Page:The little blue devil (IA littlebluedevil00mackiala).pdf/71

His thin brown cheeks were exaggeratedly thin and brown against the pillows; his straight black brows drawn together in a frown of pain. The grey eyes, staring fiercely out upon a strange world, told of the struggle to realise the circumstances of this new disaster, and one rough hand grasped convulsively the edge of the neatly folded sheet, in the effort to repress the faintest cry.

Was it any wonder that Alison’s pitiful heart went out in one warm rush to this desolate Tony, looking so much younger than his real age in his worn-out, half-starved state, tucked away in bed? She was obliged to restrain her longing to take the poor waif in her arms and kiss and weep over the little pinched face, but her mother’s heart enfolded him then and there, never to let him go again, so long as life should last. What of Bill Hooker with his warning to Tony?—“Keep clear of women. Never let them see you with buttons off or holes in your socks, or they’ll grab you and never let you go.” Tony, groping his way back to consciousness, was very far from remembering any such warning; possibly it would not have helped him much, in any case.

Alison had been out when the procession of Winthrop and Peters the chauffeur, bearing Tony, and followed by an officious and totally useless constable had invaded the house. Winthrop met her in the hall on her return, soon after the doctor’s departure, and she greeted him with an intuitive “Something has happened!”

Winthrop confessed in as few words as possible.

“Yes. We were only a few yards from home when we ran into and knocked down a little chap who seemed suddenly to appear out of nowhere. I don’t think he knew where he was going.”

“Oh, Winthrop, is he badly hurt?”

“Not desperately, but a fractured thigh which will keep him on his back for six weeks at least, and a general