“His wife did it herself,” said Ess. “It was more or less an accident. They quarrelled, and he fell off the steps and broke his neck. The woman confessed to striking him, and then she died.”
Aleck dropped back on the pillows he had raised himself from. “Lord, Miss Ess, if you only knew how good that sounds to me.” His face was glowing and his voice thrilled with pleasure. “I’ll see him soon. He’ll come the minute he can, especially if he hears I’m hurt. Steve—Lord—Stevie lad, won’t I shake the hand off him.”
“You must be quiet and not talk too much,” warned Ess. “You know it’s bad for you to get excited.”
“Tell me everything about it, please, then,” he pleaded, “every scrap. I’d rather have had this than——” he broke off and tried to steady his voice, and Ess saw a suspicion of tears in his eyes. His emotion moved her to the heart, and she turned and pretended to busy herself about the room, telling him all the particulars the sergeant had given her.
“Thank you,” he said. “You mustn’t mind me getting worked up like this over it, please. I’m an awful kid about Stevie, you know. I feel as if I could howl like a kid, though why Heaven knows—’tisn’t anything to howl about, is it? This leg must be weakening my intellect.”
Ess noticed the flush of fever in his cheeks, and tried to calm him. “It’s no good,” he declared; “I’ve got to talk, or I’ll bust. You imagine if it was Ned that had been blamed for this, and what you’d feel like if you heard he was cleared of every suspicion of it. Well, Stevie’s more to me than a man is to a girl—yes, I know you’ll grin at that, but you don’t rightly know what men are to each other out here. He’s my mate—we’re mates, and good mates. The marriage service says something about the pair forsaking all to cleave to each other. But it doesn’t say a man must forsake his mate. They’d have to alter the marriage service for us out here if it did—a man with a mate wouldn’t stand for it.” He went on talking and laughing excitedly, till at last Ess said, “Aleck, I’m sure it’s bad for you to talk so much. Now stop, or I’ll go away and leave you to talk to the flies.”
He laughed happily. “All right, Miss Boss, I’ll dry up. But I’d like to write a note to Steve—no, never mind though, he’ll understand without that, and he’ll be here just as hard as a horse can hammer across the Toss-Up track when he hears I’m crippled. And don’t you worry about me being excited. ’Tisn’t near as bad for me as lying here fretting my soul to fiddle-strings wondering if he was all right, and if he’d need me and I couldn’t go. I was going to clear out and join him, and help him get away, too, soon as he was fit to travel.”
“Fit to travel?” said Ess, slowly.
“Yes,” said Aleck. “Soon as his wounds healed up.” He stopped abruptly and looked at her. “I shouldn’t have mentioned that. He said not to, and we agreed it might worry you for nothing.”
Ess felt a curious sense of sickness stealing over her. She remembered again the haggard look in Steve’s face.