among many which yielded readily to treatment, and proved
triumphantly the gain to be got from a better locality and fresher air,
was first grave, then dangerous, and at last verged on hopeless. Now she
turned to the worst case on her list, and made it her chief care. She
became totally unmindful of the fact that she was thus brought into
constant contact with Harry Ironside, that it was he and she who were
together fighting death, inch by inch, with desperate endeavour, for the
prize which the last enemy threatened to snatch from their hands.
Indeed, so entirely did Annie, like the excellent nurse and kind-hearted
woman she was, lose sight of her own concerns in the interest of her
patient, that she was heard to contradict herself, and record her
sincere thankfulness for the strong support of Harry Ironside's presence
in the light of the valuable aid he could afford at such a time.

"He was thought very clever at St. Ebbe's. He took his degree with high
honours. He was held in much esteem by all the older doctors," she
explained to all who cared to hear. "He is in possession of all the
latest light on his profession. Now, I have heard father say, and what I
have seen confirms it, that though Dr. Capes is most painstaking, and
has had a good deal of experience as a general practitioner, he has no
great natural ability, and he was not in circumstances to pursue his
studies longer than was absolutely necessary to enable him to pass as a
medical man. After all I take back my word. I am very glad for poor Tom
Robinson's sake that Dr. Harry Ironside is here. No doubt we could have
summoned a great specialist from London, but he would only have stayed a
short time, and men like him have generally many critical cases on
their minds. Now Dr. Harry Ironside is on the spot, and he can watch
every turn of the disease which he came to master, and devote his whole
attention to this example. I consider Tom Robinson is exceedingly
fortunate in getting the chance of such scientific treatment."

But in spite of the good fortune and the devotion spent on him; it
looked as if Tom were going to slip through the hands so bent on
detaining him, and to die as quietly as he had lived.

When Redcross realized how even the balance was, and how heavily he was
swimming for his life, the whole town woke up to his good qualities as a
citizen, to what a useful life his comparatively short one had been, to
how many benefits he had conferred without t