So he was committed for trial at the next Quarter Sessions.
The excitement and gabble were worse than the Dean case, or Federation,
and sickened me, for they were all on the wrong track. You lose a lot of
life through being behind the scenes. But they cooled down presently to
wait for the trial.

"They thought it best to take the girl away from the place where she'd
got the shock; so the Doctor took her to his house, where he had an old
housekeeper who was as deaf as a post--a first class recommendation for
a housekeeper anywhere. He got a nurse from Sydney to attend on Ruth
Wilson, and no one except he and the nurse were allowed to go near
her. She lay like dead, they said, except when she had to be held down
raving; brain fever, they said, brought on by the shock of the attempted
burglary and pistol shot. Dr. Lebinski had another doctor up from Sydney
at his own expense, but nothing could save her--and perhaps it was as
well. She might have finished her life in a lunatic asylum. They were
going to send her to Sydney, to a brain hospital; but she died a week
before the Sessions. She was right-headed for an hour, they said, and
asking all the time for Jack. The Doctor told her he was all right and
was coming--and, waiting and listening for him, she died.

"The case was black enough against Drew now. I knew he wouldn't have the
pluck to tell the truth now, even if he was that sort of a man. I didn't
know what to do, so I spoke to the Doctor straight. I caught him coming
out of the Royal, and walked along the road with him a bit. I suppose
he thought I was going to show cause why his doors ought to have another
coat of varnish.

"'Hallo, Mitchell!' he said, 'how's painting?'

"'Doctor!' I said, 'what am I going to do about this business?'

"'What business?'

"'Jack Drew's.'

"He looked at me sideways--the swift haunted look. Then he walked on
without a word, for half a dozen yards, hands behind, and studying the
dust. Then he asked, quite quietly:

"'Do you know the truth?'

"'Yes!'

"About a dozen yards this time; then he said:

"'I'll see him in the morning, and see you afterwards,' and he shook
hands and went on home.

"Next day he came to me where I was doing a job on a step ladder. He
leaned his elbow against the steps for a moment, and rubbed his hand
over his forehead, as if it ached and he was tired.

"'I've seen him, Mitchell,' he said.

"'Yes.'

"'You were mates with him, once, Out Back?'