ut and grow, and the people of the sky to try their
jeweled wings in her fine new sunlight. The Judas-tree was red, the
dogwood white, the honey-locust a breath from Eden. A blossomy wind
came out of the heart of the world, and there were birds everywhere,
impudently eloquent.

We didn't want to talk, or even to think; we just wanted to be alive
and glad with everything else. The very car seemed to feel something
of this intoxication, for as it went flying down the road it hummed
and purred and sang snatches of the Song of Speed to itself. We
turned a corner, I remember. And then there was a frightful lurch
and jar, and the big car bounded into the air, and turned over in
the ditch. I remember the rear wheels turning with a grinding,
spitting noise.

When I woke up, Alicia was sitting by the side of the road, with the
doctor's head in her lap, and I was lying on the grass near by. Her
eyes were big and blank in a bloodless face, and the curling ends of
her long bright hair hung in the dust. There was a cruel red mark on
her forehead. Otherwise she was quite uninjured. I wasn't conscious
of any pain myself--not then, at least.

"Sophy," Alicia said, impersonally, "Doctor Geddes is dead." And she
fell to stroking his cheek lightly, with one finger; "quite dead.
Without one word to me, Sophy!"

The figure on the ground looked dreadfully still and helpless. There
was something ghastly wrong in seeing so strong a man lie so still
and helpless. And the road, an unfrequented one, was unutterably
lonesome. There was nothing, nobody in sight--nothing but the
buzzard, black against the blue sky, tipping his wings to the wind.

"You must go for help," I mumbled.

"I dare not leave him. I know he's dead, Sophy. But--he might open
his eyes, just once more. You see, he didn't know, before he--died,
that I was very much in love with him--oh, terribly in love with
him, Sophy!--from the first time I saw him standing in our door. I
thought you cared for him, too, Sophy dear--and I sent him away from
me-- And now he has gotten himself killed." With a gentle touch she
pushed back the thick reddish hair from his forehead. She looked at
me imploringly: "Don't let him be dead, Sophy! For God's sake,
Sophy, don't let him be dead! Make him open his eyes, Sophy!"

A negro teamster came upon us, recognized the doctor, shrieked, and
set off for help, lashing his mules into a mad run. But Alicia never
moved, and I huddled beside her, numb