"Go to Saint Louis to-night! And neither of you two have had a night's sleep this week!" Marian looked at Burford. His sodden clothes hung on him. His round face was pinched and sunken with fatigue. She looked at her brother. He had slumped back in his chair, limp and haggard. He was so utterly tired that even the shock of ill news could not rouse him to meet its challenge.
Then she looked out at the weltering muddy canal, the dark stormy sky.
"Never mind, Rod. We'll manage. You and Ned make out the exact figures and dimensions for the new bail. Then Mulcahy can take me to Grafton in the launch. There I'll catch the Saint Louis train. I'll go straight to the steam forge and urge them to make your bail at once. Then I'll bring it back on the train to-morrow night."
Promptly both boys burst into loud, astonished exclamations.
"Go to Saint Louis alone! I guess I see myself letting you do such a preposterous thing. I'll start, at once."
"Stop that, Hallowell. You can't possibly go. You're so sleepy that you haven't half sense. I'll go myself."
"Oh, you will. Then what about your watch to-night? Shall I take it and my own, too?"
Burford stopped, quenched. He reddened with perplexity.
"We can't either of us be spared, that's the fact of it. But Miss Marian must not think of going."
"Certainly not. I would never allow it."