nt, go ahead on his own responsibility.
That is the only thing I see to do, Miss Colton. Don't worry; he must be
a man of experience and judgment or your father never would use him. He
will pull it through, I am sure."

I was by no means as confident as I pretended to be, however, and the
next message from Davis proved my forebodings to be well founded. His
answer was prompt and emphatic:

Matter too important. Decline to take responsibility. Must have definite
instructions or shall not act. Is this Mr. Colton himself?

"He would not act without Father's orders in a matter like this. I was
afraid of it. And he is growing suspicious. Oh, CAN'T you help me, Mr.
Paine? CAN'T you? I relied on you. I felt sure YOU would know what to
do. I am--I am SO alone; and with Father so ill--I--I--"

She turned away and leaned her head upon her hand on the table. I felt
again the desperate impulse I had felt when we were alone on board the
launch, the impulse to take her in my arms and try to comfort her, to
tell her that I would do anything--anything for her. And yet what could
I do?

"Can't you help me?" she pleaded. "You have never failed me before."

There came a knock at the door and Johnson's voice called her name.

"Miss Mabel," he whispered, "Miss Mabel, will you come, please? The
doctor wants you right away."

She rose quickly, drawing her hand across her eyes as she did so.

"I am coming, Johnson," she said. Then, turning to me, "I will be back
as soon as I can. Do try--try to think. You MUST, for Father's sake, for
all our sakes."

She left the room. I rose and, with my hands in my pockets, began to
pace the floor. This was the tightest place I had ever been in. There
had been a time, years before, when I prided myself on my knowledge
of the stock market and its idiosyncrasies. Then, in the confidence of
youth, I might have risen to a situation like this, might have tackled
it and had the nerve to pull it through or blame the other fellow if I
failed. Now I was neither youthful nor confident. Whatever I did would
be, in all human probability, the wrong thing, and to do the wrong thing
now meant, perhaps, ruin for the sick man upstairs. And she had trusted
me! She had sent for me in her trouble! I had "never failed her before"!

I walked the floor, trying hard to think. It was hard to think calmly,
to be sensible, and yet I realized that common-sense and coolness were
what I needed now. I tried to remember the