"It's the best I can do," she murmured,
but her eyes stretched that best
into an indefinite blue of longing to capture
the pain even for a short time and
bear it for him--for him who was making
the Thunder Bird's fortune.

As before, the stimulant set the racked
heart to sending strength through the freezing
veins--and with it a touch of the whimsicality
which Death alone could quench.

"Little girl!" Treffrey Graham's eye
winked upon a mote of fun that softened
to a mist. "Your fa-ther's invention is
the gr-reatest thing yet; it's a Success
-I know that from the one glimpse I
had at the record--" Pemrose winced%
--"but--but you may tell him from me
that I doubt if, after all, his Thunder
Bird is the best thing he 's turned out."

"Some-somebody coming! Oh-h, some-body--
coming!" cried Una, at that
moment, so that the man started up,
with a heyday exclamation--and tumbled
back, a wreck of groans.

[[287]]

p286 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p287w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p288

v?