to another part of the house, where they entered a darkened
chamber and together stood beside a low, narrow couch strewn with
fragrant flowers. Together, without a word or a tear, they gazed on the
peaceful face of this sleeper, wrapped in the breathless, dreamless
slumber we call death. They recalled the years since he had come to
them, the dying bequest of their youngest sister, a little,
golden-haired prattler, to fill their home with the music of his
childish voice and the sunshine of his smile. Already the great house
seemed strangely silent without his ringing laughter, his bursts of
merry song.

But of whatever bitter grief stirred their hearts, this silent brother
and sister, so long accustomed to self-restraint and self-repression,
gave no sign. Gently she replaced the covering over the face of the
sleeper, and silently they left the room. Not until they again reached
the door of Darrell's room was the silence broken; then the brother
said, in low tones,--

"Marcia, we've done all for the dead that can be done; it's the living
who needs our care now."

"Yes," she replied, quietly, "I was going to see what I could do for him
when you had put him to bed."

"Bennett is in there now, and I'm going downstairs to wait for Dr.
Bradley; he telephoned that he'd be up in twenty minutes."

"Very well; I'll sit by him till the doctor comes."

When Dr. Bradley arrived he found Darrell in a state of coma from which
it was almost impossible to arouse him. From Mr. Underwood and his
sister he learned whatever details they could furnish, but from the
patient himself very little information could be obtained.

"He has this fever that is prevailing in the mountainous districts, and
has it in its worst form," he said, when about to take leave. "Of
course, having just come from the East, it would be worse for him in any
event than if he were acclimated; but aside from that, the cerebral
symptoms are greatly aggravated owing to the nervous shock which he
received last night. To witness an occurrence of that sort would be more
or less of a shock to nerves in a normal state, but in the condition in
which he was at the time, it is likely to produce some rather serious
complications. Follow these directions which I have written out, and
I'll be in again in a couple of hours."

But in two hours Darrell was delirious.

"Has he recognized any one since I was here?" Dr. Bradley inquired, as
he again stood beside the patient.