"Why, it's you," he said in a relieved voice."I thought it was grandpa.If he comes you've got to keep him out, you know!"He spoke in an excited whisper, and his eyes plunged beyond the entrance with a look of pitiable and abject terror.Once or twice he shivered as if from cold, and then, turning away, cowered into the pile of straw in search of warmth.
For a time Christopher stood gazing uneasily down upon him."Look here, man, this can't keep up," he said."You'd better go straight home, that's my opinion, and get into a decent bed."Will started up again."I won't see him! I won't!" he cried angrily."If you bring him here I'll get up and hide.I won't see him! Why, he almost killed me after that 'possum hunt we had, and if he found this out so soon he'd kill me outright.There was an awful rumpus at school.They wrote him and he said he was coming, so I ran away.It was all his fault, too; he had no business to send me back again when he knew how I hated it.I told him he'd be sorry.""Well, he shan't get in here to-night," returned Christopher soothingly.I'll keep him out with a shotgun, bless him, if he shows his face.Come, now, sit up and eat a bit, or there won't be any fight left in us."Will took the food obediently, but before it touched his lips the hand in which he held it dropped limply to the straw.
"I can't eat," he complained, with a gesture of disgust."I'm too sick--I've been sick for days.It was all grandpa's doing, too.
When I heard he was coming I went out and got soaking wet, and then slept in my clothes all night.I knew he'd never make a fuss if I could only get ill enough, but the next morning I felt all right, so I came away."Kneeling upon the floor, Christopher held the glass to his lips, gently forcing him to drink a few swallows.Then dipping his handkerchief in the cattle trough outside, he bathed the boy's face and hands, and, loosening his clothes, made him as comfortable as he could."This won't do, you know," he urged presently, alarmed by Will's difficult breathing."You are in for a jolly little spell, and I must get you home.Your grandfather will never bother you while you're sick."At the words the boy clung to him deliriously, breaking into frightened whimpers such as a child makes in the dark."I won't go back! I won't go back!" he repeated wildly; "he'll never believe I'm ill, and I won't go back!""All right; that settles it.Lie quiet and I'll fetch you some bedding from my room.Then I'll fix you a pallet out here, and we'll put up as best we can till morning.""Don't stay; don't stay," pleaded Will, as the other, leaving his lantern on the floor, ran out into the moonlight.
Returning in a quarter of an hour, he threw a small feather-bed down upon the straw and settled the boy comfortably upon it.Then he covered him with blankets, and, after closing the door, came back and stood watching for him to fall asleep.A slight draft blew from the boarded window, and, taking off his coat, he hung it carefully across the cracks, shading the lantern with his hand that its light might not flash in the sleeper's face.
At his step Will gave a stifled moan and looked up in terror.
"I thought you'd left me.Don't go," he begged, stretching out his hand until it grasped the other's.With the hot, nerveless clutch upon him, Christopher was conscious of a quick repulsion, and he remembered the sensation he had felt as a boy when he had once suddenly brought his palm down on a little green snake that was basking in the sunshine on an old log.Yet he did not shake the hand off, and when presently the blanket slipped from Will's shoulders he stooped and replaced it with a strange gentleness.
The disgust he felt was so evenly mingled with compassion that, as he stood there, he could not divide the one emotion from the other.He hated the boy's touch, and yet, almost in spite of himself, he suffered it.
"Well, I'm not going, so you needn't let that worry you," he replied."I'll stretch myself alongside of you in the straw, and if you happen to want me, just yell out, you know."The weak fingers closed tightly about his wrist.
"You promise?" asked the boy.
"Oh, I promise," answered the other, raising the lantern for a last look before he blew it out.
By early daybreak Will's condition was still more alarming, and leaving him in a feverish stupor upon the pallet, Christopher set out hurriedly shortly after sunrise to carry news of the boy's whereabouts to Fletcher.
