"Hurry!" she said. "Take Dolly and a whip and go to Bernville first. If the doctor isn't home, go along to Mount Pleasant; but bring a doctor. Ach!" she seized his hand in her excitement.
Mary's eyes were opening—blue, wide, and terrified. "Don't take Dolly," she said, quite loud. "Dolly knows too much." Then her eyes closed again.
Conrad went into the kitchen, still sobbing, and the old woman followed.
"I must take Dolly," he whispered.
"Aunt Hannah, for God's sake, what has she?"
"I don't know what she means about Dolly. Maybe I can find out till you get back. She'll soon come to. You better be careful going out of the barnyard. It might worry her if she hears the hoofs."
The young man checked his crying. "I take her through the fields," he said, and went out softly.
In the light of the candle which contended with the moonbeams Hannah's wrinkled face looked witchlike as she bent over the bed. Presently Mary started and her eyes searched the room with a terrified stare; she seemed to be all at once in the midst of some dreadful happening.
"Aunt Hannah," she exclaimed, "don't let them come for me!"
The old woman bent over her. "How do you feel?" she asked, in her soft and friendly Dutch.