She acted as if she was, too. I caught her just in time. She hung so for a moment, not fainting, but as lifeless. "Now," she said, scarcely above a breath--"now, when I have just begun to see, it comes! And I have myself to thank for it." She was so white it frightened me; besides, things were everlastingly sliding along with Bill. "Oh, he's not _dead_!" I explained, quickly. "He mayn't even be badly hurt, but I felt sure you wanted to know." Then the tears came. "Want to know?" she sobbed. "Of course I want to know. Oh, what a fool of a woman I've been! And to think of your coming to tell me at the risk of your life! I haven't deserved it! Where is Arthur? Can we go there? Can we go, Will? You don't believe he'll die? He mustn't! He can't!" Last I saw of Saxton he was chuckling merrily over the doctor's mistake concerning the value of aces up. Unless he'd changed his mind in the meanwhile, he hadn't the remotest intention of dying. "It's dodging through the lines, Mary, to get to him--risky." She waved my objection off with an impatient hand, dried her eyes, and made ready. "Come with me until I get some things together," she said, practical, in spite of her fire. I do sure like that combination. "I'll stay here," says I. "You won't hurt me now, will you, Mr. Belknap?" This I remarked in a very youthful, pleading tone. He said, "No," after a struggle. It didn't sound like anything you ever heard from a human throat. "I'll just stay here," I said. I wanted a word with the man. Mary looked doubtful for a moment, but at length left. "Now, Belknap," says I, when she was safely in her room, and me almighty glad to be my own self again, "because you've been a friend of Mary's--that is, because she thought you were--you go free, if you wish. When we leave we'll send you back a man. Take my advice and go with him--don't get it into your fool head I'm working a plant on you this time. You can guess what your carcass will be worth when we take the city. Our men are due here in minutes." He looked at me and ground his teeth--palsied with rage, shaking all over. "Better do it," I said. And then came testimony: far-off firing, and yells. "Our boys are closing in," I told him. "That's them, now." The firing grew heavier and then quit. The yells increased. Another look flashed on his face--fear. For a while I think the bigger man in him determined to stick it out, but fear drew the pot. The change grew. "Of course," he said, "if I am to understand that you mean well by me--" I cut him off. "I don't mean well by you. I despise you altogether. You get away safely because Mary thought once you were a friend. It's a fool notion that you can take advantage of, or not, as pleases you. I won't attempt to disguise the fact that you are wanted bad by some of our side. Oriñez, there, would like to have your hide to remember you by." "_Si_, Señor!" says Oriñez from the window. "It is only that my word is given you are not dead now."