"No.You see the mill was filled with them fellers as the sheriff was arter,and it went over with 'em--and I"--"Alice,"said Key,with a white face,"would you mind going to my horse,which you will find somewhere near yours,and bringing me a medicine case from my 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,I must trust you with a secret.I am afraid that 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 brother's crimes.She must NEVER know them--nor even know his fate!If he perished utterly in this catastrophe,as it would seem--it was God's will to spare her that knowledge.Itell you this,to warn you in anything you say before her.She MUST believe,as I shall try to make her believe,that he has gone back to the States--where she will perhaps,hereafter,believe that he died.Better that she should know nothing--and keep her thought of him unchanged.""I see--I see--I see,Mr.Key,"murmured the injured man."Thet's wot I've been sayin'to myself lyin'here all night.Thet's wot Ibin sayin'o'my wife Sadie,--her that I actooally got to think kem back to me last night.You see I'd heerd from one o'those fellars that a woman like unto her had been picked up in Texas and brought on yere,and that mebbe she was somewhar in Californy.I was that foolish--and that ontrue to her,all the while knowin',as I once told you,Mr.Key,that ef she'd been alive she'd bin yere--that Ibelieved it true for a minit!And that was why,afore this happened,I had a dream,right out yer,and dreamed she kem to me,all white and troubled,through the woods.At first I thought it war my Sadie;but when I see she warn't like her old self,and her voice was strange and her laugh was strange--then I knowed it wasn't her,and I 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.
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