patients. Grace S. Richmond. 
 
 Red Seal, The. Natalie Sumner Lincoln. 
 
 Restless Sex, The. Robert W. Chambers. 
 
 Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, The. Sax Rohmer. 
 
 Return of Frank Clamart, The. Henry C. Rowland. 
 
 Return of Tarzan The. Edgar Rice Burroughs. 
 
 Riddle of the Frozen Flame The, M. E. and T. W. Hanshew. 
 
 Riddle of the Mysterious Light The. M. E. and T. W. 
 
 Hanshew. 
 Riddle of the Purple Emperor The. M. E. and T. W. 
 
 Hanshew. 
 Riddle of the Spinning Wheel, The. M. E. and T. W. 
 
 Hanshew.
 
 UCSB LIBRARY
 
 000 606 467 9