"But I did--and you did it. And if you think I showed more backbone to go through a thing that hardly took it out of me at all than you to stand this devilish slow torture and weakness--well, it just shows you've lost your usual excellent judgment. See?" "I see that you're one of the best friends a man ever had. There's only one other who could do as much to keep my head above water--and he isn't here." "Why isn't he? Who is he?" demanded King eagerly. "Tell me and I'll get him." "No, no. He could do no more than is being done. I merely get to thinking of him and wishing I could see him. It's my old friend and chum of college days, John Leaver, of Baltimore." "The big surgeon I've heard you and Mrs. Burns speak of? Great heavens, he'd come in a minute if he knew!" "I've no doubt he would, but I happen to know he's abroad just now." King studied his friend's face, saw that Burns was already weary with the brief visit, and soon went away. But it was to a consultation with Mrs. Burns as to the possibility of communicating with Doctor Leaver. "I wrote his wife not long ago of Red's illness," Ellen said, "but I didn't state all the facts; somehow I couldn't bring myself to do that. They are in London; they go over every winter. I had a card only yesterday from Charlotte giving a new address and promising to write soon." "Wasn't he the man you told me of who had a bad nervous breakdown a few years ago? The one Red had stay with you here until he got back his nerve?" "Yes; and he has been even a more brilliant operator ever since." "I remember the whole story; there was a lot of thrill in it as you told it. How Red made him rest and build up and then fairly forced him to operate, against his will, to prove to him that he had got his nerve back? Jove! Do you think that man wouldn't cross the ocean in a hurry if he thought he could lift his finger to help our poor boy?" King's speech had taken on such a fatherly tone of late that Ellen was not surprised to hear him thus allude to his senior. "Yes, Jack Leaver would do anything for Red, but I know Red would never let us summon him from so far." "Summon him from the antipodes--I would. And we don't have to consult Red. His wish is enough. Leave it to me, Mrs. Burns; I'll take all the responsibility." She smiled at him, feeling that she must not express the very natural and unwelcome thought that to call a friend from so far away was to admit that the situation was desperate. Burns had said many times that Doctor Van Horn was using the very latest and most acceptable methods for his relief, and that his confidence in him was absolute. None the less she knew that the very sight of John Leaver's face would be like that of a shore light to a ship groping in a heavy fog. Within twenty-four hours Jordan King came dashing in to wave a cable message before her. "Read that, and thank heaven that you have such friends in the world."