doctor," said Pearl.

She ran back up the road and found the doctor talking to Sandy
Braden, at the stable behind the hotel.

"Come on, Doctor!" Pearl cried breathlessly. "I found them. You come,
too"--to, Mr. Braden--"it will take you both to carry him."

Sandy Braden hesitated, but there was something in Pearl's compelling
eyes that made him follow her.

They reached the grassy slope. Mrs. Cavers had made a pillow of her
coat for his head, and was still bathing his face. The doctor hastily
loosened the drunken man's clothing and listened to the beating of
his heart. Its irregular pounding was unmistakable, it was making its
last great fight.

Dr. Clay took out his hypodermic syringe and made an injection in
Bill's arm. Bill stirred uneasily. "I don't--want--it--Bob," he said
thickly. "I promised--the--missus. She's--with me--to-day."

Sandy Braden endeavoured to quiet Mrs. Cavers's fears.

"It's the heat, Mrs. Cavers," he said; "but it'll soon wear
off--he'll be all right soon, won't he, Doc?"

The doctor made no reply, but listened again to the sick man's heart.
It was failing.

Mrs. Cavers, looking up, read the doctor's face.

She fell on the ground beside her husband, calling him every tender
name as she rained kisses on his livid cheeks, uttering queer little
cries like a wounded animal, but begging him always to live for her
sake, and crying out bitterly that she could not give him up.

Sandy Braden, who had often seen men paralyzed with liquor, gently
tried to take her away, assuring, her again that he would be all
right soon. She noticed then for the first time who it was who had
come with the doctor, and shaking off his hand, she sprang up and
faced him, with blazing eyes that scorched into his very soul.

Sandy Braden put up his hand as if to ward off her fury.

Bill moved his lips, and she knelt beside him once more, her thin
gray hair falling over her shoulders. The sick man gazed into her
face, and a look of understanding came into his bloodshot eyes.

"Ellie," he said with great effort, "I--did--not--want--it--at
first," and with his eyes still looking into hers, as if mutely
pleading with her to understand, the light faded from them ... and
the last long, staggering breath went out. Then fell silence ... that
never-ending silence ... and quite perceptibly the colour went in
patches from his face. Dr. Clay gently touched Mrs. Cavers's arm.
"Yes, Doctor, I know ... he's dead." She talked l