"Fine, doctor. Wouldn't know I had one if it were not for these bandages. And your arm, sir?" he added, with a smile of recognition toward the elderly man. "Doing fairly, thank you. It is broken, but our friend here thinks it will come along all right." The doctor, with a nod of approval returned the watch to his pocket and was preparing to leave when his patient detained him with a question. "I have not been able to locate myself. This is not a hospital, is it?" "Hardly," smiled the other, "although it answers the purpose admirably. This is the Brownstone Hotel." "With rooms at twenty per!" gasped the invalid. "Doctor, some one has blundered. After buying my railroad ticket I had just four dollars left, and no chance in the world of getting hold of any more until I connect with a job." The men laughed. "I must be going," said the doctor. "You two can chat for a while. Don't tire yourself out, young man, and in a day or two you will be fit as a fiddle. Wish I had your physique! That system of yours is a natural shock absorber. We run across them once in a long while--half-killed one day and back the next hunting for more on the rebound." At the door he paused: "Take care of yourself, eat anything that looks good to you, smoke if you want to, talk, read, sleep, and in the morning we will let you get up and stretch your legs. Good by!" "Some doctor, that," laughed the patient. "Does a man good just to hear him talk. Most of them go away leaving the patient guessing whether the next visit will be from them or the undertaker--and rather hoping for the latter. But with this fellow the professional man is swallowed up in the human being--he fairly radiates life." The other smiled as he settled himself into the chair near the bedside, vacated by the physician. "Yes, he is a great doctor. Stands well toward the head of his profession. We have no finer in the Northwest." Young Carmody's face clouded. "But how am I to pay for all this? It is all well enough for you to laugh, but to me it is a serious matter. I----" "Young man, you are my guest. I don't know who you are, nor where you came from, but, by gad, I know a man when I see one! From the time you sat in that game to save that poor young fool from being fleeced until you dove into that black hole and throttled that skunk----" "They caught him, did they?" "Caught him! They had to pry him loose! You have got the grip of the devil himself. The police surgeon told me they would have to put a whole new set of plumbing in his throat. Said he wouldn't have believed that any living thing, short of a gorilla, could have clamped down that hard with one hand. "And there I had to lie pinned down and watch him go through a dead man's pockets--it was our friend the reporter. And then he turned around and calmly went through mine. Gad! If I'd had a gun! All the time he kept up a run of talk, joking about the wreck and the easy pickings it gave him.