aid Ken suspects
her--his awful silences are insulting--I wanted to--to show her off."

"Nonsense, Doris! But this is no time for squibbling. Scoot!"

"But--you, David!"

"I? Oh! I'm all right. Remember I have Bud. Why, the chap is pulling up
his sleeves and baring his breast to the foe. I'm going to stand close
by him."

Martin's eyes shone.

"David, if anything should happen to you----" Doris paused.

"I'll run down now and then," Martin took the thin, delicate hands in
his. "I'll come--when I feel tired."

"You promise, David?"

"I--swear it."

So Doris took Nancy away. A tearful, woe-begone Nancy who clung to
Raymond with the tenacity of a love that faces a desperate situation.

"Beloved," whispered Raymond, "I'm going to get Aunt Emily out of the
danger zone and then I'll come to you. If this Joan of yours has
arrived--we'll be married, you and I, at once. We don't care for the
society fizz. This epidemic makes you think about--taking joy while you
can."

"Yes, Ken--if--if Joan will stay with Aunt Dorrie."

"Well, by heaven! She'll have to stay. I'm not going to let them cheat
me!"

To this Nancy gave a look that thrilled Raymond as he had never been
thrilled before--it was supreme surrender.

And presently in the stricken city gaiety and laughter seemed to die
away in the black, swooping shadow.

"When you use up all you know," Clive Cameron said one night to David,
"you still keep hunting about for something else, don't you?"

Martin nodded. Both men were worn and haggard. They were fighting in the
front ranks with the men of their profession--fighting an unknown foe,
but bravely gaining confidence.

"The death rate is lower to-day, Bud. Hang to that!"

"I do, Uncle Dave. If it still goes down, will you take a vacation?"

"You are willing to go it alone, boy?"

"Yes!" grimly. "I know I must."

The two men relaxed and smoked peacefully, their feet stretched out to
the fire. Their long day warranted this pause. They were strangely
alike; strangely unlike. Occasionally their eyes met and then their lips
smiled.

They were friends. The blood tie was incidental.

"You ought to be married, Clive."

"Why, especially?"

"A man should; a doctor especially. A wife and children are better to
come home to than a pipe--and a housekeeper."

"You managed to buck along, Uncle Dave."

"Yes--buck along! I couldn't make up my mind to----"

"I understand, Uncle Dave. Miss Fletcher is great stuff