man whose agony he looked upon. It was quite beyond his own
enduring. Lucy's horrified shriek brought him more fully to his senses,
and the screams of the children who scattered in every direction, crying
as they ran on, only to creep back after a moment drawn by that prurient
curiosity which is the one natural tie left between the buzzard and man.

It afterward seemed to Nate as if in that one horrible, helpless minute
a hundred shapes had suddenly encompassed him, risen out of the earth
perhaps, so rapidly did they crowd about him, hemming him in. Amid the
wild confusion some one thought to summon the marshal, another Mr.
Dalton, still another the doctor, and these three strode upon the scene
in time to see poor Nate lifting his old friend's head, to whisper
hoarsely,

"Oh, Bill! I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it!" in a wail that would
have melted granite.

He looked up as Dr. Browne thrust everybody aside, and begged pitifully:

"Oh, can't you mend it, doctor? It's broke in, but can't you mend it? I
didn't go to do it. I just swung the stick. Can't you mend it?"

The doctor knew at the first glance that there was no mending for that
mortal hurt. But it was hard to say so in answer to that wild white face
quivering at his feet.

"Get back, Nate," he said kindly, stooping to the body. "I'll see what
can be done. Let somebody that's stronger than her help to carry him,"
and at his gesture, two or three onlookers stepped forward obeying ward.

As they lifted the lifeless form, Nate, still stupidly kneeling beside
it as if unable to move, the slow-dripping blood from that crushed
temple fell on his upturned face, and trickled down into the stubble of
his unshorn beard. Lucy, amid her frantic cries, saw it and fell back
half fainting, into the arms of Babette, who hastily led her away inside
her own rooms, assisted by Rachel, who came quickly to her aid. The
baby, nearly dropping from her sister's nerveless arms, was caught by
Dan before it reached the ground, and the little thing clung to him,
wailing feebly in its fright and misery. So, not knowing what else to
do, he followed the girls indoors, a part of the women pressing after.
But most of the crowd trailed in the wake of the little procession which
was being led by the doctor into the Hapgood cottage, only to be
promptly shut out at the door.

Dalton went inside with the doctor, but the marshal put a hand on Nate's
shoulder, and said under his breath,

"C