, Royal?"

"Well, I'm pretty fair to middlin'." The man's face, sunken in his
feeble chest far below the level of Thomas's eyes, looked up at him
with a sort of whimsical patience. His back was bent like a bow; he
had had curvature of the spine for years, from a fall when a young
man.

"Glad to hear that," returned Thomas. The man passed him, walking as
if he were vainly trying to straighten himself at every step. He held
his knees stiff and threw his elbows back, but his back still curved
pitifully, although it seemed as if he were half cheating himself
into the belief that he was walking as straight as other men.

Thomas walked on rapidly, lessening the distance between himself and
Barney. As he went on he began to have a curious fancy, which he
could hardly persuade himself was a fancy. It seemed to him that
Barney Thayer was walking like the man whom he had just met, that his
back had that same terrible curve.

Thomas Payne stared in strange bewilderment at Barney's back. "It
can't be that he has spine disease, that he has got hurt in any way,"
he thought to himself. The purpose with which he had started out
rather paled in his mind. He walked more rapidly. It certainly seemed
to him that Barney's back was bent. He got within hailing distance
and called out.

"Hallo!" cried Thomas Payne.

Barney turned around, and it seemed as if he turned with the feeble,
crooked motion of the other man. He saw Thomas Payne, and his face
was ghastly white, but he stood still and waited.

"How are you?" Thomas said, gruffly, as he came up.

"How are you, Thomas?" returned Barney. He looked at Thomas with a
dogged expectancy. He thought he was going to tell him that he was to
marry Charlotte.

But Thomas was surveying him still in that strange bewilderment.
"Look here, Barney," said he, bluntly, "have you been sick? I haven't
heard of it."

"No, I haven't," replied Barney, wonderingly.

Thomas's eyes were fixed upon his back. "I didn't know but you had
got hurt or something," said he.

Barney shook his head. Thomas thought to himself that his back was
certainly curved. "I guess I'll walk along with you a little way,"
said he; "I've got something I wanted to say. For God's sake, Barney,
you are sick!"

"No, I ain't sick."

"You are white as death."

"There's nothing the matter with me," Barney half gasped. He turned
and walked on, and his back still bent like a bow to Thomas Payne's
eyes.

Thomas went on silent