Page 393 sur 439

The doctor disappeared within, and presently they could hear his

loud, cheerful voice pretending to berate the patient.

Arlie sat down on the top step of the porch.

"Boys, I don't know what I would have done if he had died. It

would have been all my fault. I had no business to tell him the

names of you boys that rode in the raid, and afterward to tell

you that I told him," she accused herself.

"No, you had no business to tell him, though it happens he's safe

as a bank vault," Howard commented.

"I don't know how I came to do it," the girl continued. "Jed had

made me suspicious of him, and then I found out something fine he

had done for me. I wanted him to know I trusted him. That was the

first thing I thought of, and I told it. He tried to stop me, but

I'm such an impulsive little fool."

"We all make breaks, Arlie. You'll not do it again, anyhow,"

France comforted.