heir greeting was brief and simple, as between men whose hearts are
charged, and, as soon as he had eased him back into his seat, Donald
spoke with a quick assumption of his professional bearing.

"Now, about our little patient. How is she, Rose?"

"Close to the eternal gates, I'm afraid," whispered the girl, with a
catch in her voice. "Oh, Donald, we cannot let her ..." she turned
abruptly and led the way to the door of her tiny bedroom. The doctor
stepped inside and looked briefly, but searchingly, at the child who lay
there, silent, and the semblance of Death itself. With her lips caught
by her teeth, and her hands clasped tightly together to still her
trembling, Rose watched him.

His next words, spoken as he stepped back into the cabin and shook
himself free of his greatcoat, were brusquely non-committal. "And the
doctor? Where is he?"

"The doctor? Why, he ... he isn't here; he hasn't been here for days. He
doesn't even know that you were coming ... that I had sent for you."

"What? But I don't understand, child. Of course he ought to be here."
Donald's voice was so sharp that it brought the tears, that were so near
the surface, into Smiles' eyes, perceiving which, he hastened to add
more gently, "There, there, of course you didn't know; but I can hardly
hope to diagnose ... to determine what the trouble really is, or where
the growth, if there is one, is located, unless I get a full history of
the case from him and his own conclusions to help me."

"But ... but, Donald, he didn't _have_ any conclusions. He said it was
... was brain fever, first, and then he gave up trying and told us that
Lou had just got to die. Besides, _I_ know the ... the history...." She
stopped, with a little wail of distress.

"'Brain _fever_!' Then who ... the telegram certainly said 'tumor.'"

"Yes, yes. _I_ said that. Oh, I can't tell you why; but I just _know_
that it is, Donald, for little Lou has been exactly like you told me
that baby up north was--the one you saved by a ... a miracle. Oh, don't
you remember? It was in the paper."

Her sentences had become piteously incoherent; but their significance
slowly dawned upon him. To Miss Merriman the conversation was somewhat
of an enigma, and she stood aside, regarding Rose with an expression
half bewildered, half frightened. Had this strange child summoned so
famous a physician, whose moments, even, were golden, to the heart of
the Cumberlands on her own initiative and on the s