an in Bleachers, he would have sent for me, if he knew I
were at home."

"What you have said interests me very much, Miss Armstrong, or should I
say Doctor Armstrong?"

"I will answer to either designation, Mr. Stranleigh, but I should
qualify the latter by adding that I am not a practising physician.
'Professor,' perhaps, would be the more accurate title. I am a member of
the faculty in an eastern college of medicine, but by and by I hope to
give up teaching, and devote myself entirely to research work. It is my
ambition to become the American Madame Curie."

"A laudable ambition, Professor, and I hope you will succeed. Do you
mind if I tell you how completely wrong you are in your diagnosis of the
subject now before you?"

"In my surgical diagnosis I am not wrong. Your wound will be cured in a
very few days."

"Oh, I am not impugning your medical skill. I knew the moment you spoke
about your work that you were an expert. It is your diagnosis of me that
is all astray. I have no such disbelief in the capacity of woman as you
credit me with. I have no desire to place myself under the ministrations
of either of those doctors in Bleachers. My desire for the metropolitan
delights of that scattered town is of the most commonplace nature. I
must buy for myself an outfit of clothes. I possess nothing in the way
of raiment except what I am wearing, and part of that you've cut up with
your scissors."

"Surely you never came all this distance without being well provided in
that respect?"

"No; I had ample supplies, and I brought them with me safely to a point
within sight of this house. In fact, I came hither like a sheik of the
desert, at the head of a caravan, only the animals were mules instead of
camels. All went well until we came to the edge of the forest, but the
moment I emerged a shot rang out, and it seemed to me I was stung by a
gigantic bee, as invisible as the shooter. The guide said there was a
band of robbers intent on plunder, and he and the escort acted as
escorts usually do in such circumstances. They unloaded the mules with
most admirable celerity, and then made off much faster than they came. I
never knew a body of men so unanimous in action. They would make a
splendid board of directors in a commercial company that wished to get
its work accomplished without undue discussion."

The girl had risen to her feet.

"And your baggage?" she asked.

"I suppose it is in the hands of the brigands by this t