And---- Shucks! I ain't going to let no book-taught
medico worry me yet! Men get well because they are bound to get well,
or they die because it's their time to die--and he's got too much to
live for now!"
Her hopeless face made deception impossible, but Joe comforted her,
just the same. He persuaded her to eat with him, and when he found
that his conversation made the waiting easier for her, he waxed quite
garrulous.
"Why, he's been hurt almost as bad as this, once before," he rambled
on, "but he's still alive, ain't he?"
The girl's eyes livened at that.
"Once, down on the island, he mixed in an affair in which most men
would not have meddled. And he got it from behind that time, too, only
it was with a knife."
"He never told me," murmured the girl.
"It ain't likely he would," the other stated with finality. "It was
over a woman, and not a particularly pretty story, any way you look at
it."
Her dark eyes widened. She bit her lip. It came to her how little of
his life she had shared.
"Oh!" she barely breathed. And again, falteringly: "Oh!"
From that halting monosyllable Joe judged that something was amiss.
Observation had never been a slow or painful process of concentration
with him.
"He didn't even know who she was. He'd never even seen her before,"
quickly he put her right. "She was just a public dancer, that was all.
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