e.
He ought to pull out quickly."

As the door closed upon the doctor, Donaldson drew a breath of relief.
Thank God he had resisted his impulse. He would keep true to his
compact. He must remain true to himself. That was all that was now
left. There must be no shirking--no flinching. If he had played the
fool, he must not play the coward. The subtle tempter had suggested
the girl, but he realized that he had better not come to her at all
than to come as one who had played unfairly with himself. To be
unfaithful to the spirit of his undertaking would be as weak a thing as
not to fulfill the letter of his oath. His shadowy duty to the girl
would not justify himself in evading a crisis demanding his life for
the life of another, nor would it vindicate the greater evasion. It
was a matter of honor to remain true to that which at the start had
justified the whole hazard to him. It was this which restrained him
even from learning whether or not Barstow was in town.

The man on the bed was breathing heavily, his lips moving at every
breath in a way to form a grimace. He made in this condition the whole
room as tawdry as a tavern tap. And at the feet of this thing he was
tossing his meager store of golden minutes.

Yet it was through this inert medium alone that Miss Arsdale could pay
the debt to the father who had been so good to her; and it was only
through this same unsightly shell that he, Donaldson, could in his turn
repay his debt for the dreams she had quickened in him.

He stepped to the telephone to tell her what he could of that which he
had found and done. The mere sound of her voice as it came over the
wire brightened the room like a flood of light. The joy in it as she
listened to what he had accomplished was payment enough for all he had
sacrificed. He told her that the doctor had advised keeping the boy in
for at least another day.

"Oh, but you are good!" she exclaimed. "And you will not leave
him--you will guard him against running off again?"

"I shall stay here at his side until it is absolutely safe to go."

"If I could only come down!"

"But you must n't. You must stay where you are and do as you 're told."

"It will be only for to-day and to-night, won't it?"

"Probably that is all."

"That is n't very long."

"Not as time goes."

"But it will seem long."

"Will it--to you?"

He regretted the question the moment it had been uttered. But it came
to his lips unbidden.