"
It was a great disappointment to him. He hid himself in his room, as was
his wont when disappointed, and went on with his old work at his beloved
microbes.
"I have one hope still," Hilda murmured to me by the bedside, when our
patient was at her worst. "If one contingency occurs, I believe we may
save her."
"What is that?" I asked.
She shook her head waywardly. "You must wait and see," she answered. "If
it comes off, I will tell you. If not, let it swell the limbo of lost
inspirations."
Next morning early, however, she came up to me with a radiant face,
holding a newspaper in her hand. "Well, it HAS happened!" she cried,
rejoicing. "We shall save poor Isabel Number Fourteen, I mean; our way
is clear, Dr. Cumberledge."
I followed her blindly to the bedside, little guessing what she could
mean. She knelt down at the head of the cot. The girl's eyes were
closed. I touched her cheek; she was in a high fever. "Temperature?" I
asked.
"A hundred and three."
I shook my head. Every symptom of fatal relapse. I could not imagine
what card Hilda held in reserve. But I stood there, waiting.
She whispered in the girl's ear: "Arthur's ship is sighted off the
Lizard.
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