e part of the terror seemed to
leave his face, but he was still an alarming-looking object.
Laverick quietly opened the door and laid his hand upon the girl's
shoulder.

"Will you leave us alone?" he asked. "I will come and talk to
you afterwards, if I may."

She nodded understandingly, and passed out. Laverick closed the
door and came up to the bedside.

"What in the name of thunder has come over you, Morrison?" he said.
"Are you ill, or what is it?"

Morrison opened his lips--opened them twice--without any sort of
sound issuing.

"This is absurd!" Laverick exclaimed protestingly. "I have been
feeling worried myself, but there's nothing so terrifying in losing
one's money, after all. As a matter of fact, things are altogether
better in the city to-day. You made a big mistake in taking us out
of our depth, but we are going to pull through, after all. 'Unions'
have been going up all day."

Laverick's presence, and the sound of his even, matter-of-fact tone,
seemed to act like a tonic upon his late partner. He made no
reference, however, to Laverick's words.

"You got my note?" he asked hoarsely.

"Naturally I got it," Laverick answered impatiently, "and I came at
once. Try and pull yourself together. Sit up and tell me what you
are doing here, frightening your sister out of her life."

Morrison groaned.

"I came here," he muttered, "because I dared not go to my own rooms.
I was afraid!"

Laverick struggled with the contempt he felt.

"Man alive," he exclaimed, "what was there to be afraid of?"

"You don't know!" Morrison faltered. "You don't know!"

Then, for the first time, it occurred to Laverick that perhaps the
financial crisis in their affairs was not the only thing which had
reduced his late partner to this hopeless state. He looked at him
narrowly.

"Where did you go last night," he asked, "when you left me?"

"Nowhere," Morrison gasped. "I came here."

Laverick made a space for himself at the end of the bed, and sat
down.

"Look here," he said, "it's no use sending for me unless you mean
to tell me everything. Have you been getting yourself into any
trouble apart from our affairs, or is there anything in connection
with them which I don't know?"

Again Morrison opened his lips, and again, for some reason or other,
he remained speechless. Then a certain fear came also upon Laverick.
There was something in Morrison's state which was in itself
terrifying.

"You had better