fast in a small mining camp. Fairchild went to the hospital, and to
the side of the cot where Harry had been taken, to find the doctor
there before him, already bandaging the wound on Harry's head and
looking with concern now and then at the pupils of the unconscious
man's eyes.

"Are you going to stay here with him?" the physician asked, after he
had finished the dressing of the laceration.

"Yes," Fairchild said, in spite of aching fatigue and heavy eyes. The
doctor nodded.

"Good. I don't know whether he 's going to pull through or not. Of
course, I can't say--but it looks to me from his breathing and his
heart action that he 's not suffering as much from this wound as he is
from some sort of poisoning.

"We 've given him apomorphine and it should begin to take effect soon.
We 're using the batteries too. You say that you 're going to be here?
That's a help. They 're shy a nurse on this floor to-night, and I 'm
having a pretty busy time of it. I 'm very much afraid that poor old
Judge Richmond 's going to lay down his cross before morning."

"He 's dying?" Fairchild said it with a clutching sensation at his
throat. The physician nodded.

"There 's hardly a chance for him."

"You 're going there?"

"Yes."

"Will you please give--?"

The physician waited. Finally Fairchild shook his head.

"Never mind," he finished. "I thought I would ask you something--but
it would be too much of a favor. Thank you just the same. Is there
anything I can do here?"

"Nothing except to keep watch on his general condition. If he seems to
be getting worse, call the interne. I 've left instructions with him."

"Very good."

The physician went on, and Fairchild took his place beside the bed of
the unconscious Harry, his mind divided between concern for his
faithful partner and the girl who, some time in the night, must say
good-by forever to the father she loved. It had been on Fairchild's
tongue to send her some sort of message by the physician, some word
that would show her he was thinking of her and hoping for her. But he
had reconsidered. Among those in the house of death might be Maurice
Rodaine, and Fairchild did not care again to be the cause of such a
scene as had happened on the night of the Old Times dance.

Judge Richmond was dying. What would that mean? What effect would it
have upon the engagement of Anita and the man Fairchild hoped that she
detested? What--then he turned at the entran