"Yep, I'm sick enough," he muttered. "What can I do for you?" asked Tess. "Can't I do anything to make you feel easier?" "Nope," was the answer. "I'll be dead, soon. Mebbe, I'll get out time nuff to die." Then, Tessibel _did_ forget Andy. And, even, Deforrest and the baby left her mind. She stretched forth her hand and touched the man's arm. "Would you like me to sing to you, a little?" Bennet bobbed his head. "I like singin'," he mumbled. In a low voice, Tessibel began to sing; nor did she take her hand from the thin arm lying inertly on the sheet. "Rescue the Perishin'; Care for the Dyin'." came forth like the chanting of the chimes. When the words, "Jesus is merciful," followed, Bennet put up his hand and touched the girl's fingers. Tessibel closed her own over his. There was no thought then of her errand, no remembrance that the man before her was a murderer and had sworn his crime on little Andy. "Jesus is merciful, Jesus is kind," sang Tess, and Bennet began to cry in low sobs that made the singer finish her song in tears. "Oh, He _is_ kind," she whispered. "He is merciful. Won't you believe that?" "Sing it again," entreated Bennet, huskily.... "Sing it again, will ye?" Tess scarcely heard the words they were so low, so sobbingly spoken. She cleared the tears from her voice, and "Rescue the Perishin'," and "Jesus is kind," echoed once more through the long room. From here and there, suppressed weeping came to the girl's ear; but she did not turn to look at the weepers. Here, before her, was a man who was watching as Daddy Skinner had watched the slowly opening gates of eternal life, through which he must pass, alone and afraid. Ah, if she could make him less so! If she could give him a little faith to grope on and on and up and up into the freedom of the life beyond. Bennet's hand was clasped in Tessibel's; the other covered his eyes. Suddenly, he dropped his fingers. "Ye say he's kind?" he gasped. "Jesus air kind, ye say?" "Yes, yes," breathed Tess. "But I air such a wicked man, awful wicked. I've done things God'll never forgive." "But he will," murmured Tess. "Don't you remember what I sang?" and again, "Jesus is merciful," brought a fresh rush of tears from the dying squatter. A hoarse rattle sounded, suddenly, in his throat. "Be ye knowin' Andy Bishop, missy?" he muttered, when he could speak. "Yes," said Tessibel, aghast. She'd forgotten Andy! "Yes!" she said again, almost in a query. "He were up here five years ... innercent," wailed Bennet, "an' they just telled me he air been brought back again for shootin' Waldstricker. I were glad at first, but, now, I--" He coughed spasmodically, and Tessibel closed her fingers more tightly over the thin hand. "Tell me about it," she implored. "Don't you want to?"