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D'ye want to be torn to pieces? What's that ye was goin' to say?" "She she never shot him by accident! She she did it on purpose, for revenge, that's what she did, the she-devil!" She was still standing before Madge and her voice was shaking with excitement, while her arms and hands trembled with her passion. "What's all that?" cried Pat Kilrea. "Ye wasn't here to see, was ye?
I tak' you vun at a time or altogedder, how you like!" He took a step forward and the men all moved back hurriedly. The ladies had swiftly accepted his advice and were retreating fast, now and then looking back in terror. "But look here, Stefan, what are you butting in for?" Kilrea took courage to ask while he kept discreetly out of reach.
In doing this she meant no offense to the others, who didn't mind, knowing that with a cold of some twenty below people don't care for an excess of ventilation. They stood, the men silently, the women putting their heads together and whispering. "Ain't she the brazen sassy thing?" remarked Mrs. Kilrea.
"But there's one thing ain't clear," said Pat Kilrea. "What business did she come on, anyways?" Madge drew herself up and looked at him calmly. "I've already told you that this concerns Mr. Ennis and myself," she told him, "and I deny that you have any right...."
"Oh, she went an' accused that young 'ooman over there of havin' tried to murder Hugo. Said somethin' about the gal wantin' to get square on him for for somethin' or other as ain't very clear. But soon as Pat Kilrea he begins to pin her down to facts she takes it all back an' says she don't really know nothin'." "Thanks, Mr. Prouty, I'm very much obliged to you. I'll stroll over there."
And so that there young 'ooman's been up there a matter o' three-four days, ain't she?" "I tink so," assented Philippe. "D'ye know who she is?" asked Mrs. Kilrea, a severe looking and angular woman. "Sure, heem gal is friend o' Hugo," answered the Frenchman, simply. "Mebbe you better no go to-day. Hugo heem seek. I got to 'urry, so good-by."
Carew's bag and hurrying with her into the station, for the engine's whistle announced that he had made the journey with little or no time to spare. Sophy made her way back to the store, meeting Mrs. Kilrea on her way. To this lady she confided that a young woman had gone up to Hugo Ennis' shack and had not returned. Wasn't it queer? And Mrs. Olsen had said that she wasn't Hugo's wife or sister.
One of the visitors was scratching the back of his neck. "Look a-here, Aleck, I reckon that gal is talking sense, if Hugo's real bad like she says. We ain't got no call to butt in an' make him worse. I know when Mirandy was sick the Doc he told me ter take a club if I had to, to keep folks out. Let Pat Kilrea go in if he wants to an' we'll stay outside an' wait."
"Sure, that's right enough," said old man Prouty. Pat advanced, but Maigan began to growl. "Say, young 'ooman, I'll bash that dog's head in if you don't keep him still," he said, truculently. "Keep a holt of him." Madge pulled the dog back and quieted him. "Be good, Maigan," she said. "It's all right, old fellow." She entered the shack behind Pat Kilrea and closed the door.
"Guess she ain't no better'n she should be," opined Sophy, acidly, as she watched the door keenly. Pat Kilrea went to the bunk and for an instant considered the sick man's face. Then he scratched his head again. "Hello, Hugo!" he finally called out. "What's the matter with ye? Ain't ain't tryin' to hide behind a gal's skirts, are ye?" His arm was seized from behind. The girl's eyes flashed at him.
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