little table. "Oh, what is it? What is it? It's
me; Letty! Something's happened. I've got to know."

Amazed and awed by the force of this intrusion Miss Towell stood up,
and moved a little back.

Over the wire Steptoe's voice sounded to Letty like the ghost of his
voice, broken, dead.

"I think if I was madam I'd come back."

"But what's happened? Tell me that first."

"It's Mr. Rash."

"Yes, I know it's Mr. Rash. But what is it? Tell me quickly, for God's
sake."

"'E's been 'it."

Her utterance was as nearly as possible a cry. "But he hasn't been
_killed_?"

"Madam'd find 'im alive--if she 'urried."

When Letty rose from her knees she was strong. She was calm, too, and
competent. She further surprised Miss Towell by the way in which she
took command.

"I must hurry. They want me at once. Would you mind helping me to
dress?"

Chapter XXV

"The queer thing about it, miss," Steptoe was saying to Barbara, "is
that I didn't 'ear no noise. My winder is just above the front door,
two floors up, and it was open. I always likes an open winder,
especially when the weather begins to get warm--makes it 'ealthier
like, and so----"

"Yes, but tell me just how he is."

"That's what I'm comin' to, miss. The minute I see what an awful styte
we was in, I says, Miss Walbrook, she'll 'ave to know, I says; and so
I called up. Well, as I was a-tellin you, miss, I couldn't sleep all
night, 'ardly not any, thinkin of all what 'ad 'appened in the 'ouse,
in the course of a few months, as you might sye--and madam run
awye--and Mr. Rash 'e not 'ome--and it one o'clock and lyter. Not but
what 'e's often lyter than that, only last night I 'ad that kind of a
feelin' which you'll get when you know things is not right, and you
don't 'ardly know 'ow you know it."

"Yes, Steptoe," she interposed, eagerly; "but is he conscious now?
That's what I want to hear about."

Steptoe's expression of grief lay in working up to a dramatic climax
dramatically. He didn't understand the hurried leaps and bounds by
which you took the tragic on the skip, as if it were not portentous.
In his response to Miss Walbrook there was a hint of irritation, and
perhaps of rebuke.

"I couldn't sye what 'e is now, miss, as the doctor and the nurse is
with 'im, and won't let nobody in till they decides whether 'e's to
live or die." Rocking himself back and forth in his chair he moaned in
stricken anticipation. "If 'e goes, I shan't be long after 'i