lded beneath his head.

Mark was dead. She had been a doctor's wife for twenty years, and
before that a nurse. She knew death when she saw it.

"Mark." The word was spoken to herself, but the Trooper took it for a
question.

"Yes, lady," he said. "He's dead. He was still breathing when I got
here, but he died two, three minutes ago."

She got to her knees. Her only thought was to reach his side. She
scrambled across the few feet of ground to him still on her knees and
crouched beside him, fumbling for his pulse. There was none. There was
nothing. Just a man who had been alive and now was dead.

Behind her she heard a voice raised. She turned. A large, disheveled
man was standing beside the Trooper, talking loudly.

"Now listen, officer," he was saying, "I'm telling you again, it
wasn't my fault. The guy pulled sharp left right in front of me. Not a
thing I could do. It's a wonder we weren't all three of us killed. You
can see by the marks on their car it wasn't my fault--"

Edith Williams closed her mind to the voice. She let Mark's hand lie
in her lap as she fumbled in her bag, which was somehow still clutched
in her fingers. She groped for a handkerchief to stem the tears which
would not be held back. Something was in the way--something smooth and
hard and cold. She drew it out and heard the thin, sweet tinkle of the
crystal bell. She must have dropped it automatically into her bag as
they were preparing to leave the house.

The hand in her lap moved. She gasped and bent forward as her
husband's eyes opened.

"Mark!" she whispered. "Mark, darling!"

"Edith," Mark Williams said with an effort. "Sorry--damned careless of
me. Thinking of the hospital...."

"You're alive!" she said. "You're _alive_! Oh, darling, darling, lie
still, the ambulance will be here any second."

"Ambulance?" he protested. "I'm all right now. Help me--sit up."

"But Mark----"

"Just a bump on the head." He struggled to sit up. The State Trooper
came over.

"Easy, buddy, easy," he said, his voice awed. "We thought you were
gone. Now let's not lose you a second time." His mouth was tight.

"Hey, I'm sure glad you're all right!" the red-faced man said in a
rush of words. "Whew, fellow, you had me all upset, even though it
wasn't my fault. I mean, how's a guy gonna keep from hitting you
when--when----"

"Catch him!" Mark Williams cried, but the Trooper was too late. The
other man plunged forward to the ground and lay where he ha