"I supposed that was why you was here——"
"How hurt?" she cried sharply. "When? Where? Tell me; why don't you tell me?"
He looked at her in wonder.
"All I know is just what I heard. And you know how news gets itself all twisted up travelling half a mile. I heard he got hurt at old Loony Honeycutt's last night. Right bad hurt, they said. But I was just asking you——"
"Where is he?" she cut in excitedly. "Now?"
"Didn't you just come out of the hotel?" He looked more puzzled than ever. "Wasn't he there?"
"How do I know? Was he taken there?"
He nodded. "Leastways I heard he was. Last night——"
Gloria did not wait for more. She turned and ran back to the building she had quitted only a moment ago, bursting into the front room, demanding earnestly and in words that came with a rush:
"Is my father here? Is he hurt?"