--Take my arm, Mis' Sterlin': it's kinder rough
here."
"And you found him?"--
"Lyin' right acrost the path with two dead men in front of him; for
he'd kep 'em off like a lion till the firin' brought up a lot of our
fellers and the rebs skedaddled. I thought he was dead, for by the
starlight I see he was bleedin' awful,--hold on, my dear, hold on to
me,--he warn't, thank God, and looked up at me and sez, sez he, 'Are
they safe?' 'They be, Captain,' sez I. 'Then it's all right,' sez
he, smilin' in that bright way of his, and then dropped off as quiet
as a lamb. We got him back to camp double quick, and when the
surgeon see them three wounds he shook his head, and I mistrusted
that it warn't no joke. So when the Captain come to I asked him what
I could do or git for him, and he answered in a whisper, 'My wife.'"
For an instant Christie did "hold on" to Mr. Wilkins's arm, for
those two words seemed to take all her strength away. Then the
thought that David was waiting for her strung her nerves and gave
her courage to bear any thing.
"Is he here?" she asked of her guide a moment later, as he stopped
before a large, half-ruined house, through whose windows dim lights
and figures were seen moving to and fro.
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