And then he felt his strength return. He drew her to him as all that remained in the world; crushed her to him; then, very gently, released her a little…He found his fingers threading her fine hair, as they had loved to do when she was a little child.
She sank to her knees beside him, and at last she looked up in his face. "Forgive me, my father," she whispered.
He kissed her forehead and struggled with his voice. "We all make mistakes, Beulah," he said. "I have made mine this twenty-five years, and there—there is the price!"
His words turned Beulah's thought to Allan, and the necessity for action brought her to her feet. "We must save him," she cried. "We must, and we will! Is the policeman gone? We must have the best doctors from Calgary." Looking about she found that Grey and Arthurs had left the room. They had slipped out to leave father and child alone with their emotion, but she found them at the front of the house.
She seized the policeman by the arm. "You must get us a doctor—the best doctor in the country," she pled. "We will spare nothing—"
"My guest, Miss Harris, Sergeant Grey," said Arthurs, and the policeman deftly converted her grasp into a handshake.
"Mr. Arthurs has told me the injured man is your brother. He shall want for nothing. And the sooner I go the sooner you will have help."
"Your prisoner seems docile enough," Arthurs remarked, as the policeman swung on to his horse.
"Rather a puzzler," said Grey. "Doesn't look the part, but was caught in the act, or next thing to it, and his revolver was found lying on the spot where the young man was shot. By the way, I had almost forgotten. One of the robbers was shot and killed. I had to leave his body, but I wish you would send a man up to stay about the place until I can get a coroner out here."
"Robbers, did you say?" demanded Beulah. "Then it was for robbery?"