"Going to make a call, after all?" was on Chester's lips, but
the sight of something, showing white beside the door in the
lamplight which streamed out upon a small, decrepit porch,
drove back the words.

Burns left a silent engine and strode up the straggling path
with the light tread of the heavy man whose muscles are under
his control. He walked in at the open door without knocking,
and Chester caught the sharp sound of a woman's voice at a
tension, saying: "Oh, Doctor!"

It seemed to him an hour, though by his watch it was but nine
minutes, that he sat watching the little flimsy streamer of
white flutter to and fro in the lamplight, his heart beating
heavily, as a father's will at sight of the sign of some other
man's loss.

At the end of those interminable nine minutes Burns was back
again in the car. He turned the Green Imp about as quietly as
if she were a cat stealing out of the yard, and sent her down
the rocky road at her slowest speed. At the bottom of the
hill he broke the long silence.

'Couldn't have slept an hour if I hadn't come back," he said
in a low tone. "Back and apologized for being a brute. It's
eased me up a bit I think it's eased her, too, poor soul."

"Then it wasn't losing the case " Chester began doubtfully.
He was never sure just when it was safe to ask Red Pepper
questions, but he thought it seemed safer than usual now.