ed to the teeth. Bannister's hat had apparently fallen
off farther down the street, for the man beside him was dusting it. The
wounded prisoner looked about him without fear, but it was plain he was
near the limit of endurance. He was pale as a sheet, and his fair curls
clung moistly to his damp forehead.

McWilliams caught sight of her first, and she could see him turn and
say a word to his comrade. Bannister looked up, caught sight of her, and
smiled. That smile, so pale and wan, went to her heart like a knife. But
the message of her eyes was hope. They told the prisoners silently to be
of good cheer, that at least they were not deserted to their fate.

"What is it about--the crowd?" Nora asked of her mistress as the latter
was returning to the head of the stairs.

In as few words as she could Helen told her, repressing sharply the
tears the girl began to shed. "This is not the time to weep--not yet.
We must save them. You can do your part. Mr. Bannister is wounded. Get
a doctor over the telephone and see that he attends him at the prison.
Don't leave the 'phone until you have got one to promise to go
immediately."

"Yes, miss. Is there anything else?"

"Ask the doctor to call you up from the prison and tell you how Mr.
Bannister is. Make it plain to him that he is to give up his other
practice, if necessary, and is to keep us informed through the day about
his patient's condition. I will be responsible for his bill."

Helen herself hurried to the telegraph office at the depot. She wrote
out a long dispatch and handed it to the operator. "Send this at once
please."

He was one of those supercilious young idiots that make the most of such
small power as ever drifts down to them. Taking the message, he tossed
it on the table. "I'll send it when I get time."

"You'll send it now."

"What--what's that?"

Her steady eyes caught and held his shifting ones. "I say you are going
to send it now--this very minute."

"I guess not. The line's busy," he bluffed.

"If you don't begin sending that message this minute I'll make it my
business to see that you lose your position," she told him calmly.

He snatched up the paper from the place where he had tossed it. "Oh,
well, if it's so darned important," he-conceded ungraciously.

She stood quietly above him while he sent the telegram, even though he
contrived to make every moment of her stay an unvoiced insult. Her
wire was to the wife of the Governor of the State. T