Good Indian straightened, and stood perfectly still, looking at her in a stunned, incredulous way. “Chicken, don't be silly!” Miss Georgie's sane tones were like a breath of clean air. “You've simply gone all to pieces. I know what nerves can do to a woman--I've had 'em myself. Grant isn't going to bite you, and you're not afraid of him. You're proud of him, and you know it. He's acted the man, chicken!--the man we knew he was, all along. So pull yourself together, and let's not have any nonsense.” “He--KILLED a man! I saw him do it. And he's going to kill some more. I might have known he was like that! I might have KNOWN when he tried to shoot me that night in the orchard when I was trying to scare Gene! I can show you the mark--where he grazed my arm! And he LAUGHED about it! I called him a savage then--and I was RIGHT--only he can be so nice when he wants to be--and I forgot about the Indian in him--and then he killed Mr. Baumberger! He's lying out there now! I'd rather DIE than let him--” Miss Georgie clapped a hand over her mouth, and stopped her. Also, she gripped her by the shoulder indignantly. “'Vadna Ramsey, I'm ashamed of you!” she cried furiously. “For Heaven's sake, Grant, go on off somewhere and wait till she settles down. Don't stand there looking like a stone image--didn't you ever see a case of nerves before? She doesn't know what she's saying--if she did, she wouldn't be saying it. You go on, and let me handle her alone. Men are just a nuisance in a case like this.” She pushed Evadna before her into the kitchen, waited until Phoebe had followed, and then closed the door gently and decisively upon Grant. But not before she had given him a heartening smile just to prove that he must not take Evadna seriously, because she did not. “We'd better take her to her room, Mrs. Hart,” she suggested, “and make her lie down for a while. That poor fellow--as if he didn't have enough on his hands without this!” “I'm not on his hands! And I won't lie down!” Evadna jerked away from Miss Georgie, and confronted them both pantingly, her cheeks still wet with tears. “You act as if I don't know what I'm doing' and I DO know. If I should lie down for a MILLION YEARS, I'd feel just the same about it. I couldn't bear him to TOUCH me! I--” “For Heaven's sake, don't shout it,” Miss Georgie interrupted, exasperatedly. “Do you want him--” “To hear? _I_ don't care whether he does or not.” Evadna was turning sullen at the opposition. “He'll have to know it SOME TIME, won't he? If you think can forgive a thing like that and let--” “He had to do it. Baumberger would have killed HIM. He had a perfect right to kill. He'd have been a fool and a coward if he hadn't. You come and lie down a while.” “I WON'T lie down. I don't care if he did have to do it--I couldn't love him afterward. And he didn't have to go down there and threaten Stanley--and--HE'LL DO IT, TOO!” She fell to trembling again. “He'll DO it--at sundown.”