o him the correct solution. Thus, five years ago,
when the violent death of Matthew Latron threatened to precipitate
trouble among Western capitalists, Santoine kept order in what might
very well have become financial chaos. If his recent visit to the
Pacific Coast was not purely for personal reasons but was also to
adjust antagonisms such as charged by Gabriel Warden before his death,
the loss of Santoine at this time may precipitate troubles which,
living, his advice and information might have been able to prevent.

Having read and reread this long paragraph, Eaton started to tear out
the picture of Harriet Santoine before throwing the paper away; then he
desisted and thrust the sheets out the window. As he sat thinking,
with lips tight closed, he heard for the first time that morning
footsteps at his end of the car. The door of his compartment was
unlocked and opened, and he saw Dr. Sinclair.

"Mr. Santoine wants to speak to you," the surgeon announced quietly.

This startling negation of all he imagined, unnerved Eaton. He started
up, then sank back for better composure.

"Mr. Santoine is here, then?"

"Here? Of course he's here."

"And he's conscious?"

"He has been conscious for the better part of two days. Didn't they
tell you?" Sinclair frowned. "I heard Miss Santoine send word to you
by the conductor soon after her father first came to himself."

"You mean he will recover!"

"He would recover from any injury which was not inevitably fatal. He
was in perfect physical condition, and I never have known a patient to
grasp so completely the needs of his own case and to help the surgeon
as much by his control of himself."

Eaton looked toward the window, breathing hard. "I heard the
newsboys--"

Sinclair shrugged. "The papers print what they can get and in the way
which seems most effective to them," was his only comment.

Eaton pulled himself together. So Santoine was neither dead nor dying.
Therefore, at worst, the charge of murder would not be made; and at
best--what? He was soon to find out; the papers evidently were
entirely in error or falsely informed. Basil Santoine was still at the
other end of the car, and his daughter would be with him there. But as
Eaton followed Sinclair out of the compartment into the aisle, he
halted a moment--the look of the car was so entirely different from
what he had expected. A nurse in white uniform sat in one of the seats
toward the middle of t