Obeying a sign from the doctor, he slipped away and out. Gordon closed his eyes and was still for a long time. His face was white and drawn with suffering.
“Has he fainted?” whispered Louise.
The eyes opened quickly. They fell upon Louise, who had not time to draw away. The shadow of the old, sweet smile came and hovered around his lips.
“Louise,” he whispered.
“Yes, it is I,” she said, laying her hand lightly on his forehead. “You must be good until Paul gets back.”
“I’m done for, so the rest of the criminal calendar will have to go over. You can go back to—God’s country—sooner than you thought.”
“I am not going back to—God’s country,” said Louise, unexpectedly. She had not meant to say it, but she meant it when she said it.
“Come here, close to me, Louise,” said Gordon, in a low voice. He had forgotten the doctor. “You had better—I’ll get up if you don’t. Closer still. I want you to—kiss me before Paul gets back.”
Louise grew whiter. She glanced hesitatingly at the doctor, timidly at the new lover in the old man. Then she bent over him where he lay stretched on the floor and kissed him on the lips. A great light came into his eyes before he closed them contentedly and slipped into unconsciousness again.
Langford rounded up Jim Munson and sent him across with a stretcher, and then ran up stairs for an extra blanket off his own bed. It was bitterly cold, and Dick must be well wrapped. On the upper landing, he encountered Mary alone. Something in her desolate attitude stopped him.