Before the automobile arrived from Trois Fontaines the fever seized him fiercely. His coughing racked him incessantly now, and the first heavy hemorrhage soaked his grey tunic and undershirt.
They eased him all they could, laying open his broad blond chest and the ribs now terribly discoloured where his fall had crushed them in again under the bandage.
How the man could have risen and come at him again Guild could not understand. He was terribly shocked.
Dreadful sounds came from his laboured breathing; he lay with eyes closed now, one burning hand lying in Karen's.
Toward four o'clock in the morning a far, faint sound penetrated the room.
Von Reiter's eyes opened. "Halt!" he whispered. "Who goes there?"
It was Death. He seemed to understand that, for he sighed very lightly, his hand closed on Karen's, and he lay gazing straight upward with brilliant eyes.
A few moments later there came a rush, a crunching of gravel, the loud purr of the motor outside.
Then Karen opened the door and a medical officer entered the room in haste.
Guild turned to Karen: "I must go to the woods and bring in my men and Darrel. Dearest, are you decided to go with me?"