At the sound of his step Belinda lifted her head. “Is there anything I can do to help, sir?” she asked, in a shaking voice.
“I think not,” he replied; “and I should judge it best for you to keep out of his sight for a while, as the excitement of seeing you might prove injurious.”
“Yes, I s’pose so,” she said, gloomily, and averting her face. “Where’ll he be took to?”
“The tavern in Fairfield, I presume; I know of no more suitable place—do you?”
“No; we hain’t got no home no more. I told him ’twas a fool thing to sell it; but of course he thought I didn’t know nothin’; but if he’d done as I said, this awful thing wouldn’t never a happened.”
“No, I presume not; and I think myself it was a foolhardy thing to attempt to go down the river in this way, particularly with such a sum of money on board, and in the face of the fact that so many burglaries have been committed in the neighborhood of late.”
“I wisht he a been wiser,” she sighed, dropping her face into her hands; “but I’ll nurse him out o’ this ov he’ll let me.”
The captain suggested that she could at least gather up his clothing and such other things as would be needed for his comfort while ill.
She said she would stay behind and do so when they carried him away, then follow to the hotel with the things; she knew the way quite well.
“You were by when the attack was made?” Charlton presently remarked, interrogatively. “I hope you may be able to testify to the identity of the would-be murderers?”