"What do you want?" he said.

"What do I want? What do I want?" repeated Trescott, lifting his head
suddenly. He had heard an utterly new challenge in the night of the
jungle.

"Yes, that's what I want to know," snapped Winter. "What do you
want?"

Trescott was silent for a moment. He consulted Moser's memoranda. "I
see that your little girl's case is a trifle serious," he remarked. "I
would advise you to call a physician soon. I will leave you a copy of
Dr. Moser's record to give to any one you may call." He paused to
transcribe the record on a page of his note-book. Tearing out the
leaf, he extended it to Winter as he moved towards the door. The
latter shrunk against the wall. His head was hanging as he reached for
the paper. This caused him to grasp air, and so Trescott simply let
the paper flutter to the feet of the other man.

"Good-morning," said Trescott from the hall. This placid retreat
seemed to suddenly arouse Winter to ferocity. It was as if he had then
recalled all the truths which he had formulated to hurl at Trescott.
So he followed him into the hall, and down the hall to the door, and
through the door to the porch, barking in fiery rage from a respectful
distance. As Trescott imperturbably turned the mare's head down the
road, Winter stood on the porch, still yelping. He was like a little
dog.

XXII

"Have you heard the news?" cried Carrie Dungen as she sped towards
Martha's kitchen. "Have you heard the news?" Her eyes were shining
with delight.

"No," answered Martha's sister Kate, bending forward eagerly. "What
was it? What was it?"

Carrie appeared triumphantly in the open door. "Oh, there's been an
awful scene between Doctor Trescott and Jake Winter. I never thought
that Jake Winter had any pluck at all, but this morning he told the
doctor just what he thought of him."

"Well, what did he think of him?" asked Martha.

"Oh, he called him everything. Mrs. Howarth heard it through her front
blinds. It was terrible, she says. It's all over town now. Everybody
knows it."

"Didn't the doctor answer back?"

"No! Mrs. Howarth--she says he never said a word. He just walked down
to his buggy and got in, and drove off as co-o-o-l. But Jake gave him
jinks, by all accounts."

"But what did he say?" cried Kate, shrill and excited. She was
evidently at some kind of a feast.

"Oh, he told him that Sadie had never been well since that night Henry
Johnson frightened her at Theresa Page's par