The only chance I have of ever
seeing my papers again, Mr. Wallace, is with him. I'll go and drive him
out to Waroona Downs and nurse him myself. I'll not let it be said that
Nora Burke forgot a friend in his hour of need."

"I am afraid the doctor will not let him be moved. I suggested bringing
them in here, but Mr. Gale tells me the doctor said it would be fatal to
move either at present."

"Then I'll stay and nurse him there. Sure it's that woman I'll watch.
I'll go away at once."

He did not detain her. He did not even suggest she was going on a
useless journey. But he sighed deeply as she left the office.

"Little wonder she is a widow," he murmured to himself. "I wonder how
long the late Mr. Burke managed to survive it? I hope they keep her at
Taloona for a month."

But she did not reach there that day.

On the way she met Gale returning.

"And what's the news of the poor injured creatures?" she cried as she
reined in.

Gale shook his head.

"You were not thinking of going out there, were you?" he asked.

"I'm going out to do what I can to soothe the suffering of the
unfortunates," she answered. "Mr. Wallace was telling me. What a
frightful thing to happen to them, Mr. Gale. Sure the awful news was too
much for me to bear, and I just fell like one dead at the sound of it.
You'll see the mark on my face. They tell me I fell against the counter
in the bank and might have killed myself entirely with the terrible
smash I came against the wretched sharp edge, only that I struck it with
my face instead of the back of my head, though it's little thanks to the
bank, seeing the way they made the clumsy thing."

"It's no use your going out to Taloona," Gale exclaimed. "No one is
allowed near the huts where they are. The doctor and Mrs. Eustace are
the only persons allowed to see the patients."

"And by what right is that woman there?"

"The best right of all, Mrs. Burke. Had it not been for her splendid
courage, they would both have been dead long before the doctor could
reach them. She is the only one Mr. Dudgeon will bear near him."

"Oh."

For once the voluble Irish tongue was reduced to the use of a simple
monosyllable, but into the word there was thrown as much venom as would
have taken a hundred of the snakes St. Patrick banished from the island
to supply.

"So it is fortunate I met you, otherwise you would have had a drive for
nothing," Gale added.

"And how's the sub-inspector?"

"The docto