e trusted. For an instant Lloyd saw deep down into the
black, mysterious gulf of sex--down, down, down where, immeasurably
below the world of little things, the changeless, dreadful machinery of
Life itself worked, clashing and resistless in its grooves. It was a
glimpse fortunately brief, a vision that does not come too often, lest
reason, brought to the edge of the abyss, grow giddy at the sight and,
reeling, topple headlong. But quick the vision passed, the gulf closed,
and she felt the firm ground again beneath her feet.

"I shall not," she cried.

Was it the same woman who had spoken but one moment before? Did her
voice ring with the same undaunted defiance? Was there not a note of
despair in her tones, a barely perceptible quaver, the symbol of her
wavering resolve? Was not the very fact that she must question her
strength proof positive that her strength was waning?

But her courage was unshaken, even if her strength was breaking. To the
last she would strive, to the end she would hold her forehead high. Not
till the last hope had been tried would she acknowledge her defeat.

"But in any case," she said, "risk is better than certainty. If I risk
my life by staying, it is certain that he will die if I leave him at
this critical moment."

"So much the worse, then--you cannot stay."

Lloyd stared at him in amazement.

"It isn't possible; I don't believe you can understand. Do you know how
sick he is? Do you know that he is lying at the point of death at this
very moment, and that the longer I stay away from him the more his life
is in peril? Has he not rights as well as I; has he not a right to live?
It is not only my own humiliation that is at stake, it is the life of
your dearest friend, the man who stood by you, and helped you, and who
suffered the same hardships and privations as yourself."

"What's that?" demanded Bennett with a sudden frown.

"If I leave Mr. Ferriss now, if he is left alone here for so much as
half an hour, I will not answer--"

"Ferriss! What are you talking about? What is your patient's name?"

"Didn't you know?"

"Ferriss! Dick Ferriss! Don't tell me it's Dick Ferriss."

"I thought all the time you knew--that you had heard. Yes, it is Mr.
Ferriss."

"Is he very sick? What is he doing out here? No, I had not heard; nobody
told me. Pitts was to write--to--to wire. Will he pull through? What's
the matter with him? Is it he who had typhoid?"

"He is very dangerously ill. Dr. P