"You are not strong enough to do anything of the kind. You look half-dead now. I will remain here all night, and do you at once go and lie down."
"Thank you very much," Kate said, gratefully. "I can sleep when I know you are with him. Do you think there is any danger?"
"I trust not. You and I have seen far more serious cases down there in St. Croix, and we have brought them round. It is a very sad story, his—I am very sorry for your brother." Kate stooped and kissed the hot face, her tears falling on it.
"Poor, poor Harry! The crime of that dreadful murder should not lie at his door, but at that of the base wretch he made his wife!"
"Are you quite sure, Miss Danton," said the young Doctor, seriously, "that there may not have been some terrible mistake? From what your father tells me, your brother had very little proof of his wife's criminality beyond the words of his friend Furniss, who may have been actuated by some base motive of his own."
"He had the proof of his own senses," Kate said, indignantly; "he saw the man Crosby with his wife, and heard his words. The guilt of Harry's rash deed should rest far more on her than on him."
She turned from the room, leaving her father and the young Doctor to watch by the sick man all night. The Captain sought his wife, and explained the cause of her brother's sudden summons; and Kate, in her own room, quite worn out, lay down dressed as she was, and fell into a profound, refreshing sleep, from which she did not wake until late next morning.
When she returned to her brother's chamber, she found the Doctor and the Captain gone, and Grace keeping watch. Mrs. Danton explained that Frank had been summoned away about an hour previously to attend a patient in the village; and the Captain, at her entreaty, had gone to take some rest. The patient was much the same, and was now asleep.
"But you should not have come here, Mrs. Danton," Kate expostulated. "You know this fever is infectious."
Mrs. Danton smiled.