Williams news., 1922-08-11

ever had happened had been to Alan
 Conrad.
 "Yes. Yes. You are
 giving him every possible care?
 At once."
 She ran part way down the stairs
 and met her father as he came up.
 He told her of the situation briefly.
 "He was attacked on the street late
 last night; he was unconscious when
 they found him and took him to the
 hospital, and has been unconscious
 ever since. No one csn say yet how
 seriously he is injured.''
 She waited in the hall while her
 father dressed, after calling the ga
 and ordering the motor. When he had
 gone, she returned anxiously to her
 rooms; he had promised to call her
 after reaching the hospital and as soon
 as he had learned the particulars of Alan'S condition. It was ridiculous,
 of course, to attach any responsibility to her father or herself for what had happened to Alan-a street attack such as might have happened to any one yet she felt that they were in part responsible. They had let him go to live alone in the house in Astor street with no better adviser than Wassa- quam. Now, and perhaps because they had not warned him, he had met injury and, it might be, more than mere injury; he might be dying.
 Something which had disturbed and excited Alan had happened to him on the first night he had passed in that house; and now, it appeared, he had been prevented from passing a second night there. What had prevented him had been an attempted robbery upon the street, her father had said. But suppose it had been something else than robbery.
 She could not formulate more def initely this thought, but it persisted; she could not deny it entirely and shake it off.
 To Alan Conrad, tn the late after noon of that day, this same thought was coming far more definitely and far more persistently. He had been awake and sane since shortly after monday. The pain of a head which ached throb- bingly and of body bruised and sore was beginning to give place to a feel ing merely of 1assitude-a 1anguor which revisited incoherence upon him when he tried to think. The man who had assailed him had meant to kill; he had not been any ordinary robber. That purpose, blindly recognized and fought against by Alan in their strug- gle, had been unmistakable. Only the chance presence of passersby, who had heard Alan's shouts and responded to them, had prevented the execution of his purpose, and had driven the man to swift flight for his own safety.
 A little before six Constance Sher- Till and Spearman called to inquire after him and were admitted for few to his room- She came to him, bent over him, while she spoke he few words of sympathy the nurse allowed to her; she stood back then while Spearman spoke to him. In the days he saw her nearly every day, accompanied always by her ,ather or Spearman; it was the full wo weeks the doctors had insisted on lis remaining in the hospital before he ;aw her alone.
 They had brought him home, the | lay before-she and her father, in the | the house on Astor street. | He had insisted on returning there, | the room in their house which | hey had offered; but the doctor had | njoined outdoors and moderate exer- ise for him, and she had made him promise to come and walk with her. Ie went to the Sherrill house about en o'clock, and they walked north yard toward the park.
 ''There is something I have been wanting to ask you," she said.
 'fYeS.'
 "That night when you were hurt-ft 7as for robbery, they said. What do ou think about it?'' She watched i'm as he looked at her and then way; but his face was completely ex- ression1ess.
 ''The proceedings were a little too apid for me to judge, Miss Sherrill.''
 ''But there was no demand upon you ) give over your money before you 7ere attacked?"
 "No."
 She breathed a little more quickly. It must be a strange sensation,' she bserved, 'tto know that some one has jed to kill you.'
 "It must, indeed.'
 You mean you didn't think that e tried to kill your"
 "I was hardly in a condition, Miss herrill, to appreciate anything about le man at all. Why do you ask?"
 "Because-" She hesitated an in- ant. 'If you were attacked to be He'd, it meant that you must have cen attacked as the son of-Mr. Cor ct. Then that meant-at least it nplied-that MT. Corvet was killed, lat he did not go away. You see lat, of course.'' Were you the only one who thought at? Or did some one speak to you bout 1t?''