t now, dear Tom, while you can. It will kill you, body and
soul."

A thought struggled in Tom's dull brain. There was something he wanted
to say to her which must be said; but she was gone.

He drank again from the cup that hung beside the pump. Where did he get
this burning thirst, and his head, how it pounded! She had told him to
go home. Well, why wasn't he at home? What was he doing here?

Slowly his memory came back--he had come for the doctor; and the doctor
was to be back in an hour, and now it was nearly morning, didn't she
say?

He tried to run, but his knees failed him--what about Arthur? He grew
chill at the thought--he might be dead by this time.

He reached the doctor's office some way. His head still throbbed and
his feet were heavy as lead; but his mind was clear.

A lamp was burning in the office but no one was in. It seemed a month
ago since he had been there before. The air of the office was close and
stifling, and heavy with stale tobacco smoke. Tom sat down, wearily, in
the doctor's armchair; his heart beat painfully--he'll be dead--he'll
be dead--he'll be dead--it was pounding. The clock on the table was
saying it too. Tom got up and walked up and down to drown the sound. He
stopped before a cabinet and gazed horrified at a human skeleton that
grinned evilly at him. He opened the door hastily, the night wind
fanned his face. He sat down upon the step, thoroughly sober now, but
sick in body and soul.

Soon a heavy step sounded on the sidewalk, and the old doctor came into
the patch of light that shone from the door.

"Do you want me?" he asked as Tom stood up.

"Yes," Tom answered; "at once."

"What's wrong?" the doctor asked brusquely.

Tom told him as well as he could.

"Were you here before, early in the evening?"

Tom nodded.

"Hurry up then and get your horse," the doctor said, going past him
into the office.

"Yes, I thought so," the doctor said gathering up his instruments. "I
ought to know the signs--well, well, the poor young Englishman has had
plenty of time to die from ten in the evening till four the next
morning, without indecent haste either, while this young fellow was
hitting up the firewater. Still, God knows, I shouldn't be hard on him.
I've often kept people waiting for the same reason and," he added
grimly, "they didn't always wait either."

When Tom and the old doctor drove into the yard everything was silent.
The wind had fallen, and the eastern sky was brig