The young man turned squarely to the old. "Thank you, sir. You are the man for me. Was he--is he badly hurt?" "There's nothing can ever hurt him more, my dear. It is you, and we with you, who must suffer now. They found him--they found him dead, Fair." There was a silence; then, "Ludwell--Ludwell dead?" said Cary. "I don't believe you, Major Churchill." He turned, walked to a bench that ran along the wall, and sat down. "Eli, get up from there and stop that camp-meeting wailing! Mr. Wilson, you perhaps do not yet know my brother's horse--black with a white star. Colonel Dick, they've got hold of the wrong end of some damned rigmarole or other--" "I didn't know the horse, sir," replied Wilson, not without gentleness, "for I've been out of the county for a long time, and your brother used to ride a bay. But I knew your brother, sir." "That's what I said, too, Fair," groaned Colonel Churchill from the steps. "I said it was all a damned mistake. But I was wrong. You listen to Edward. Edward, tell him all!" "Yes, Dick. It is true, Fair, damnably, devilishly true. He had been dead for hours, Fair." "Joe White's something of a doctor, sir," put in Wilson. "Joe said he would have been lying there since before the storm." Fairfax Cary drew a gasping breath "Lying there, suffering, through the storm and darkness? Thrown? Ill and fallen from his horse? Major Edward, don't play with me!" He started up. "Where is he now?" "We left him there, sir, just as he was, with Joe White to guard him. My son, he undertook to rouse the nearest people. I happened to know, sir, that the sheriff was staying overnight near Red Fields, and I sent him there first. I told the coroner myself, and then I came as hard as I could ride to Greenwood, where I heard that you were here--" "It was thought best not to move him at once, Fair. They are intelligent men, and they were right." The Major's hand closed around the other's wrist. "He did not suffer, Fair. He was not thrown. He was shot--shot through the heart!" "And there, by God," came from the steps Colonel Dick's deep voice, "there, at least, there's something to be done! But oh, my poor boy, my poor boy!" Unity came from the doorway, took her lover's hands, and pressed them to her lips. "Fair," she whispered, "Fair!" He kissed her on the forehead. "There, dear! We won't sit under the catalpa tree this morning. Eli! get the horses." "They have been ordered, Fair," said the Colonel. "We'll go together, you and Edward and I."