"By the water?" Rose shrieked.
"My child's drowned?"—Tony's cry was strange. The Doctor had been looking from one of them to the other; then he looked at Mrs. Beever, who, instantly, admirably, with a strength quickly acknowledged by the mute motion of his expressive little chin toward her, had stilled herself into the appeal of a blanched, breathless wait. "May I go?" sovereignly came from her.
"Go. There's no one else," he said as she bounced down the bank.
"No one else? Then where's that girl?"—Rose's question was fierce. She gave, as fiercely, to free herself, a great wrench of her arm, but the Doctor held her as if still to spare her what he himself had too dreadfully seen. He looked at Tony, who said with quick quietness—
"Ramage, have I lost my child?"
"You'll see—be brave. Not yet—I've told Paul. Be quiet!" the Doctor repeated; then his hand dropped on feeling that the movement he had meant to check in his friend was the vibration of a man stricken to weakness and sickened on the spot. Tony's face had turned black; he was rooted to the
