en
draughts along the road. She looked through a wire screen that gave
rather a depressing effect to the sunshine.

Suddenly from some distance away there came to her the sound of a
horse's hoof-beats, short and hard, galloping over the stones. It
was a sound that arrested the attention, awaking in her a vague,
apprehensive excitement. Almost involuntarily she drew nearer to the
window, peering above the blind.

Some seconds elapsed before she caught sight of the headlong horseman,
and then abruptly he dashed into sight round a curve in the road. At
the same instant the gallop became a fast trot, and she saw that the
rider was gripping the animal with his knees. He had no saddle.

Amazed and startled, she stood motionless, gazing at the sudden
apparition, saw as the pair drew nearer what something within her had
already told her loudly before her vision served her, and finally drew
back with a sharp, instinctive contraction of her whole body as the
horseman reined in before the surgery-door and dismounted with a
monkey-like dexterity, his one arm twined in the bridle. A moment
later the surgery-bell pealed loudly, and her heart stood still. She
felt suddenly sick with a nameless foreboding.

Standing with bated breath, she heard Dr. Jim himself go to answer the
summons, and an instant later Nick's voice came to her, gasping and
uneven, but every word distinct.

"Ah, there you are! Thought I should catch you. Man, you're
wanted--quick! In heaven's name--lose no time. Grange was drowned
early this morning, and--I believe it's killed Daisy. For mercy's
sake, come at once!"

There was a momentary pause. Muriel's heart was beating in great
sickening throbs. She felt stiff and powerless.

Dr. Jim's voice, brief and decided, struck through the silence. "Come
inside and have something. I shall be ready to start in three minutes.
Leave your animal here. He's dead beat."

There followed the sound of advancing feet, a hand upon the door, and
the next moment they entered together. Nick was reeling a little and
holding Jim's arm. He saw Muriel with a sharp start, standing as she
had turned from the window. The doctor's brows met for an instant as
he put his brother into a chair. He had forgotten Muriel.

With an effort she overcame the paralysis that bound her, and moved
forward with shaking limbs.

"Did you say Blake was--dead?" she asked, her voice pitched very low.

She looked at Nick as she asked this question, and