ce. His father, he was afraid, had
got pretty wet. When they got back to the farm-house they found a
telephone message urgently summoning him to town, and he had driven away,
in the open car, without changing.

Rush had meant to telephone but had neglected this--they were terribly
busy, of course, trying to get things done without any labor to do them
with. He had come home Wednesday, on a promise to Graham's kid sister
that he would attend a school dance of hers. He had dressed at home but
not dined there and had seen nothing of his father until very late, about
two o'clock in the morning, when he noticed a light in his room as he
passed on the way to his own.

"I don't know why I stopped," he said. "He was talking and his voice
didn't sound natural, not as if he was telephoning nor talking to any
one in the room, either. He was trying to telephone--to the hospital to
send an ambulance for him. He hadn't any breath at all, even then, and
the thermometer he'd been taking his temperature with read a hundred
and four."

"But--the _hospital_?"

"I know," Rush agreed. "It's pretty rum. He stuck to it. Wanted to be got
straight out of the house without rousing anybody. He was a little bit
delirious, of course. I agreed to it to pacify him, but I telephoned
straight to Doctor Darby and he told me not to do anything till he got
around. It wasn't more than ten minutes before he came. Paula had roused
by that time, and she persuaded Darby against the hospital. She suggested
the music room herself and as soon as he saw it he said it was just the
place. They've got a regular hospital rigged up for him there and two men
nurses. But the main person on the job is Paula herself. The two men keep
watch and watch, but she's there practically all the time. They say she
hasn't slept in more than half-hour snatches since that first night. She
won't let any of us come near him--and Darby backs her up. The doctors
are all crazy about her. Say it'll be her doing if dad pulls through.
Well--she'd better make it!"

There wasn't time to explore the meaning of that last remark for they
were then pulling up at the door. She laid it aside for future reference,
however. She was so fortunate as to meet Doctor Darby on the stairs and
so to get at once the latest and most authoritative report.

He brightened at the sight of her but she thought he didn't look very
hopeful. He said though, that he believed her father was going to get
well. "Medica