of no use as a fighting
man. He limped after a hard walk; and often with a change of weather he
suffered sharp pain, as if his old wounds were new. But he could stand
a long journey, and surely he would be equal to the work of an orderly,
perhaps something better. If there were dangers to meet in Serbia, he
would welcome them, whatever they might be. To die would be to adjust
things as they could be adjusted in no other way. Since August 18,
1914, John Denin had had no right to live.

The more he thought of it, the wiser seemed the Serbian plan. With
Bradley's money, he could do five times more for the Red Cross fund
than he had hoped to do. What mattered the wrench of parting from the
Mirador? The only thing that really mattered, as before, was saving
Barbara from pain. She would not be hurt if she came and found him gone
on such an errand as this, for it was one which could not wait. Later,
she would understand even more clearly, for he would write a letter and
send it to Gorston Old Hall, where some servant would have been given a
forwarding address. Thus he need not quite lose his friend. She would
forgive his going away, and write to him in Serbia.

Denin calculated that Barbara could not have sailed from England until
at least five or six days after sending her letter to him. Probably she
would not have sailed so soon. Apparently, when writing, she had only
just made up her mind that Gorston Old Hall was unbearable. There would
have been many things to arrange, and business to settle with her
solicitor, friends to say good-by to. She could not possibly reach
Santa Barbara even if she traveled with the most unlikely haste, until
the end of the week. That she should arrive on Saturday would be almost
a miracle. It was Monday now, and Thursday might see him away from the
place where he had dreamed of passing all his days. Now that he had
thrown off the dream, he saw it a fantastic vision. As vigor of body
and mind came back to him, the boundaries of the Mirador garden would
soon, in any case, have become too narrow for his energies. He would
have found it necessary to shoulder some useful burden, and work with
the rest of the world. The hour had struck for him now, and John
Sanbourne had got his marching orders, as John Denin had got them long
ago.

He sent word to Bradley through his lawyer, that the Mirador was for
sale, after all. Next, he telegraphed to the leader of the Serbian
Relief Expedition, in New York,