"He cannot be moved. There is no--but little hope, Miss Cable. They are to make another examination."
"He must be saved! He must! Let me go to him now. I will help. I will give my life to save his," she cried. Bray stood between her and the door, his arms extended.
"Don't go in now, I implore. Wait! There may be good news."
"He is everything in the world to me!" she moaned.
"Come with me," whispered Teresa. Bray looked at the Spanish girl, and a new light broke in upon his understanding. What was this refugee to Bansemer? The answer shot into his brain like a flash and he turned cold.
"Miss Cable, I think I understand your anxiety," he said, his voice trembling. "Won't you let this young lady take you away for half an hour or---"
"But I am a nurse! Why should I be kept from him? I am here to care for all of them," she protested.
"You are not fit to do duty just now," he said. "Miss Cable, I understand why you are here. It is noble of you. I am truly sorry that there is so little hope." He was leading her away from the building, leaving Teresa standing there with her eyes fastened upon the door with a look that could not be mistaken. "I would give my own life to have his spared for your sake, Jane. Forgive me. I would willingly give all I have in life for you. But I am afraid it is impossible to save him."
"Don't say that," she whispered.
"You--you would be his wife?" he asked.
"No, that cannot be. I COULD not be his wife."
"You mean--he is married?"
"No, no! not that. You can't understand. I can never marry him--never!"
Bray struggled for a moment with the puzzle; his eyes went slowly to Teresa. Then he suddenly understood why Jane Cable would not marry the man she had come to find. He asked no questions of himself, but Teresa would have been the result of every conjecture had he done so.
"He might better be dead," he thought, his eyes hardening. "She's found him out. Gad, I hope---" but he put it from him.
Graydon Bansemer did not die within the hour, nor that day. The careful examination of the surgeons gave little additional hope; it did, however, reveal the fact that no vital organ had been destroyed or injured. The ball had torn a great hole in his left side and had gone through the body. Probing was not necessary. The flow of blood was frightful. There was a spark of life left on which to build a frail hope, and they worked with new interest.