hen with that in mind she took food herself--as much as she could
swallow. It was while she was forcing herself to this task that Doctor
Martin came, like an actual presence, to her consciousness.

Why had she not thought of him before?

"Uncle Davey!" she murmured and her eyes filled with tears. Of course!
She would take a cab to Doctor Martin's office and then everything would
be solved. He would take care of her; send word to The Gap; protect Aunt
Doris and Nancy from shock. She began to laugh quietly, tremblingly--she
was safe at last. Safe!

It was after ten o'clock when she paid her taxi driver in front of
Martin's office and dismissed him. Gathering Cuff in one aching arm and
clutching her bag she slowly, painfully mounted the steps without
noticing the sign bearing a new name.

If anything were needed to prove how detached Joan had been for the past
year or two it was this ignorance concerning the arrangement between
Martin and his nephew. Had she not been on the border of delirium she
would have recalled certain things which would have guided her; as it
was she felt, dazedly, for the bell, pressed the button, and to the maid
who responded she faintly said:

"I--I want the doctor." She looked, indeed, as if this were shockingly
true.

"It's past office hours," stammered the girl, a little scared; "but
perhaps if you come in----"

Joan staggered in and, seeing a door open at the end of the hall,
reached it, entered, and sank down in a chair with the astonished eyes
of Clive Cameron upon her!

He was ready for his rounds--was on the way, then, to his hospital; it
was Martin's pet institution and Cameron's first care in the morning.

"I'm--tired," Joan informed him. "Please take care of--Cuff!"

And then everything went black and quiet.

Never in all his life had Cameron had anything so surprising happen to
him. He looked at the girl, whom he managed to carry to the couch; he
turned to the dog whose faithful eyes rather steadied him, then he
applied all the remedies that one does at such times. Eventually Joan
revived, but she stared vacantly at the face above her and did not
attempt to speak.

Presently Cameron called in his nurse.

"I think it is brain fever," he explained to the cool, capable woman who
asked naturally:

"Who is she?"

"The Lord knows."

"Where did she come from? Where does she belong?"

"The Lord knows. She just came in with the dog and then dropped after
asking me to care