Put her in my room above, which I
give up to her and any necessary attendant. But you will look carefully
after her, doctor,"--he turned to the surgeon,--"and when she recovers
consciousness let me know."
He moved away. Although attaching little importance to the mysterious
message, whether sent by Miss Faulkner or emanating from the stranger
herself, which, he reasoned, was based only upon a knowledge of the
original plan of attack, he nevertheless quickly dispatched a small
scouting party in the direction from which the attack might come, with
orders to fall back and report at once. With a certain half irony of
recollection he had selected Jim Hooker to accompany the party as a
volunteer. This done, he returned to the gallery. The surgeon met him at
the door.
"The indications of concussion are passing away," he said, "but she
seems to be suffering from the exhaustion following some great nervous
excitement. You may go in--she may rally from it at any moment."
With the artificial step and mysterious hush of the ordinary visitor to
a sick bed, Brant entered the room. But some instinct greater than this
common expression of humanity held him suddenly in awe. The room seemed
no longer his--it had slipped back into that austere conventual privacy
which had first impressed him.
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