And he had brought his punishment on to his own head!
Susie waved a rag-doll at him and giggled.
"Neddy seeps with Susie!" she cried. "Susie nurse him! Mummy's gone with man!"
Brutally Ernie burst into the bedroom.
Two people stood beside the bed—his wife and a man; one on either side of it.
The man was Joe Burt; the woman Ruth.
On the bed between them lay little Alice, wan as a lily, her eyes closed apparently in death.
As he entered Joe raised a hushing finger.
"It's all right, Ern. She isna dead," said the engineer, comfortably.
Ruth, who was the colour of the child on the bed, had turned to him and now wreathed her arms about him.