“Oh, Joe!” Mabel cried, as she knelt down and took Jim’s head on her knee. “What has happened to him? Is he dead?”
“Nothing like that, honey,” Joe reassured her, as he felt for Jim’s heart and noted that it was beating. “Just fainted I guess. We’ll have him all right in a jiffy.”
He rushed for some water, which he dashed into Jim’s face. Then he tore off Jim’s collar and chafed his wrists so vigorously that in a few moments Jim opened his eyes.
He encountered those of Mabel and essayed to smile.
“Hello, Mabel!” he said as he tried to get up. “What seems to have happened to me? This is a nice reception to give you, isn’t it?” he added sheepishly.
“Oh, I’m so thankful to hear you speak,” sobbed Mabel. “I feared at first that you were dead.”
“Oh, I’m worth a dozen dead men yet,” returned Jim, as Joe helped him into a chair. “Never felt better in my life than I did this morning. Don’t know what came over me. Must have tripped over something and hit my head. It’s whirling yet a bit. No, it wasn’t a fall either. Don’t think I got up from this chair after Joe left. Must have had a touch of vertigo and slipped from the chair. That’s funny, too. Never had anything like that happen to me before. Last thing I remember I was reading Clara’s letter. Where is it?” he asked, as he looked around.
Joe picked it up from the floor and handed it to him.
“Nothing in the letter itself to upset you, was there?” asked Joe.