Dr. Collaston studied him sharply.
"If you young people have any secret that bears on the case, you'd better reveal it. Working in the dark isn't always advisable. Annis, why do you change color?"
Annis flushed deeply now, and her eyelids quivered as if tears were not far away.
"Let Annis alone," said the boy in as gruff a tone as so gentle a voice could assume. "I suppose we did both think of one thing when you so insisted upon a fall. It was a long while ago, before I went to school. We were down by the creek. I was on Sam, who had been drinking and wading in the stream. He turned to step out, and a stone rolled and he stumbled. I went over his head, as I didn't have the rein in my hand. It knocked the breath out of me for a moment. But I had been tumbled off before, when I was learning to ride, and that really didn't—wasn't of much account, only Annis was so frightened. Now shall I go further back and tell you of all the downfalls I have had? I wasn't very daring—Annis, wasn't I something of a babyish boy?"
"No, you were not." Annis smiled a little then.
"How did he fall?"
Annis could not recall that.
"After a little I walked home. No, I wasn't much hurt. I had a lame thumb, I remember; but afterward there used to come what Phillis calls a 'misery' in my back. The headaches did not come until in the winter."
The doctor nodded.
"But I'm bound to get well," added the boy. "I don't want to die. I should have to be dead such a long, long while."