No difficulty was there in associating my change of mood with her
absence. I brooded. Steele's keen insight betrayed me to him, but all
his power and his spirit availed nothing to cheer me. I pretended to be
cheerful; I drank and ate anything given me; I was patient and quiet.
But I ceased to mend.
Then, one day she came back, and Steele, who was watching me as she
entered, quietly got up and without a word took Diane out of the room
and left me alone with Sally.
"Russ, I've been sick myself--in bed for three days," she said. "I'm
better now. I hope you are. You look so pale. Do you still think, brood
about that fight?"
"Yes, I can't forget. I'm afraid it cost me more than life."
Sally was somber, bloomy, thoughtful. "You weren't driven to kill
George?" she asked.
"How do you mean?"
"By that awful instinct, that hankering to kill, you once told me these
gunmen had."
"No, I can swear it wasn't that. I didn't want to kill him. But he
forced me. As I had to go after these two men it was a foregone
conclusion about Wright. It was premeditated. I have no excuse."
"Hush--Tell me, if you confronted them, drew on them, then you had a
chance to kill my uncle?"
"Yes.
Pages:
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314