"
"Have you any idea what he was trying to tell you?"
"Na!" answered Dannie. "He was mortal sick, and half delirious,
and I paid little heed. If he lived, he would tell me when he was
better. If he died, nothing mattered, fra I was responsible, and
better friend mon never had. There was nothing on earth Jimmy would
na have done for me. He was so big hearted, so generous! My God,
how I have missed him! How I have missed him!"
"Your faith in Jimmy is strong," ventured the bewildered priest,
for he did not see his way.
Dannie lifted his head. The sunshine was warming him, and his
thoughts were beginning to clear.
"My faith in Jimmy Malone is so strong," he said, "that if I lost
it, I never should trust another living mon. He had his faults to
others, I admit that, but he never had ony to me. He was my friend,
and above my life I loved him. I wad gladly have died to save him."
"And yet you say you are responsible for his death!"
"Let me tell ye!" cried Dannie eagerly, and began on the story the
priest wanted to hear from him. As he finished Father Michael's
face lighted.
"What folly!" he said, "that a man of your intelligence should
torture yourself with the thought of responsibility in a case like
that. Any one would have claimed the fish in those circumstances.
Priest that I am, I would have had it, even if I fought for it. Any
man would! And as for what followed, it was bound to come! He was
a tortured man, and a broken one. If he had not lain out that
night, he would a few nights later.
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