art, when a pert official reached
out his hand with the demand, "Consultation fee, if you please, sir."

"How much?" asked Hobert, leaning against the wall, and searching for
his pocket-book.

"Fifty dollars, sir,"--and the official spoke as though that were a
trifle scarcely worth mentioning. The hands of the sick man trembled,
and his eyes grew blind as he sought to count up the sum; and as his
entire treasure was formed out of the smallest notes, the process was a
slow one, and before it was accomplished it seemed to him that not only
Fleety was turning to a shadow, but the whole world as well.

Somehow, he hardly knew how, he found himself in the fresh air, and the
official still at his elbow. "You are not going to leave us this way?"
he said. "You will only have thrown your money away." And he pocketed
the sum Hobert had just put in his hand.

"Better that than more," Hobert answered, and was turning sadly away.

"Allow me to detain you, sir, one moment, only just one moment!" And the
official, or rather decoy, whispered in his ear tales of such wonderful
cures as almost dissuaded him from his purpose.

"But I am resolved to go home on the Arrow," he said, making a last
stand, "and I must have something to leave my poor Jenny."

And then the official told him that he could go home aboard the Arrow,
if he chose, and go a well man, or the same as a well man; and what
could he bring to his wife so acceptable as himself, safe and sound! And
then he told other tales of sick men who had been carried to Dr.
Killmany on their beds, and within a few hours walked away on their
feet, blessing his name, and publishing his fame far and wide.

Hobert began to waver, nor is it strange; for what will not a man give
for his life? The world had not loosened its hold upon him much as yet;
the grass under his feet and the sunshine over his head were pleasant
things to him, and his love for his good little wife was still invested
with all the old romance; and to die and go he knew not where, there was
a terror about that which his faith was not strong enough to dissipate.
The decoy watched and waited. He contrasted the husband returning home
with haggard cheek and listless step and the shadow of dark doom all
about him, having a few hundred dollars in his pocket, with a husband
empty-handed, but with bright cheeks, and cheerful spirits, and with
strong legs under him! Then Hobert repeated the story he had told to Dr.
Shepard,--