Then I led them into the darkened room where Quick stood like a statue at the head of the bed, only acknowledging her presence with a silent salute.

She gazed at Oliver's flushed face and the forehead blackened where the gases from the explosion had struck him, and as she gazed I saw her beautiful violet eyes fill with tears.

Then abruptly she turned and left the sick-chamber.

Outside its doors she waved back her attendants imperiously and asked me in a whisper: "Will he live ?" "I do not know," I answered, for I thought it best that she should learn the truth.

"If he is only suffering from shock, fatigue, and fever, I think so, but if the explosion or the blow on his head where it cut has fractured the skull, then----" "Save him," she muttered.