PAINTED ROCK
Weekes. I knew she thought so, and was in dread what she would say. She did not see Habersham. If she spoke a word that would have tallied with the slanders of the town he would kill her. But she cried—
"Mr. Weekes, oh, sir"
And then she fainted dead away in her husband's arms. These words had saved her and saved him, and in his state of madness they came, I felt, like cooling waters. For they expressed the truth of her innocence, if they said nothing as to the blamelessness of the man whose body lay stretched upon the floor.
"Good God!" said Ben Habersham,—"good God!"
He dropped his gun and held the poor woman in his arms.
"Take her away before she comes to, Ben," said Gillett. And Habersham carried her outside. I followed him, and helped him with her. But suddenly he said—
"Don't touch her."
He picked her up in his arms like a baby, and almost ran up the solitary road. I
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