But he won't be back for months and maybe a whole year." "Oh, it's no use hoping, when the three best surgeons in Phoenix give such a report," said Joyce gloomily.

"If it was anything but his spine, it wouldn't be so bad.

We've just got to face the situation and acknowledge that it means he'll be a life-long invalid.

And I know he'd rather have been killed outright." "And it was just before his accident," said Betty, wiping her eyes, "that he wrote to me so jubilantly about his plans.

He said he couldn't help being sanguine over them.