She was at a loss for words, and he smiled reassuringly. "It was all a mistake. The man Kenneth saw was looking for me. He is an old friend from up North, and a trusty one. He acted oddly, but—but he is rather eccentric, and he was somewhat afraid that I might not want to see him."
"Oh! then it wasn't a detective?"
"No, only an old friend of mine whom I have not seen for some time. I'm sorry it caused you such a fright."
"That doesn't matter." Mary rose, her eyes on the door leading to the veranda. She stood as if listening. The alternate mumbling of two masculine voices came in on the sultry air. She sighed, looked down at Charles, and he saw that the light of relief which had illumined her face had already died down.
"That is out of the way," she whispered, as if to herself in part, "but something almost as bad has come."
"You mean—?" He stood up to keep her company, and saw her sweep her eyes furtively toward the door again.
She nodded as if he had finished a remark that she fully understood. "Albert says that the doctors held another consultation just before he left Carlin this afternoon. They decided that Tobe must be removed to-morrow night at the latest. He came to tell me and to drive me to town with him in the morning."
"And you are going to—allow him to furnish the money?"
She nodded again, her face averted. "I've tried everywhere, and so has father. This is no time for sentiment. I shall do my duty."
There was a sound of steps approaching through the hall. There was no mistaking that careless, blustering stride. With a startled, almost frightened expression, Mary whirled toward the kitchen and disappeared just as Frazier entered the sitting-room. An instant later and Frazier would have seen the two together.