cialists in Chicago. I'd advise you to
take the night train. Take the rifle along, Wayne, and find out just what
it's done to you."

"That's all very well! But if you'd been reading the papers lately you'd
know that ideas of house-breaking are not necessarily neurasthenic."

"Dear Wayne, lover of maps and charts, let me take this pencil and make a
little sketch for you. _A_ is the chamber above. In that chamber is Nora.
Nora coughs in parting. Then she parts. _B_ is the back hall through
which Nora walks. _C_ is the back stairs which she treads. Watts being
waiting, she treads--or is it kinder to say trips?--with good blithe
speed. _D_ is the side door and _E_ the side porch. Now I ask you, oh
master of engineering and weird mechanical and mathematical mysteries,
what is to prevent Nora from getting from _A_ to _E_ in the interval of
time between the coughing and the viewing?"

Prescott laughed, but Wayne only grunted and ominously eyed the
chimney place.

"There!" he cried, triumphantly on his feet before his sister, as again
came the faint but unmistakable little cough. "A little harder to make a
map this time, isn't it? Talk about nerve specialists--!"

He started for the door, but Katie slipped in in front of him, and
closed it.

"Don't go, Wayne," she said quietly; queerly, Prescott thought.

"Don't _go?_ Kate, what's the matter with you? Now don't be foolish,
Katie," he admonished with the maddening patronage of the older brother.
"Open the door."

"I wish you wouldn't go," she sighed plaintively, arms outstretched
against the door. "I do hope you won't insist on going. You'll
frighten Ann."

"Frighten _who?_"

"Ann," she repeated demurely.

"Ann--_who?_ Ann--_what?_"

"Ann _who!_ Ann _what!_ That's a nice way to speak of my friends! It's
all very well to blow up the world, Wayne, but I think one should retain
some of the civilities of life!"

"But I don't understand," murmured poor Wayne.

"No, of course not. Do you understand anything except things that nobody
else wants to understand? Ann is not smokeless powder, so I presume you
are not interested in her, but it seems to me you might tax your brain
sufficiently to bear in mind that I told you she was coming!"

"I'm sorry," said Wayne humbly. "I don't seem able to recall a word
about her."

"I scarcely expected you would," was the withering response.

"Tell me about her," Captain Prescott asked sympathetically. "I like
girls better than g