Bill walked over to the window and ran his thumb down the pane of glass absently. "Jap, have you that mortgage handy--all that business that Mabelle gave you?" Jap went to the safe and took out the packet of papers. "Why?" he asked, as he glanced through the long list of items. "Has my sister thought of anything else she absolutely needs? In another week, I'll owe her more than the cottage is worth." Bill took the documents gingerly. His mobile face flamed. "I--I--want to take up the deeds," he stammered. Jap whirled to face him. "You see," stuttered Bill, "I--that is, we--Mabelle and I, we----" Jap sprang forward, lithe as a panther, and caught Bill by the arm. Drawing him to the light, he looked full in the embarrassed face. "Where is she?" he shouted. "Where is that sister of mine? Where is she hiding?" The girl came from the dark hall, her eyes defiant, her head set with charming insolence on one side. Jap struggled with his self-possession an instant. Then a great, gurgling laugh shook his shoulders as he gathered the pair into his long arms. "Golly Haggins!" the expletive of his boyhood leaped to his lips, "I'm glad the agony is over. Now perhaps we will be able to get the _Herald_ to our subscribers on time." CHAPTER XXIV "Tom Granger got a telegram," announced Bill, coming into the office one morning early in April. "He wants to see you at once, Jap." Jap's face blanched. He looked dumbly at Bill. "No, it's not her," Bill hastened to say. "It's her mother." Jap stumbled awkwardly up the walk to the Granger home. The letters from Isabel had been far from reassuring, and only the previous day Dr. Hall had sounded a warning that the care of the invalid was too much for the girl, taxed as she was in both mind and body. Into Jap's consciousness there crept the thought that she had never fully recovered from those terrible weeks when she hovered over him. Tom Granger met him at the door. His eyes were red with weeping. He drew Jap into the parlor and gave him two telegrams. "This came at midnight," he said brokenly. Jap read: "Mother sinking. Come. ISABEL." "And this just arrived," Granger choked, as the fatal words met Jap's eye: "Mother dying. Come. Bring Jap. ISABEL." "The train leaves in half an hour. I don't have to ask you anything, my boy." Jap turned and hastened away. He did not weaken Granger's feeble strength with words of sympathy. It was the afternoon of the second day when the two stood with Isabel at the foot of the bed. Alice Granger lifted her heavy lids, and a gleam of recognition shone in her eyes. Swiftly those two, the husband and the child, drew near, eager for any word that might pass the stiffening lips. Jap stood looking sorrowfully down on her as they knelt at her side. "Jap," she whispered, "you, too," and her feeble fingers drew him.