the tide of work-healthy, healed and whole. At last there came the day
when, for an instant, the bandages could be removed. There were present,
Rockwell, Fleda, and Jim--Jim, pale but grinning, at the foot of the bed;
Fleda, with her back against the door and her hands clenched behind her
as though to shut out the invading world. Never had her heart beat as it
beat now, but her eyes were steady and bright. There was in them,
however, a kind of pleading look. She could not see Ingolby's face; did
not want to see it when the bandages were taken off; but at the critical
moment she shut her eyes and her back held the door, as though a thousand
were trying to force an entrance.

The first words after the bandages were removed came from Ingolby.

"Well, Jim, you look all right!" he said.

Swaying as she went, Fleda half-blindly moved towards a chair near by and
sank into it. She scarcely heard Jim's reply.

"Looking all right yourself, Chief. You won't see much change in this
here old town."

Ingolby's hand was in Rockwell's. "It's all right, isn't it?" he asked.

"You can see it is," answered Rockwell with a chuckle in his voice, and
then suddenly he put the bandages round Ingolby's eyes again. "That's
enough for today," he said.

A moment later the bandages were secured and Rockwell stood back from the
bed.