the month closed there was a second, similar to the first. The press
did not give such matters to the public in those days; it would only
make the public--the advertising public--angry. Times have changed
since--faced clear about: but at that period Dr. Sevier, who hated a
secret only less than a falsehood, was right in speaking as he did.

"Now you'll see," he said, pointing downward aslant, "the whole
community stick its head in the sand!" He sent for Richling.

"I give you fair warning," he said. "It's coming."

"Don't cases occur sometimes in an isolated way without--anything
further?" asked Richling, with a promptness which showed he had already
been considering the matter.

"Yes."

"And might not this"--

"Richling, I give you fair warning."

"Have you sent your cousins away, Doctor?"

"They go to-morrow." After a silence the Doctor added: "I tell you now,
because this is the time to decide what you will do. If you are not
prepared to take all the risks and stay them through, you had better go
at once."

"What proportion of those who are taken sick of it die?" asked Richling.

"The proportion varies in different seasons; say about one in seven or
eight. But your chances would be hardly so good, for you're not strong,
Richling, nor well either."

Richling stood and swung his hat against his knee.

"I really don't see, Doctor, that I have any choice at all. I couldn't
go to Mary--when she has but just come through a mother's pains and
dangers--and say, 'I've thrown away seven good chances of life to run
away from one bad one.' Why, to say nothing else, Reisen can't spare
me." He smiled with boyish vanity.

"O Richling, that's silly!"

"I--I know it," exclaimed the other, quickly; "I see it is. If he could
spare me, of course he wouldn't be paying me a salary." But the Doctor
silenced him by a gesture.

"The question is not whether he can spare you, at all. It's simply, can
you spare him?"

"Without violating any pledge, you mean," added Richling.

"Of course," assented the physician.

"Well, I can't spare him, Doctor. He has given me a hold on life, and no
one chance in seven, or six, or five is going to shake me loose. Why, I
tell you I couldn't look Mary in the face!"

"Have your own way," responded the Doctor. "There are some things in
your favor. You frail fellows often pull through easier than the big,
full-blooded ones."

"Oh, it's Mary's way too, I feel certain!" retorted Richling, g