ght?"

"I think not, Scribbens--cheer up! You're not that sick yet."

"But ye can't tell!" persisted Dink. "Th' ketchin' small-pox is orful.
I've heerd uv it before. It gits ye w'en ye're not watchin'. 'N' say,
doc, I've got somethin' to tell--"

He raised himself on a sharp elbow and glanced dreadfully at the back
door.

"'Fore the woman gits back. 'Tain't wuth while to bother 'bout a
preacher ur a priest. I've never j'ined a church--ain't Cath'lic--ain't
nothin'. But I've got to tell somebody. It'll make it easier. I'm goin'
to tell you, doc."

He fell back, and his hands strayed about nervously over his breast.

"Tell me if you wish," said Glenning, gently; "if it will help you."

"Oh, it will, doc! It's been eatin' on me ever' since I done it. I's
never shore 'nough bad till that man made me bad. I'm always been pore
as a dawg, 'n' wuthless, 'n' no 'count fur nothin'. I've stole,
sometimes, w'en the kids was hongry, but that don't bother me none. Them
that I got frum never missed some cawn ur a chick'n now'n then. 'Tain't
that, doc."

He stopped again, breathing fast. It was hard for him to lay bare the
story of his wrong-doing.

"I heer ye tell th' woman that ye come a few days ago," he resumed, in a
steadier tone. "Then ye don't know many folks 'bout here, I reck'n. But
thar's some mighty bad uns, 'n' I reck'n Devil Marston's the wust. I
'low yo's heerd uv how a stable wuz burned a few nights ago, at the
aidge o' town? Thar wuz a hoss in that stable, 'n' some feller ur
'nother drug 'im out. It wuz Major Dudley's. Thar's a good man, doc.
He's give to me w'en I'd go to 'im with a tale o' no work 'n' hongry
kids at home, 'n' maybe he wuz hongry at the same time, fur all his big
house he's nigh bad off as I am. But his hoss's a wonder, 'n' Devil
Marston's got some hisself whut kin run some. He comes to me one day,
Marston did, 'n' shows me a ten-dollar greenback, 'n' said he'd give it
to me ef I'd take some powders he had with 'im, all wropped up, 'n' slip
in 'n' put that stuff in th' hoss's feed. I knowed it wuz wrong, doc. I
knowed it wuz p'izen, but I tuk it, 'n' the money, too, 'n' that night I
slipped in 'n' done whut he tol' me to do. The nex' day he come to me
b'ilin' mad, 'n' 'lowed I'd tricked 'im. He said the hoss's still alive,
'cause he'd saw 'im, 'n' that I'd took 'is money 'n' didn't do whut I'd
said I'd do. But he lied, doc, 'cause I toted fa'r. But he tore up
snakes, and said he's gunta hoss