She brought her eyes to earth swiftly. "Who told you?" "All proper little girls do at that age," I reminded her shamelessly. "I see. But we were talking of John Herrick." "Go on." "Don't you think he's splendid?" she continued, turning to me. "He's done no end of good. And he works ... I don't believe he ever takes a real holiday. Doctor Haverill, you ought to get him----" "To come down here for a while? I will--if it would please you." She looked at me so frankly that I was at once ashamed. "Why, of course it would! But I don't know why I said that. I don't suppose he'd take the time." I watched a dragon-fly that was wheeling over the stream.. She sat near me, her hands locked about her knees. "My brother was at your house last night," she said after a moment. "Yes." I could feel her eyes fixed on me, and I knew what was in her mind. "He told you something?" "We were talking about chemistry," I said. "It's a subject your brother is very interested in." "Chemistry!" She put out her hand with a little gesture. "Doctor Haverill, do you take me for a child? What is the matter? You can tell me; he has spoken to you. I want to know." "What do you want to know?" I said, lamely enough. "The whole thing--what is happening here. I know something threatens him, that he is in danger, and neither he nor you will tell me what it is." "How can I tell you," I fenced, "what I don't even know myself?" She was quick. "Then there is something?" I ignored the unfinished sentence. "Miss Lessing, why can't you get your brother to go away from here, for a time?" "I can't. I've tried. He wouldn't leave, now. You don't know him. He's the last person in the world to give a thing up until he's proved it down to the ground, one way or another. Whatever's at the bottom of this, he won't rest till he's found it out. It's just a scientific problem to him, and nothing else." "And you?" I said. "I?" She moved her shoulders. "What can I think? I had hoped just now--But I only know what he has told me, what I have seen. If one began to think----" "Listen to me," I said. "You must not think! You and I are two sane people. Look at these wood around! I ask you, is it possible to feel anything but sane and incredulous in a place like this? I want you to get into your head, right now, that there is nothing--nothing at all in this world--that a man has any reason to be afraid of. And there are very few things in the world, to my belief, that cannot be explained. Has it ever occurred to you that this whole conviction of your brother's may be nothing more than hallucination?" "But the injuries----"