when I got there to flash
my pocket lamp, until I see him light a cigarette on the club-house
porch. I done as he told me, an' he come out. He wasn't dressed in a
jumper, but just had a cap an' a rain-coat over his clothes. He told
me to stay there, and after I started the engine, he streaked away. He
left about eight o'clock and was back in fifteen minutes. He slipped
me a fifty and told me to take the plane back an' to forgit 'at I'd
brought it out. I ast him had he killed his skunk an' he laughed an'
said, 'I made him pretty sick anyway.' I'd told the boys to have the
flares out at the park as I was a-goin' to test the machine, so I
didn't have no trouble in landin'."

He stopped and rolled a cigarette.

"That's all you know, is it?" the coroner asked.

"That's all I know, so help me Henry--but ain't it enough?"

He looked around at the three of us who had been listening intently to
his story.

"I should say it is," said Simpson.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I LISTEN TO MY FOREBEARS
Helen had come home. She preferred living with mother and myself,
rather than opening up Jim's house, which she had been told belonged to
her. Yes, her memory of past events was still gone, and each night I
sat with her and repeated bits here and there of the experiences through
which she had lived. Every now and then a thought would come to her and
she would be able to fill in parts of the narrative, but this was
seldom. In a way, it was fortunate, for I was able to leave out all the
sordid details of her past and give her only the recollections worth
keeping. As soon as she is quite strong, Doctor Forbes is going to
reconstruct the tragedy for her, and he says he has every reason to
believe that he will be successful in restoring her memory. In the
meantime, she is entirely happy and content, and more beautiful than
ever.

Mary had not spoken to me for a month. Somehow we could not get
together. I realized how hasty and peremptory I had been in commanding
her not to go with Woods, and I tried in a thousand different ways to
make her realize that I was sorry. Whenever I found we were to be
invited to the same dance or supper party, I lay awake half the night
before, planning how I would approach her; what she would say and what I
would say. It was a delightful game to play, because I always came out
the victor. I made her say and do just the things that would make a
reconciliation easy, but when we actually met, it