“You sabe Mr. Benton—­Charlie Benton?” she asked.  “He in doctor’s house?”

The Chinaman pointed across the road.  “Mist Bentle obah dah,” he said.  “Velly much sick.  Missa Bentle lib dah, all same gleen house.”

Stella ran across the way.  The front door of the green cottage stood wide.  An electric drop light burned in the front room, though it was broad day.  When she crossed the threshold, she saw Linda sitting in a chair, her arms folded on the table-edge, her head resting on her hands.  She was asleep, and she did not raise her head till Stella shook her shoulder.

Linda Abbey had been a pretty girl, very fair, with apple-blossom skin and a wonderfully expressive face.  It gave Stella a shock to see her now, to gage her suffering by the havoc it had wrought.  Linda looked old, haggard, drawn.  There was a weary droop to her mouth, her eyes were dull, lifeless, just as one might look who is utterly exhausted in mind and body.  Oddly enough, she spoke first of something irrelevant, inconsequential.

“I fell asleep,” she said heavily.  “What time is it?”

Stella looked at her watch.

“Half-past four,” she answered.  “How is Charlie?  What happened to him?”

“Monohan shot him.”

Stella caught her breath.  She hadn’t been prepared for that.

“Is he—­is he—­” she could not utter the words.

“He’ll get better.  Wait.”  Linda rose stiffly from her seat.  A door in one side of the room stood ajar.  She opened it, and Stella, looking over her shoulder, saw her brother’s tousled head on a pillow.  A nurse in uniform sat beside his bed.  Linda closed the door silently.

“Come into the kitchen where we won’t make a noise,” she whispered.

A fire burned in the kitchen stove.  Linda sank into a willow rocker.

“I’m weary as Atlas,” she said.  “I’ve been fretting for so long.  Then late yesterday afternoon they brought him home to me—­like that.  The doctor was probing for the bullet when I wired you.  I was in a panic then, I think.  Half-past four!  How did you get here so soon?  How could you?  There’s no train.”

Stella told her.

“Why should Monohan shoot him?” she broke out.  “For God’s sake, talk, Linda!”

There was a curious impersonality in Linda’s manner, as if she stood aloof from it all, as if the fire of her vitality had burned out.  She lay back in her chair with eyelids drooping, speaking in dull, lifeless tones.

“Monohan shot him because Charlie came on him in the woods setting a fresh fire.  They’ve suspected him, or some one in his pay, of that, and they’ve been watching.  There were two other men with Charlie, so there is no mistake.  Monohan got away.  That’s all I know.  Oh, but I’m tired.  I’ve been hanging on to myself for so long.  About daylight, after we knew for sure that Charlie was over the hill, something seemed to let go in me.  I’m awful glad you came, Stella.  Can you make a cup of tea?”