ere still fixed searchingly upon the white man.
Before their scrutiny, soul-deep, the other's faltered and fell.

"You might help him, mightn't you, Fong Wu?" Mrs. Barrett repeated.

An expression, curious, keen, and full of meaning, was the answer. Then,
"I might if he----" Fong Wu said, and paused.

Past Mrs. Barrett, whose back was toward her husband, the latter had
shot a warning glance. "Come, come, Edith," he cried irritably; "let's
get home."

Mrs. Barrett emptied her cup bravely. "When shall we call again?" she
asked.

"You need not come again," Fong Wu replied. "Each day you have only to
dampen the bandages from these." He handed her a green-flowered box
containing twelve tiny compartments; in each was a phial.

"And I sha'n't have to take any more of this--this awful stuff?" she
demanded gaily, giving back the cup.

"No."

"Ah! And now, I want to thank you again, with all my heart. Here,"--she
reached into the pocket of her walking-skirt,--"here is something for
your trouble." Two double-eagles lay on her open palm.

Fong Wu frowned at them. "I take no money," he said, a trifle gruffly.
And as she got into the cart, he closed the door of his home behind him.

It was a week before Mrs. Barrett again took up her rides for the mail.
When she did, Fong Wu did not fail to be on his porch as she passed. For
each evening, as she cantered up the road, spurring the mustang to its
best paces, she reined to speak to him. And he met her greetings with
unaccustomed good humor.

Then she went by one morning before sunrise, riding like the wind. A
little later she repassed, whipping her horse at every gallop. Fong Wu,
called to his door by the clatter, saw that her face was white and
drawn. At noon, going up to the post-office, he heard a bit of gossip
that seemed to bear upon her unwonted trip. Radigan was rehearsing it
excitedly to his wife, and the Chinese busied himself with his mail and
listened--apparently unconcerned.

"I c'n tell you she ain't afraid of anythin', that Mrs. Barrett," the
post-master was saying; "neither th' cayuse she rides or a critter on
two legs. An' that fancy little drug-clerk from 'Frisco got it straight
from th' shoulder."

"S-s-sh!" admonished his wife, from the back of the office. "Isn't there
some one outside?"

"Naw, just th' chink from Kennedy's. Well, as I remarked, she did jus'
light into that dude. 'It was criminal!' she says, an' her eyes snapped
like a whip; 'it was