nd some of the hospital attendants have talked, and
the gossip is all over town again. So why not send for her? She
doesn't have to marry him just because her presence will revive his
sinking morale--"

"Certainly not. My idea, exactly, Andrew. Well, Andrew, suppose you
telegraph her--"

"No, no, no! I'll telephone her. Remember, we have a transcontinental
telephone service nowadays. She might not realize the vital necessity
for speed; she might question her right to come if I tried to cover
the situation in a telegram. But, catch her on the 'phone, Mrs.
McKaye, and you can talk to her and convince her."

"Oh, that's perfectly splendid! Place the call for me immediately,
Andrew, please. And--Andrew, don't mention to Hector what I've done.
He wants to do it, poor man, but he simply cannot bring himself to the
point of action."

"Don't I know it?" Daney's voice rose triumphant. "The blessed old
duffer!" he added. "I'll put in a call for New York immediately. We
ought to get it through in an hour or two."

XXXI

It was Mr. Daney's task to place the call for Nan Brent in New York
City and while he did not relish the assignment, nevertheless he was
far from shrinking from it. While the citizens of Port Agnew had been
aware for more than two years that transcontinental telephoning was
possible, they knew also that three minutes of conversation for
twenty-five dollars tended to render silence more or less golden. As
yet, therefore, no one in Port Agnew had essayed the great adventure;
wherefore, Mr. Daney knew that when he did his conversation would be
listened to eagerly by every telephone operator in the local office
and a more or less garbled report of same circulated through the town
before morning unless he took pains to prevent it. This he resolved to
do, for the Tyee Lumber Company owned the local telephone company and
it was quite generally understood in Port Agnew that Mr. Daney was
high, low, and jack and the game, to use a sporting expression.

He stood by the telephone a moment after hanging up the receiver, and
tugged at his beard reflectively.

"No," he murmured presently, "I haven't time to motor up-country forty
or fifty miles and place the call in some town where we are not known.
It just isn't going to be possible to smother this miserable affair;
sooner or later the lid is going to fly off, so I might as well be
game and let the tail go with the hide. Oh, damn it, damn it! If I
didn't feel