In five minutes I knew how old he was, and where he was raised, and that
what he wanted more than anything on earth was a little farmhouse with
chickens and a cow.

"Where you can have air, you know," he said, waving his hands, which
were covered with reddish hair. "Lord, in the city I starve for air! And
where, when you're getting soft you can go out and tackle the wood-pile.
That's living!"

And then he wanted to know what he was to do at the sanatorium and
I told him as well as I could. I didn't tell him everything, but I
explained why Mr. Pierce was calling himself Carter, and about the two
in the shelter-house. I had to. He knew as well as I did that three days
before Mr. Pierce had had nothing to his name but a folding automobile
road map or whatever it was.

"Good for old Pierce!" he said when I finished. "He's a prince, Miss
Waters. If you'd seen him sending those girls back to town--well, I'll
do all I can to help him. But I'm not much of a doctor. It's safe to
acknowledge it; you'll find it out soon enough."

Mr. and Mrs. Van Alstyne came in just then, and Mr. Sam told him what
he was expected to do. It wasn't much: he was to tell them at what
temperatures to take their baths, "and Minnie will help you out with
that," he added, and what they were to eat and were not to eat. "Minnie
will tell you that, too," he finished, and Mr. Barnes, DOCTOR Barnes,
came over and shook my hand.

"I'm perfectly willing to be first assistant," he declared. "We'll put
our heads together and the result will be--"