Then he ran on. In a minute it would be over.
At the next turn he could see the cabins. As he dashed along, Jimmy
Malone rose from a log and faced him. A white Jimmy, with black-
ringed eyes and shaking hands.
"Where the Hell have you been?" Jimmy demanded.
"Is she dead?" cried Dannie."
The doctor is talking scare," said Jimmy. "But I don't scare so
easy. She's never been sick in her life, and she has lived through
it twice before, why should she die now? Of course the kid is dead
again," he added angrily.
Dannie shut his eyes and stood still. He had helped plant star-
flowers on two tiny cross-marked mounds at Five Mile Hill. Now,
there were three. Jimmy had worn out her love for him, that was
plain. "Why should she die now?" To Dannie it seemed that
question should have been, "Why should she live?"
Jimmy eyed him belligerently. "Why in the name of sinse did you cut
out whin I was off me pins?" he growled. "Of course I don't blame
you for cutting that kind of a party, me for the woods, all right, but
what I can't see is why you couldn't have gone for the doctor and
waited until I'd slept it off before you wint."
"I dinna know she was sick," answered Dannie. "I deserve anything
ony ane can say to me, and it's all my fault if she dees, but this
ane thing ye got to say ye know richt noo, Jimmy. Ye got to say ye
know that I dinna understand Mary was sick when I went."
"Sure! I've said that all the time," agreed Jimmy. "But what I
don't understand is, ~why you went! I guess she thinks it was her
fault.
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