fore her, only a short distance away, was the garage to which she was
hastening and where she was to wait for Laurie. To go on meant to take a
chance, but she had been ordered not to stop. There was a certain
exhilaration in obeying that order. Crouched over the wheel, with head
bent, and guessing at the turns she could not see, she pressed on
through the storm.

CHAPTER XVI

BURKE MAKES A PROMISE

Burke, dozing over the fire in his so-called office, was aroused from
his dreams by the appearance of a vision. For a moment he blinked at it
doubtfully. Then into his eyes came a dawning intelligence, slightly
tinged with reproach.

Burke was an unimaginative man, who did not like to be jarred out of his
routine. Already that day several unusual incidents had occurred; and
though, like popular tales, they ended happily, they had been almost too
great a stimulus to thought. Now here was another, in the form of a
girl, young and beautiful, and apparently blown into his presence on the
wings of the wild storm that was raging.

Somewhat uncertainly, Mr. Burke arose and approached the vision, which,
standing at the threshold of his sanctum, thereupon addressed him in
hurried but reassuring human tones.

"I've had a blow-out," the lady briefly announced. "Will you put on a
'spare,' please, and take a look at the other shoes?"

This service, she estimated, would take half an hour of the proprietor's
time, if he moved with the customary deliberation of his class, and
would, of course, make superfluous any explanation of her wait in the
garage, and of her nervousness, if he happened to be sufficiently
observant to notice that.

It was really fortunate that the blow-out had occurred. Surely within
the half-hour Laurie would have rejoined her. If he did not, she frankly
conceded to herself, she would go mad with suspense. There was a limit
to what she could endure, and that limit had been reached. Thirty
minutes more of patience and courage and seeming calm covered the last
draft she could make on a nervous system already greatly overtaxed.

Burke drew his worn office chair close to the red-hot stove, and was
mildly pained by the lady's failure to avail herself of the comfort thus
offered. Instead, she threw off her big coat, and, drawing the chair to
the corner farthest from the stove, seated herself there and with hands
that shook took up the local newspaper which was the live wire between
Burke and the outer world