"Will you ride home, Miss Photographer?" Burns called. "Or do you prefer
trudging all the way back with that camera and tripod?"

"I'm delighted to ride, Dr. Burns," replied Charlotte Ruston.
"Captivating roadside views enticed me much farther than I intended,
and the camera weighs twice what it did when I started."

"Jump in, then, and let me give you a piece of good news I'm bursting
with," and Burns held out his hand for the camera. "You're getting a
beautiful sunburn on that right cheek," he commented.

"I'll burn the left to match it, if you won't drive too fast. You'll have
to go a little slower while you talk. I've noticed you're always silent
when you're scorching along the road."

"So I am, I believe. Well, I'm not going to be silent now. I've just come
from seeing Jamie Ferguson put on the road to future health and
happiness, the good Lord willing--and I've a notion He is."

"Jamie--the little cripple who lies on his back?"

"The same. He'll lie on his back some time longer and then, I think,
he'll get up."

"You operated on him to-day? How glad I am!"

"No, I didn't operate. It took a better man than I. I've never done
this particular stunt, and Jamie was not a patient for experiment. Jack
Leaver did the trick, and a finished trick it was, too. I'm so full of
enthusiasm over his performance that I'm bursting with it, as I warned
you."

Charlotte Ruston had turned suddenly to face him. As he looked at her,
with this announcement, he had a view of lovely, startled eyes.

"What's the matter?" he asked, wondering. He had to look ahead at the
road, but he cut down on the Imp's speed, so that he could spare a glance
at his companion again. "You look as if I'd given you bad news instead of
good."

"Oh, no!--oh, no!" she said, in odd, short breaths. "It's
great--wonderful! Poor little fellow! I'm very glad. You said--Dr.
Leaver did it? I was simply--surprised."

"Did it brilliantly. But there's no occasion for surprise about that.
Having been in Baltimore as much as you have, you must know his position
there. There's nobody with a bigger reputation."

"But I thought he had been--ill?"

"Tired out. Small wonder, at the pace he was going--the working pace, I
mean. He never let up on himself. I got him here to rest up. He would
have been off long ago if I would have given him leave, but I had his
promise to keep away from work till he was thoroughly fit for it, so I've
made the most of my chance. I sha