another complication as they moved across the yard.

A few words to the astonished Mrs. Ginnell sufficed to secure all her
vacant rooms, four in number. Anderson put his father in one on the
ground floor, then shut the door on him and went back to the woman of
the house. She stood looking at him, flushed, in a bewildered silence.
But she and her husband owed various kindnesses to Anderson, and he
quickly made up his mind.

In a very few words he quietly told her the real facts, confiding them
both to her self-interest and her humanity. McEwen was to be her only
lodger till the next step could be determined. She was to wait on him,
to keep drink from him, to get him clothes. Her husband was to go out
with him, if he should insist on going out; but Anderson thought his
injury would keep him quiet for a day or two. Meanwhile, no babbling to
anybody. And, of course, generous payment for all that was asked
of them.

But Mrs. Ginnell understood that she was being appealed to not only
commercially, but as a woman with a heart in her body and a good share
of Irish wit. That moved and secured her. She threw herself nobly into
the business. Anderson might command her as he pleased, and she answered
for her man. Renewed groans from the room next door disturbed them. Mrs.
Ginnell went in to answer them, and came out demanding a doctor. The
patient was in much pain, the wounds looked bad, and she
suspected fever.

"Yo can't especk places to heal with such as him," she said, grimly.

With doggedness, Anderson resigned himself. He went to the station and
sent a wire to Field for a doctor. What would happen when he arrived he
did not know. He had made no compact with his father. If the old man
chose to announce himself, so be it. Anderson did not mean to bargain
or sue. Other men have had to bear such burdens in the face of the
world. Should it fall to him to be forced to take his up in like manner,
let him set his teeth and shoulder it, sore and shaken as he was. He
felt a fierce confidence that could still make the world respect him.

An hour passed away. An answer came from Field to the effect that a
doctor would be sent up on a freight train just starting, and might be
expected shortly.

While Mrs. Ginnell was still attending on her lodger, Anderson went out
into the starlight to try and think out the situation. The night was
clear and balmy. The high snows glimmered through the lingering
twilight, and in the air there was