's will at
sight of the sign of some other man's loss.

At the end of those interminable nine minutes Burns was back again in
the car. He turned the Green Imp about as quietly as if she were a
cat stealing out of the yard, and sent her down the rocky road at her
slowest speed. At the bottom of the hill he broke the long silence.

"Couldn't have slept an hour if I hadn't come back," he said in a low
tone. "Back and apologized for being a brute. It's eased me up a bit I
think it's eased her, too, poor soul."

"Then it wasn't losing the case," Chester began doubtfully. He was never
sure just when it was safe to ask Red Pepper questions, but he thought
it seemed safer than usual now.

"No, it wasn't losing the case, though that was bad enough. It was
losing my infernal hair-trigger of a temper that's been cutting in like
a knife. I had the boy where he ought to get well if they followed my
precautions a thousand times repeated. This morning his heart was a
whole lot stronger; it only needed time. Tonight his mother let him sit
up--in spite of all I'd threatened her with if she did. He went out like
a snuffed candle. When I saw it I was so angry with her I"--he thrust
up one hand and ran it through his thick locks with a gesture of
savagery--"I let loose on her--poor soul with her heart already broken.
He was the only boy--of course,--I ought to have been shot on the spot."

He sent the car flying down the road. Chester could think of nothing
to say. He could imagine the sort of apology Red had given the boy's
mother--one to make her forgive and adore him. No doubt it had "eased
her." It must have been a hard thing for R. P. Burns, M.D., to do.
Suddenly recalling this he said so, and added a word of admiration.
Burns turned on him.

"Boy," he said, "I'm the toughest case on my list. I'm a chronic
patient. Just as I think I have myself in hand I suffer a relapse.
I break out in a new place. Of all men who need self-control, it's
a surgeon needs it most. Sometimes, I'm in too much of a temper to
operate--just because a nurse has failed to provide the right sutures.
Every red hair on my head stands up like a porcupine's quills--my
hand isn't steady I can't trust my own judgment till I've cooled down.
There's only one hope for me--"

He broke off abruptly, and the Green Imp accelerated her pace as they
came to the long, straight road home. Until they reached the turn under
the elms which led to the town, he left the sent