“’Tis only broke,” she said. “That’s naught. I saw you were going to kill him. ’Twould have wasted all my work for ’e, husband, an’ spoilt all the time to come. You be free afore the world, an’ innocent afore the world. I can prove it, Dan. I can prove it!”
For answer his head rolled back and he fell forward from his knees to the ground. She stood above the two unconscious men, herself tottering and powerless to help either.
Then it was that Beer, in the lightest of attire, and followed by his wife, rushed upon the scene. Mrs Sweetland bade him first tend her husband, and Johnny soon propped Dan’s head and tied up the bleeding arm above the elbow. After that Dan recovered consciousness and called to his wife.
“Give me something to drink—spirits. I shall be all right in an hour. You was right, Min. ’Twould have been a poor home-coming to kill this devil. But your arm—that awful sound.”
“You go,” said Johnny to his wife. “Get a bottle of brandy and nip back as quick as lightning. And call the boy at the same time an’ tell him to saddle the pony an’ ride like hell for Dr Budd. This chap’s dead, I’m thinking.”
He spoke of Sim, who had not recovered consciousness.
“What May games be these, Dan Sweetland?” asked Mr Beer. Dan, however, had no leisure for Johnny. He lay quite still and fought to keep consciousness.
“Us can’t wait for Sim,” he said; “Minnie’s more than this here man. After I’ve took in a tumbler of spirits, I’ll stand up again and get to the car. Then I’ll drive her straight to the cottage hospital and come back for Sim. He’s not dead. ’Twas that li’l broken arm there saved him.”
“A masterpiece you be, sure enough! Black, an’ blue, an’ bloody; an’ yet the real old Dan Sweetland, an’ no other! Let me see your elbow again. Yes, it have done bleeding now.”