The morning times., 1895-09-29

/ kOt ulIu 6Oiuo water ilOll tilt otfCdiu anu
bathed his face, and blooded all my sleeve. :"
''But what were you doing here?" heasked
quickly.
A faint blush crossed the pallor of her
| delicate cheek like the faint tint of dawn
"I-was going tc find my brother at Bald
Top" she said, hurriedly. But don't
| ask me Dow-only come, quick, do"
"Is the wounded man conscious? Did you
| speak with him? Does he know who you
are?" asked Key, aneasily.
mol he only moaned little and opened
his eyes when dragged him. 1 don't think
he even knew what had happened
They hurried on again. The wood light
| ened suddenly. "Here!" she said in half
whisper, and stepped timidly into the open
light. Only few feet from the fatal
ledge, against the roots of a buckeye, with
her sha wi thrown over him, lay tho
| wounded man.
Key started back. 1t was Colllnson!
His head and shoulders seemed uniniured.
but as Key lifted the shawl he 81 W that
the long, lank figure appeared to melt away
below the waist into a mass of shapeless
and dirty rags. Key burriedly replaced
the shawl, and, bending over him. listened
| to his hurried respiration and the beating
| Ol HIS ut pItsstu a
flask to his lips. The spirit seemed to
revive him; he slowly opened his eyes.
They fell upon Key with quick recognition.
| But the look changed; one could see that
he was trying to rise, but that no move
ment of the limbs accompanied that effort
| of will, and his old patient, resigned look
returned. Key shuddercd at the thought
| that his spine was hope!essly injured.
L coll in,
faint but untroubled voice, ''nnr seem to
| move my arms, but you'll just allow that
| I've shook hands with ye-all the same"
"How did this happen?" said Key
anXiously.
"Thct's wot gets me. Sometimes reckon
| / know and sometimes don't. Lynn thar
| ON the ledge all lass night and only jest
| able to look down into the old valley some
| times 1t seemed to me cz if fell over and
| got caught IN the rocks trying to save my
wife; but then when / KEN to think SEN
sible and know my wife wasn't there at
all l get mystifLed. Sometimes l think
got ter thnkin' of my wife only when this
yer young gal thets bin like an angel to
me Hem here and dragged me off the ledge,
for yon see she don't belong here and hez
dropped onto me like sperrit."
"Then you were not in the house when
the shock Gamer" said Key.
mo. You seq the mill was filed with
| them fellers as the sheriff was arter, and
1t went over with 'em-and L"
Alice" said Key with a white face,
would you mind going to my horse, which
you will find somewhere near yours, and
bringing me Il medicine case frommy saddle
| bags?"
The innocent girl glanced quickly at her
companion, saw the change in his face, and,
attributing it to the imminent danger of the
| injured man, at once glided away. When
she was out OF hearing, Key leaned gravely
over him:
"Collinson, must trust you with a secret.
I am afraid shat this poor girl who helped
you is the sister of the leader OF that gang
the sheriff was in pursuit of. She has
| been kept in perfect ignorance of her
brothers. crimes. She must never know
| them-nor even know his fate! II he
pershed utterly in this catastrophe, as it
would seem, it was Gods will TO spare her
that knowledge. l tell you this to warn
you, in anything you say before her. She
must believe, as shall try to make her be
lieve. that he has gone back to the States,
! where she VIII too, hereafter. believe that
he died. Better that she should know moth
ing and keep her thought of him un-
changed"
81 see-I sec-I see, Mr.. Key" muir
INJURED the injured man. "Thet's wot I've
been sayin' to myself lyin' here all night.
Thet's wot l bin sayin' O. my wife Sadie
her that actoorally got to think ken back
to me last night You sec I'd heerd from
one o those fcllarS that a woman Ike unto
|. her had been picked up in Texas and brought
on yere. and that mebbc she as Scmewhar
in Californy. | was that foolish ard that
ontrue to her-all the " hile kEowm, as
once told you. Mr Key that ef she'd been
alive she'd bin ycre-that l believe il true
for mint. And that as why, afore this
happened, had d dream, right out yer, and
dreamed she KEN to me, all white and
troubled through the woods. AT first /
thought it war my Sadie, but when zee
she warn't like her old self, and her voice
was strange and her laugh was strange
then / knowe it want her and / was
dreamin' You're right, Mr. Key, in wot
you got off just now-wot was it? Better
to know nothin'-and keep the old
thoughts unchanged"
Have you any pain?" asked Key after
a pause.
mo; kinder feel easier now
Key looked at his changing face. TEL
me-" he said gently, ''if it does not tax
your strength, ali that has happened here,
all you know. 1t is for her sake
Thus adjured. with his eyes fixed on Key,
ColliDson narrated his story from the tr-
ruptioD of the outlaw ws to the final catas-
trophe. Even then he palliated their
outrage with his Characteristic patience,
keeping still his strange fascination for
Ghivers and his blind belief in his miserable
wife. The story was at times broken by
lapses OF offaiDtness, by singular return OF his
old abstraction and forgetfulness in the
midst of Il sentence, and at last by n fit of
coughing that left a few crimson bubbles on
the corners OF his mouth Keylifted his eyes
apxiously; there was some grave internal
injury which the dying mans resolute
patience had suppressed. Yet. at the sound
of Alice's returning steps, Colinson's eyes
frightened, apparently as much at her COM
ing as from the effect of the powerful slim
ulaDt Key had taken from his medicine case.
II thank ye, Mr.. Key" he said family.
before me, and I've go suthin to say to you,
afore witnesses eyes sought Alice's
In half apology-''afore witnesses, you un-
derstaDd. Would you mind standin' out
thar, afore me, in the light SO kin see you
both, and you, miss, rememberin', ez q
witness suthin' 1 got to tell to him. You
might take his hand, miss, to make it more
regular and la wlike."
The twodid as he bade tn EN-, standing side
byside, humoriDg whatseemed to them to be