"Just you, my boy. Haven't slept a wink all night for thinking of the whole ---- mess. Wulf, my lad, I'm afraid you'll have a deuce an' all of a time of it. Thought I'd show 'em there was one man thought none the worse of you. ----! ----! ----! Can't any man make a little mistake like that? Trouble is, most of those other fools have got a pack of yelping women-folk about 'em, and they're all on the quee-vee and as keen on the scent as any old----," and he launched into comparisons drawn from the kennels into which we need not enter. "They all promised not to blab, and they'll none of 'em tell any but their wives under promise of secrecy, and it'll be all over the country-side in a week." "I know it, old man. I've just got to stand it," said Dale soberly. "What's in your mind then?" "I'll just wait quietly and see what comes. I can't expect things to be as they were before." "And if things go badly? ---- ---- ---- it all!" "Then I'm thinking I'll go too." "Where?" "Oh, right away. America maybe, or Canada. It's a big country they say and just beginning to open up. I shan't starve anyway, wherever I go." "But,--to leave us all and all this? ---- ---- ---- it all, man! The place won't be like itself without you. ---- Pasley Carew!" "It wasn't his fault, you know----" "It was his ---- fault putting Blackbird at that ---- Old Road after the run we'd had, wasn't it? I told him he was two stone too heavy for her. But he always was a fool." "He was to blame there undoubtedly. But the rest I take to myself. If folks go to the other man I can't blame them. I shall go nowhere unless I'm sent for." "You'll have a ---- long holiday," growled Barclay. "Well, I can do with one." "I've half a mind to have a smash-up just to keep your hand in." "If you do I'll--I'll turn the other man on to you." "If he puts his nose in here he'll go out faster than he came, I wager you." It was comforting to have so whole-hearted a supporter; but one patient, and a sham one at that, does not make a practice, and Dale very soon felt the effects of the course he had chosen. He adhered resolutely to the decision he had come to to visit none of his patients unless he were sent for. It would be neither fair to them nor agreeable to himself. It might do more harm than good. As to Mrs Carew,--he had visited her immediately after the inquest, and told her briefly that all was right and she need have no further fears. There was nothing wrong with her which a few days' rest and the relief of her mind would not set right. All the same he rather feared she might send for him, and he debated in his own mind whether, if she did so, he should go or send her messenger on to Dr Newman. It appeared to him hardly seemly that the man who had accepted the responsibility for the death of the husband should continue his attendance on his widow.