“Franz went to the hospital with them—­wouldn’t leave them—­ran the risk of losing his position.  Do you know, Jord has been teaching that boy English, evenings, and naturally Franz adores him.  I suppose Jord would have taken that skid for any blamed beggar who got in his way, but of course it didn’t take any force off the way he jammed on those brakes when he saw it was a friend he was going to hit.  And a friend he was going to maim—­pretty hard choice to make, wasn’t it?  But of course it was sure death to Franz if he hit him, at that pace, so there was nothing else to do but take the chance for himself and Aleck.  Maybe you can guess, though, how he feels about Aleck.  One wouldn’t think he knew he’d been cruelly hurt himself.”

“Oh!  I thought—­”

“Jord’s back will give him a lot of trouble for a while, but his spine isn’t seriously injured, if I know my trade.  Altogether—­well—­the nurses have got a couple of interesting cases on their hands for a while.  No doubt Aleck will be well looked after.  As for Jord—­he’ll be so much the more helpless of the two for a while, I’m afraid he’ll prove a distraction that will demoralize the force.”

He smiled faintly for the first time, but his face sobered again instantly.

“Anne Linton’s pretty weak, but she took a little nourishment sanely this morning just before I came away.  Miss Arden feels a trifle encouraged.  I confess this thing of Jord’s has knocked the girl out of my mind for the time being, though I shall get her back again fast enough, if I don’t find things going right when I see her.  Well”—­he turned his wife’s face toward him, with a hand against her cheek—­“it’s all out now, and I’m eased a bit by the telling.  I wish I could get forty winks, just to make a break between last night and this morning.”

“You shall.  Lie down and I’ll put you to sleep.”

He did not think it possible, in spite of his exhaustion, but presently under her quieting touch he was over the brink, greatly to Ellen’s relief.  Her heart contracted with love and sympathy as she watched his face.  It was a weary face, now in its relaxation, and there were heavy shadows under the closed eyes.  Every now and then a frown crossed the broad brow, as if the sleeper were not wholly at ease, could not forget, even in his dreams, what he had had to do a few hours ago.  She thought of young Aleck with his manly, smiling face, his pride in keeping Jordan King’s car as fine and efficient beneath its hood—­mud-splashed though it often was without—­as he did the shining limousine he drove for Mrs. Alexander King, Jordan’s mother.  She thought of what it must be to him now to know that he was maimed for life.  As for King himself, she knew him well enough to understand how his own injuries would count for little beside his distress in having had to deal the blow which had crushed that strong young arm of Aleck’s.  Her heart ached for them both—­and even for poor Franz, weeping at having been the innocent cause of all this havoc.