"No." He paused to think, intently, though his face was twitching from pain. Then he went on hurriedly, "It's just as well--it's better she shouldn't know.... She'll come back. Put a note where she's sure to find it--just say that we've gone driving and won't be back till late, and that she's to look after her grandfather; that she's not to leave the house; that Ben will be there, so she needn't feel nervous. Say that and nothing more. Then get your hat and things and something to put around my arm and another coat for me--I want you to drive me into the city as fast as you can. I'd not take you with me, but I can't manage by myself." "Coats! You can't go all that way with your arm like that! You've got to have a doctor!" Every word he had uttered made her the more certain that there had been a tragedy, something so terrible that he was afraid of arrest. He was afraid to tell her, and she was afraid to ask him. "You can't go like that," she reiterated helplessly. "You'll bleed to death." The thought of it made her sick. Coats broke into sudden impatience. "I'm going to a doctor! We can't have a doctor from the Ridge! I want to get to the city as fast as I can. It's the only way. I know what I'm about--I'm trying to do what's best for us all--I've had time to think. Ann and your father mustn't know--what's not known can't be told. I'll explain while we're on our way. Go and do what I told you, then come and hitch up Billy--he's the best traveler.... Hurry, Sue--God knows what I'd do if I hadn't you to help me." His voice failed at the end; he was panting from exhaustion. Sue obeyed without a word. XXX CONTENT Twenty minutes later, when Ann came out from beneath the pines at the edge of the woods and started down through the fields to the house, she saw Sue and Coats driving away from the barn. She could not see distinctly, they were too far away, but she noticed that they were going fast. Evidently they had had supper and were going somewhere together, as they so often did. Ann had not realized how late it was until the sun touched the horizon. She was reminded then that it was past the supper hour and that they would wonder what had become of her. She must have sat for two hours there, under the pines, simply thinking of her happiness. She had wanted to be alone with it, just as long as she could be. Once she had carried her grief and her desolation to that place; it seemed the right place to come with her joy.