Evidently something of formal character was in his plans.
It was well toward midnight when the leisurely mail wagon arrived at the end of its semi-weekly round and put up at the Company works.

At that hour the company doctor was not visible, so Sim found quarters elsewhere.

It was a due time after breakfast on the following morning before he ventured to the doctor's office.
Doctor Barnes himself was engaged in bringing up his correspondence.
He was his own typist, and at the time was engaged in picking out letter after letter upon a small typewriter with which he had not yet acquired familiarity.

He was occupied with two letters of importance.
One was going to a certain medical authority of the University from which he himself had received his degree.

It contained a certain hypothetical question regarding diseases of the eye, upon which he himself at the time did not feel competent to pass.
The second letter was one to his new Chief, an officer of the reclamation engineers, at Washington.