The spectator., 1922-05-23


 the top of the stairs and waited. It became plain to her at once that what ever had happened had been to Alan Conrad.
 "YeS. =. Yes. You are | giving him every possible care? i. 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 can say yet how seriously he Is injured" She waited in the hall while her father dressed, after calling the ga- rage on the house telephone for him 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 par ticulars of Alans 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, 1t 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, 1t appeared, he had been prevented from passing 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 1t persisted; she could not deny it entirely and shake it off,
 To Alan Conrad, in 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 . head which ached throb- bingly and of body bruised and sore was beginning to give place to feel iEg merely of lassitude-a languor which revisited incoherence upon him when he tried to think. The man who had assailed him had meant to kill i: 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 moments to his room. She came to him, bent over him, while she spoke the few words of sympathy the nurse allowed to her; she stood back then while Spearman spoke to him. In the succeeding days he saw her nearly every day, accompanied always by her father or Spearman it was the full two weeks the doctors had insisted on his remaining in the hospital before he saw her alone.
 They had brought him home. the day before-she and her father. in the motor-to the house on Astor street. He had insisted on returning there. refusing the room in their house which they had offered; but the doctor had enjoined outdoors and moderate exer- else for him, and she had made him promise to come and walk with her. He went to the Sherrill house about ten o'clock. and they walked north ward toward the park.
 There is something I have been wanting to ask you." she said.
 "Yes."
 That night when you were hurt--it was for robbery. they said. What do you think about it?" She watched him as he looked at her and then away; but his face was completely ex- pressionless.
 "The proceedings were little too rapid for me to judge. Miss Sherrill."
 But there was no demand upon you to give over your money before you were attacked?"
 "No."
 She hreathed little more quickly Tt must he strange sensation" she observed, "to know that some one has tried to kill you"
 Ut must. indeed"
 You mean you didn't think that ne tried to kill youT'
 "l Wns hardly In condition. Miss Sherrlll, to appreciate anything about the man at all Why do you ask ?"
 "BecauSe-" She hesitated an in- stant. If you were attacked to be killed, 1t meant that you must have been attacked as the son Of-Mr Cor