k, stale water, with bits of fern
fronds floating in it.

"Only enough for him," said Honor, her chin quivering. "Oh, Cartie, I'm
so thirsty ... so crazy thirsty...."

"You must take it yourself," said Carter, sternly. "Every drop." He held
the pitcher up to her.

Honor hesitated. "Cartie, I couldn't trust myself to drink it out of the
pitcher ... I'm afraid ... but I'll pour out about two teaspoonfuls for
each of us...." She poured an inch of water into a tiny glass. "You
first, Carter."

"No," said Carter, "I'm not going to touch it. It's for you and the
Kings."

"Carter! You're wonderful!" She drank her pitiful portion in three sips.
"There ... now you, please, Cartie! Just one swallow!"

But Carter shook his head. "No; I don't need it. Shall I take this to
Mrs. King?"

"Yes." Her sad eyes knighted him.

Carter took the pitcher of water to Mrs. King without touching a drop of
it and helped her to strain the fern bits out of it through a
handkerchief before she began to give it to her husband in spoonfuls.
With the first sip he ceased his uneasy murmuring and she smiled up at
the boy. "Thank you, Carter. It's very splendid of you. Won't you take a
sip for yourself?"

Carter said he did not need it.

"You do look fresher, really. You've stood this thing extraordinarily
well. Did you give Honor some?"

"She would take only a taste."

Madeline King's eyes filled. "This is a black night for her, Carter. The
thirst--and the _insurrectos_--are the least of it for Honor."

Carter's eyes were bleak. "But she had to know it some time. She had to
find it out, sooner or later. She couldn't have gone on with it, Mrs.
King."

She sighed. "I never was so astounded, so disappointed in all my life.
One simply cannot take it in. He has been so absolutely steady ever
since he came down,--and so fine all through this trouble! And to fail
us now, when we need him so,--with Honor in such danger--" She gave her
husband the last of the water and then laid on his forehead the damp
handkerchief through which she had strained it. "It will break his
uncle's heart. He was no end proud of him."

"She had to know it some time," said Carter, stubbornly. "Is there
anything I can do, Mrs. King?"

"Nothing, Carter."

"Then I'll go back to Honor."

Something in his expression, in the way his dry lips said it, made the
woman smile pityingly. "Carter, I--I'm frightfully sorry for you, too."

He drew himself up with something of