at's all, just stunned!"

It was curious how the sense of evil had limited each one's vocabulary.

"Let me help," pleaded Mrs. Porter, speaking for the first time.

"We'll carry him, Misses--he's just stunned," repeated Mike, in a dreary
monotone, as feeling each step carefully with his toe he and Carter bore
the still senseless form into the house. The wife had got one of the
battered hands between her own, and was walking with wide, dry, staring
eyes close to her husband.

"O John, John! Speak to me. Open your eyes and look at me. You're not
dead; O God! you're not dead!" she cried, passionately, breaking down,
and a pent-up flood of tears coming to the hot, dry eyes as the two men
laid Porter on the bed that Cynthia had made ready.

"There, Misses, don't take on now," pleaded Mike. "The boss is jest
stunned; that's all. I've been that way a dozen toimes meself," he
added, by way of assurance. "Where's the brandy? Lift his head, Ned;
not so much. See!" he cried, exultantly, as the strong liquor caused
the eyelids to quiver; "see, Misses, he's all roight; he's jest stunned;
that's all. There's the dochtor now. God bless the little woman! She
wasn't long!"

The sound of wheels crunching the gravel, with a sudden stop at the
porch, had come to their ears.

"Come out av the room, Ma'am," Mike besought Mrs. Porter; "come out av
the room an' lave the docthor bring the boss 'round." He signaled to
Cynthia with his eyes for help in this argument.

"Yes, Mrs. Porter," seconded Cynthia, "go out to the porch; Miss Allis
and I will remain here with the doctor to get what's needed."

"Ah, a fall, eh," commented Dr. Rathbone, cheerily, coming briskly into
the room. Then he caught Mike's eye; it closed deliberately, and the
Irishman's head tipped never so slightly toward Mrs. Porter.

"Now 'clear the room,' as they say in court," continued the doctor, with
a smile, understanding Mike's signal. "We mustn't have people about
to agitate Porter when he comes to his senses. I'll need Cynthia, and
perhaps you'd better wait, too, Gaynor. Just take care of your mother,
Miss Allis. I'll have your father about in a jiffy."

"He's jest stunned; that's all!" added Mike, with his kindly, parrotlike
repetition.

It seemed a million years to the wife that she waited for the doctor's
outcoming. Twice she cried in anguish to Allis that she must go in; must
see her husband.

"He may die," she pleaded, "and I may never see his eyes agai