He changes his mind and rides back upstairs. He enters the telegraph
operators' room, where five men are at work receiving special
intelligence.

"Get Collingwood, boys."

"That drops off at Detroit. Collingwood's a day job."

The instrument is clicking. The operator takes each word as the
laborious Corkey, with short pencil, presses it into the buff-colored
paper.

CHICAGO, 14.--Let it be! Will be at Collingwood to-morrow.
CORKEY.




CHAPTER VII

A RASH ACT

David Lockwin reads the letter of Dr. Tarpion with horror.

"Heavens and earth!" he cries, and pulls at his hair, rubs his eyes and
stamps on the floor. "Heavens and earth!" This, an edifice built with
the patience and cunning of a lover, must fall to nothing.

He is as dead to Esther as on the day the yawl danced on the shining
sands of Georgian Bay.