Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/215



N silent fear Harry Harding and Joe Herrick looked at each other; then they turned and went silently down the infirmary steps. Typhoid fever! That would mean that Rupert would be out of everything for the rest of the year—out of athletics, out of the school life!

That it might perhaps mean even worse than this was a possibility which neither of the boys entertained. Rupert was so strong, so healthy, that indeed the most morbid imagination could hardly contemplate a fatal termination to his illness. But that he should be ill—and with such a tedious disease—was bad enough.

"Perhaps it's not typhoid fever," Harry said hopefully, as they walked away.

Herrick shook his head. "She would n't have suggested it might be unless she'd been pretty sure."