't. Don't
scold me. I had to come. I was going mad."

The Young Doctor had the case well in hand. He had eased the terrible
tension; he was slowly reducing her to the normal. It was the only thing
to do.

"What did Mazarine do or say to you that made you run away? Come
now, didn't you first make up your mind to go to Slow Down Ranch--to
Orlando?"

She flushed. "Yes, but only for a minute. Then I thought of you, because
I knew you could help me as no one else could. Everybody believes in
you. But then Li Choo--"

"Oh, Li Choo! So Li Choo comes into this, eh? So he said fly to Orlando,
eh? Well, that's what he would do. But why Li Choo--a Chinaman? Tell me,
what does Li Choo know?"

Quickly she told him the story of the day when Joel Mazarine had almost
surprised her in Orlando's room; how Li Choo had saved the situation
by falling down the staircase with the priceless porcelain, and how
Mazarine had kicked him--"manhandled" him, as they say in the West.

"Chinamen don't like being kicked, especially Chinamen of Li Choo's
station," remarked the Young Doctor meditatively. "You don't know, of
course, that Li Choo was a prince or a big bug of some sort in his own
country. Why he left China I don't know, but I do chance to know that
if another Chinky meets Li Choo carrying a basket on his shoulders, or
a package in his hand, he kow-tows, and takes it away from him, and
carries it himself.... No, I don't know why Li Choo is here in Askatoon,
or why he's such a slave to Mrs. Mazarine; but I do know that he's a
different-looking man when a Chinky runs up against him than when he's
choring at Tralee. A sick Chinaman told me only a week ago that Li
Choo was 'once big high boss Chinaman in Pekin.'... And so the mandarin
advised you to fly to Orlando, did he? I wonder if it's a way they have
in China."

"But I wouldn't go. I've come to you--Patsy Kernaghan brought me,"
Louise urged.

"Yes, I see you've come to me," remarked the Young Doctor dryly, "and
you've stayed about long enough for me to feel your pulse and diagnose
your case. And now you're going back with Patsy Kernaghan to your own
home."

She trembled; then she seemed to strengthen herself in defiance. What
a change it was from the child of a few weeks ago--indeed, of a few
moments ago! The same passionate determination which seized her when she
faced Mazarine with Orlando, possessed her again. With her whole being
palpitating, she said: "I will not go back. I