"Something catching, eh?"

"Something that might turn out to be catching."

Jocelyn Thew shrugged his shoulders and accepted what amounted almost
to a little nod of dismissal. He ascended the staircase thoughtfully
and came face to face with Katharine Beverley, issuing from the music
room. She greeted him with a little exclamation of relief.

"Mr. Thew," she exclaimed, "I have been looking for you everywhere.
Doctor Gant thinks," she added, lowering her voice, "that if you wish
to see his patient alive, you had better come at once." "There is a
change in his condition, then?"

"Yes," she told him gravely.

He stood for a moment thinking rapidly. The girl shivered a little as
she watched the change in his face. Her hospital training had not
lessened her awe and sympathy in the face of death, and it was so
entirely obvious that Jocelyn Thew was considering only what influence
upon his plans this event might have. Finally he turned and descended
the stairs by her side.

"I am not at all sure that it is wise of me to come," he said.
"However, if he is asking for me I suppose I had better."

They made their way into the commodious stateroom upon the saloon
deck, which had been secured for the sick man. He lay upon a small
hospital bed, nothing of him visible save his haggard face, with its