"Say, Sam—come here a minute, will you? I wisht you’d wake up Cora, an’ tell her get busy fixin’ the breakfast. An’ when you come down, set Sammy feedin’ the hens, an’ turnin’ the cow out. I ain’t able to do my chores, because I got suddently called away. I prob’ly won’t be back till dinnertime, or maybe night. Don’t wait for me, an’ don’t be uneasy. I’ll tell you about it later." She caught up her coat and hat, hanging on a hook on the entry closet door, and put them on while she was making her way across the grounds, in the direction of the big house. She knew, before she crossed the kitchen doorsill, that Mr. Ronald would not be up at this hour of the morning; nevertheless, she got Tyrrell to take a message for her to his door. "Tell’m I got somethin’ very important I wanta say. Ask’m will he let me telefoam it up to’m." Mr. Frank sent down word, "Certainly!" "I got a favor to ask of you, sir," Martha told him without reserve. "Let’s hear it." "Somethin’ ’s happened out to ol’ lady Crewe’s. Miss Katherine, she come to me just now, all upset an’ wild-like. Las’ night, when I see the little Madam, she showed as plain as could be, she’s not long for this world, an’ by now—what with the shock she’s got—she’s prob’ly goin’ fast. Will you telefoam Dr. Ballard, an’ ask’m to come to her right off? He told me, before he left, if any of you folks, here, or _her’d_ reely need’m, I was to let’m know, an’ he’d come, if it took a leg." "But, Martha," objected Mr. Frank, "that’s the point. If we _really need_ him. Are you sure the case is so urgent? Recollect, Dr. Ballard is a busy man. His time is worth more than money. Much more. There isn’t one chance in a thousand, that he could leave to come here, on the spur of the moment, even if I asked him." "He’d come," said Martha confidently. "And I don’t want to ask him—I’d have no right to do it, unless the need is extreme. Is the need extreme? Are you sure of it?" Martha hesitated but a moment. "Yes, sir. I’m sure," she answered. "Then I understand you to say that I am to call up Dr. Ballard. I am to tell him that Madam Crewe is in a critical condition. I am to ask him to come on at once. It is a matter of life or death. That is the message, Martha?" "Yes, sir." "You’re positive? Life or death?" "Life—_an’_ death," repeated Martha distinctly. "Then call up Central, and ask for Long Distance. When you get it, give me the wire. Shall you wait for the answer?" "No, sir. I’m goin’ straight to the little ol’ lady’s now. She needs me, an’—I _know_ the doctor’ll come." *CHAPTER XVII* The "little ol’ lady’s" need of her was as distinct in Martha’s consciousness, as if it had come to her in the form of a verbal message, through ordinary physical channels.