gesting a word now and then. Finally she signed the
paper and handed it to him.

"I think you had better give me those answers now," he suggested.
"Those directed to A. B. C."

From Box 17 she took the letters and handed them over without a word,
and the doctor carefully placed them in his pocket with the others.

"I think you've been very wise in taking my advice, Miss McGurn," he
told her. "It was the only way out of trouble. Isn't that the
freight's whistle? I'll hurry off. Good-day to you."

He stepped quickly across the space that separated him from the
station. On the platform Joe Follansbee greeted him pleasantly.

"A fine clear day, doctor," said the station agent.

"Yes, everything is beautifully clear now," answered Dr. Starr
amiably. "Shouldn't wonder if this were about the last of the cold
weather."

Then he got on the caboose, where the crew welcomed him. As one of the
company doctors he had the right to ride on anything that came along,
and the men were always glad to see him. They made him comfortable in
a corner and offered him hot tea and large soggy buns. But he thanked
them, smilingly, and sat down in a corner. From his bag he took out a
medical journal and was soon immersed in an exceedingly interesting
article on hysteria.

Strangely enough, at that very moment Miss Sophy had run up to her
room and thrown herself on the bed, face downwards and buried in a
pillow. She was weeping and uttering incoherent cries. When her mother
came in, alarmed, the old lady was indignantly ordered out again while
the girl's feet beat against the mattress hurriedly, and she bit the
knuckles of her hands.

CHAPTER XV

The Peace of Roaring River

It is particularly in the great north countries that the season
changes from the lion into the lamb, with a swiftness that is
perfectly bewildering. The sick man was getting well. Over a week
since, Dr. Starr had declared that all danger had passed. And as the
days went by the cold that had shackled the land disappeared so that
the frosted limbs by the great falls wept off their coating of gems,
and the earth, in great patches, began to show new verdure. Then had
come twenty-four hours of a pelting, crashing rain, that had melted
away more snow and ice. After the rain was over and the sky had
cleared again, Madge had gone out and stood by the brink of the great
falls, where she watched the thundering turbid flood as it madly
rushed into the great pit below