"We can fix it up with the doctor."
At this moment Dr. Burke joined them, quiet, business-like, anxious.
"She has all the symptoms of a bad attack of appendicitis. There's only one thing to do; get her to the hospital at once. I'll get my hat and join you."
"Drive to—drive to the hospital?" said Troutman, with a gasp, "right through the whole city, right in the face of every one?"
"Don't be a fool, Dink," said Schley nervously. "We'll fix up Burke; we'll give him a hundred to take her and shut up."
Stover, too, saw the danger and the inevitable scandal. He saw, also, that they were no longer men as he had thought. The thin veneer had disappeared—they were boys, terrified, aghast at a crisis beyond their strength.
"You're right, it would queer you," he said abruptly. "Clear out—both of you."
"And you?"
"You're going to stay?" said Schley. Neither could face his eyes.