w.

"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

Red 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 replied. "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--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 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
unwilling ears.

"What's that? Worse? She is