im his
medicine every half hour. Keep his arms down. I'll have my man Wu
over here as soon as I can get in touch with him. We'll get this
chap on his feet if only to learn what the trouble is."

Downstairs he sought the hotel manager.

"Can you pull him through?" was the anxious question.

"Hope to. The next few hours will tell. But it's an odd case. His
name is Taber?"

"Howard Taber."

"Confidentially, I'm assured that he has another."

"What gives you that idea?"

"Well, we could find no letter of credit, no letters, no labels in
his clothes--not a single clew to his real identity. And stony
broke."

"Not quite," replied the manager. "He left an envelope with some
money in it. Perhaps I'd better open it now." The envelope
contained exactly five hundred dollars. "How long will he be laid
up?"

"Three or four weeks, if he doesn't peg out during the night."

The manager began some computations. "There won't be much left for
you," he said.

"That's usual. There never is much left for me. But I'm not
worrying about that. The thing is to get the patient on his feet.
He may have resources of which we know nothing," the doctor added
optimistically.

"But, I say, that girl is a queer one."

"I shouldn't call her queer. She's fine. She'll be mighty
interesting to watch."

"For an old bachelor?"

"A human old bachelor. Has she any funds?"

"She must have. She's headed for America. Of course, I don't
believe she's what you would call flush. But I'll take care of her
bill, if worst comes to worst. Evidently her foresight has saved me
a funeral. I'll remember that. But "fine" is the word. How the
deuce, though, am I going to account for her? People will be asking
questions when they see her; and if I tell the truth, they'll start
to snubbing her. You understand what I mean. I don't want her hurt.
But we've got to cook up some kind of a story to protect her."

"I hadn't thought of that. It wouldn't do to say that she was from
the hospital. She's too pretty and unusual. Besides, I'm afraid her
simple honesty will spoil any invented yarn. When anybody is
natural, these days, we dub them queer. The contact is disturbing;
and we prefer going around the fact to facing it. Aren't we funny?
And just as I was beginning to lose faith in human beings, to have
someone like this come along! It is almost as if she were acting a
role, and she isn't. I'll talk to her in the morning, but she won't
understand what I'm driv