n pain, a sharp, yet aching throb of agony which
involuntarily closed his eyes and clenched tight his teeth until it
should pass. When he looked again, she was gone, and the opening of a
door in the next room told him where. Almost wondering, he turned his
eyes then toward the blankets and sought to move an arm,--only again to
desist in pain. He tried the other, and it responded. The covers were
lowered, and Barry's eyes stared down upon a bandaged, splinted left
arm. Broken.

He grunted with surprise, then somewhat doggedly began an inspection of
the rest of his human machine. Gingerly he wiggled one toe beneath the
blankets. It seemed to be in working order. He tried the others, with
the same result. Then followed his legs--and the glorious knowledge
that they still were intact. His one free hand reached for his head
and felt it. It was there, plus a few bandages, which however, from
their size, gave Barry little concern. The inventory completed, he
turned his head at the sound of a voice--hers--calling from the doorway
to some one without.

"He's getting along fine, Ba'tiste." Barry liked the tone and the
enthusiastic manner of speaking. "His fever's gone down. I should
think--"

"Ah, _oui_!" had come the answer in booming bass. "And has he, what
you say, come to?"

"Not yet. But I think he ought to, soon."

"_Oui_! Heem no ver' bad. He be all right tomorrow."

"That's good. It frightened me, for him to be unconscious so long.
It's been five or six hours now, hasn't it?"

"Lemme see. I fin' heem six o'clock. Now--eet is the noon. Six hour."

"That's long enough. Besides, I think he's sleeping now. Come inside
and see--"

"Wait, _m' enfant_. M'sieu Thayer he come in the minute. He say he
think he know heem."

The eyes of Barry Houston suddenly lost their curiosity. Thayer? That
could mean only one Thayer! Barry had taken particular pains to keep
from him the information that he was anywhere except the East. For it
had been Fred Thayer who had caused Barry to travel across country in
his yellow speedster, Thayer who had formed the reason for the
displacement of that name plate at the beginning of Hazard Pass, Thayer
who--

"Know him? Is he a friend?"

"_Oui_. So Thayer say. He say he think eet is the M'sieu Houston, who
own the mill."

"Probably coming out to look over things, then?"

"_Oui_. Thayer, he say the young man write heem about coming. That is
how he kno