Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/298

  Perhaps. . . it is impossible to tell, my dear boy, until to-morrow—very likely not for several days.'

"Again I felt that shuddering sigh which was less a sound than an impression.

It is not for myself that I am afraid, Doctor Leyden,' he said in a few moments. 'There is some one else. . . other people. . . ." My word! One could see his very heart squirming in the grip of his feudal pride.

" 'Tell me all about it, my boy,' said I. ' Life has shown me many of her poisons . . . and their antidotes; perhaps I can help you.'

Thank you, Doctor,' said he, and went on to tell me his story. Briefly, he had several years before committed the indiscretion of running off with another man's wife; not long afterward the husband had died and Dalton had married the woman. His father had cut him off without a penny, but through a friend he had got a billet as engineer, for which his technical education had fitted him, and had in [ 282 ]