She listened intently. "It is necessary in such operations that the patient should, above all, be cheerful and--and happy--" "Oh, yes, ... and I am happy! Truly! truly!" she breathed. "--and brave, and patient, and obedient--and--" His voice trembled a trifle. "You must lie very still," he ended, hastily. "Will you be here?" "Yes--yes, of course!" "Then I will lie very still." He left her curled up in an easy-chair, smiling at him with blind eyes; he scarcely found his way down-stairs for all his eyesight. He stumbled to the grill-room door, felt for the knob, and flung it open. A flood of yellow light struck him like a blow; through the smoke he saw the wine-flushed faces of Colonel Hyssop and Major Brent staring at him. "Gad, Lansing!" said the Major, "you're white and shaky as a ninety-nine-cent toy lamb. Come in and have a drink, m'boy!" "I wanted to say," said Lansing, "that I have a patient in 5 and 6. It's an emergency case; I've wired for Courtney Thayer. I wish to ask the privilege and courtesy of the club for my patient. It's unusual; it's intrusive. Absolute and urgent necessity is my plea." The two old gentlemen appeared startled, but they hastily assured Lansing that his request would be honored; and Lansing went away to pace the veranda until Coursay returned from the telegraph station. In the grill-room Major Brent's pop eyes were fixed on the Colonel in inflamed inquiry. "Damme!" snapped the Colonel, "does that young man take this club for a hospital?" "He'll be washing bandages in the river next; he'll poison the trout with his antiseptic stuffs!" suggested the Major, shuddering. "The club's going to the dogs!" said the Colonel, with a hearty oath. But he did not know how near to the dogs the club already was. V It is perfectly true that the club and the dogs were uncomfortably close together. A week later the crisis came when Munn, in a violent rage, accused Sprowl of spiriting away his ward, Eileen O'Hara. But when Sprowl at last comprehended that the girl and the papers had really disappeared, he turned like a maddened pig on Munn, tore the signed checks to shreds before his eyes, and cursed him steadily as long as he remained within hearing. As for Munn, his game appeared to be up. He hurried to New York, and spent a month or two attempting to find some trace of his ward, then his money gave out. He returned to his community and wrote a cringing letter to Sprowl, begging him to buy the O'Hara land for next to nothing, and risk the legality of the transfer. To which Sprowl paid no attention. A week later Munn and the Shining Band left for Munnville, Maine. It was vaguely understood at the club that Lansing had a patient in 5 and 6. "Probably a rich woman whom he can't afford to lose," suggested Sprowl, with a sneer; "but I'm cursed if I can see why he should turn this club into a drug-shop to make money in!" And the Colonel and the Major agreed that it was indecent in the extreme.