and enlisting Ethel Carew with him in the fight. But now his mother was returning to the combat herself. She alone of the living, besides her lifelong enemy, knew all the elements of that contest; so when, at last, Barney returned to his room, it was with the decision to trust his mother and to wait.
Yet this day had struck from him the paralysis of action which Ethel's departure had caused. He had written to Ethel, in Sheridan, only a purely personal acknowledgment of her farewell to him and assurance that he "understood" and would always "understand" anything she might do; and he would always love her. Now he wrote her that, after doing nothing for several days, he was busy again with the investigation which they had shared together, and he had unexpectedly undergone a remarkable experience, which he did not otherwise describe. The next day he received from Ethel a short letter which had crossed his, which informed him that she had arrived safely in Sheridan and was very well and busy.
He learned through Mrs. Wain that his mother, though still desperately weak, was conscious; and thereafter during the week she continued to slowly gain strength. Mrs. Wain informed him that she had confessed to Mrs. Cullen how she had brought Barney to the hospital; and though his mother continued conscious and was now almost free from pain and was clear in her mind, the physicians forbade her the risk of the tremendous emotional disturbance certain to follow a meeting with her son. Indeed, Mrs. Wain said that Mrs. Cullen clearly comprehended the situation and realized that she could not afford, at this crisis, to exhaust her slight vitality. She had immediate need of all her powers to think and to plan; she had kept her-
