David sprang to answer the call, and the girls heard him say:—­

“No, sir, he is not in.—­He went out about an hour ago.—­We expect him every minute now.—­Yes, sir, I will.”

The boy came back looking a little excited.

“It was Uncle David!” he told them.  “He says he is sick, and he wants Dr. Dudley to come over.”

“Oh, dear,” scowled Polly; “I hope ther is n’t anything bad the matter with him!”

“It is the first time I ever spoke to him,” said David slowly.  “But, of course, he did n’t know it was I that was talking.”

“There’s the Doctor!” cried Leonora, as a runabout stopped at the entrance.

“Shall I go tell him?” and Polly started.  But the lad was already on his way.

“Let me, please!” he answered.  “I want to do that much for Uncle David.”

“I thought it might tire him to go fast,” murmured Polly, apologetically, as she joined Leonora at the window.

“He’ll get all out of breath!” worried Leonora.  “Just see him run!”

“He is n’t thinking of himself,” Polly responded.  “It’s just like him!  But his heart is pretty strong now, I guess.  Though Doctor told him to be careful.”

David returned a little pale, and Polly made him lie down on the couch.

He did not seem inclined to talk, and the girls waited at the window, conversing in low tones over their dolls.  By and by Dr. Dudley came up the walk, and Polly ran to open the door for him.

The physician acknowledged the attention with a grave smile, and then went directly to the telephone, calling for Miss Batterson.

David sat up.  The girls listened breathlessly.

Presently they heard arrangements being made for the nurse to go to the Colonel at once, and they gathered from what was said that David’s great-uncle was ill with typhoid fever, and that the Doctor had ordered him to bed.

“He has kept up too long,” regretted Dr. Dudley, as he hung the receiver on its hook.  “As it is he’ll have to go through a course of fever.  He is furious at the prospect, but it can’t be helped.

“I’m so sorry,” mourned Polly.

Then, seeing that there was no likelihood of a story or even talk from the Doctor, she proposed, softly to Leonora, that they go upstairs.

“No, stay here with David, if you wish; you’re not in the way.  I’m going back with Miss Batterson.”

So they remained, while the physician put some medicines in his case, and gave David directions regarding a problem caller.

Soon the nurse came in, suit case in hand, and the two went off together.

“I hope mother won’t hear of it right away,” the lad mused.  “She thinks so much of Uncle David.  She’d want to go and do something for him, you know, and she could n’t, and so she’d worry.”

Polly recalled her recent drive through Forest Park, and could scarcely realize that the big, strong man who had made the time so pleasant for her was now weak and miserable from disease.