XXXIV
BEN BROKAW EXPLAINS
"Does she know about Edward?" Baird asked of Ben. He had followed Ben to the barn, and that was his first anxious question.
"Yes. I tol' her. She had to be told—I couldn't keep it from her. I tol' her before Sue come."
"God! How did she take it?"
Ben's eyes lighted. "Like a Penniman—or a Westmo' would take it!"
"You had courage," Baird breathed in relief. "I didn't dare tell her."
"I knowed who I talked to," Ben returned deeply. "Ann growed up under my han'—I know the blood that's in Ann. She's got courage, Ann has—I weren't afraid."
It was Ben Brokaw, not the Penniman family, who had come in out of the darkness and the rain and had watched over Ann while Baird had gone for the doctor. Between three and four o'clock, the sleeping collie had roused and gone out, and a few minutes later Baird had heard the approach of some one. When he sprang up, it was Ben who had confronted him, dripping wet, splashed with mud, small eyes peering and amazed. He had looked at Ann, prostrate, an instant of partial comprehension, then he had looked, as redly as any enraged animal, at Baird.