the same experience? Why, I am simply bound to know
that fellow, that's all there is about it."

"Tut, tut! Certainly you shall know him. But not now, when you are too
weak to walk and he is suffering even more pain. Rest easy, now; be as
calm as you can and soon you and the other patient may talk it all over
together."

"Say, haven't you seen anybody around his room coming to see him?"

"Um! Let me think." And she knitted her brows and shaped that small
mouth to a Cupid's bow, whence many an arrow has shot through me. "Why,
I can't say." And she smiled teasingly.

"Come, you must have some idea. How far from here is his room?"

"Why, yes; I do remember seeing some one there a few times. It was his
little girl."

"Oh, I see, a married man. Egad, I remember a man in the house next door
who had a little girl. She was an awfully sweet little thing--dimples in
her cheeks; little curls down at the side over her ears--most generally,
though, wagging around in front. I've often seen him kiss her so
tenderly. She was so pretty! Well, there's nothing like it."

CHAPTER XII

The old joke that a woman can't keep a secret still appears in many
variations to illuminate the mind of the waiting man, driven to
lithographed hilarity in the barber-shop comics. In real life, when not
under the spell of this brilliant six-colored wit, we find ourselves at
a disadvantage frequently, because women keep their secrets too well.
Hygeia was loyal to Gabrielle, and together they shielded Jim Hosley
from his pursuers, and among the latter I was reckoned as one of the
most dangerous.

Mr. Tescheron was soon convinced that Hoboken was the place he should
tarry. It might appear that a day or two of rest in that place would
have satisfied him that he might return to New York, but there was a
good reason why he should not take the risk of living in his own home.
And this reason strengthened Gabrielle in the belief that I had notified
the coroner of the Browning case and really entertained the same view
of Hosley as her father. On the third day after their arrival at the
Stuffer House, Mr. Tescheron received this letter from the manager of
his company, Mr. King, who wrote from the market:

"A man came to this office this morning with a coroner's subpoena
for you to testify in the Browning case. I read it carefully and
noted that it was signed by Coroner Flanagan. The man told me he had
been up to your house in Ninety-sixt