He had stirred once with a low groan.
"The major is dead, but Tom\'s alive, doctor!" she cried through her tears. "He\'s going to live, too—I feel it—I know it—tell me that it\'s so!"
The lips trembled pitifully with the last words.
The doctor felt the pulse and was silent.
"It\'s all right? He\'s going to live—isn\'t he?" she asked pathetically.
"I can\'t tell yet, my child," was the calm answer.
He examined the wound and ran his hand over the blonde hair. His fingers stopped suddenly and he felt the head carefully. He bent low, parted the hair and found a damp blood mark three inches above the line of the forehead.
"See!" he cried, "the ball came out here. His head was thrown far back, the bullet struck the inner skull bone at an angle and glanced."
"What does it mean?" she asked breathlessly.
The doctor smiled:
"That the brain is untouched. He is only stunned and in a swoon. He\'ll be well in two weeks."
Helen lifted her eyes and sobbed:[Pg 457]
"O God!"
She tried to bend and kiss Tom\'s lips, her body swayed and she fell backward in a dead faint.
Andy and Minerva carried her to her room, left Cleo to minister to her and returned to help the doctor.
He examined Norton\'s body to make sure that life was extinct and placed the body on an improvised bed on the floor until he should regain his senses.
In half an hour Tom looked into the doctor\'s face:
"Why, it\'s Doctor Williams?"
"Yes."
"What—what\'s happened?"
"It\'s only a scratch for you, my boy. You\'ll be well in a few days——"
"Well in a few days"—he repeated blankly. "I can\'t get well! I\'ve got to die"—his head dropped and he caught his breath.
The doctor waited for him to recover himself to ask the question that was on his lips. He had gotten as yet no explanation of the tragedy save Cleo\'s statement that the major had shot Tom and killed himself. He had guessed that the ugly secret in Norton\'s life was in some way responsible.
"Why must you die, my boy?" he asked kindly.
Tom opened his eyes in a wild stare:
"Helen\'s my wife—we married secretly without my father knowing it. He has just told me that Cleo is her mother and I have married my own——"
His voice broke and his head sank.
The doctor seized the boy\'s hand and spoke eagerly:
"It\'s a lie, boy! It\'s a lie! Take my word for it——"
Tom shook his head.[Pg 458]
"I\'ll stake my life on it that it\'s a lie"—the old man repeated—"and I\'ll prove it—I\'ll prove it from Cleo\'s lips!"
"You—you—can do it!" the boy said hopelessly, though his eyes flashed with a new light.
"Keep still until I return!" the doctor cried, "and I\'ll bring Cleo with me."
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