our captain, and he may
die."

The little man spoke with sad cadence. A pathos in his erect, sturdy
figure, his lowered tone as he referred to Armitage, touched Claiborne.

"He will get well, Oscar. Everything will seem brighter to-morrow. You
had better sleep until it is time to drive to the train."

Oscar stepped nearer and his voice sank to a whisper.

"I have not forgotten the tall man who died; it is not well for him to go
unburied. You are not a Catholic--no?"

"You need not tell me how--or anything about it--but you are sure he is
quite dead?"

"He is dead; he was a bad man, and died very terribly," said Oscar, and
he took off his hat and drew his sleeve across his forehead. "I will tell
you just how it was. When my horse took the wall and got their bullets
and tumbled down dead, the big man they called Zmai saw how it was, that
we were all coming over after them, and ran. He kept running through the
brambles and over the stones, and I thought he would soon turn and we
might have a fight, but he did not stop; and I could not let him get
away. It was our captain who said, 'We must take them prisoners,' was it
not so?"

"Yes; that was Mr. Armitage's wish."

"Then I saw that we were going toward the bridge, the one they do not
use, there at the deep ravine. I had crossed it once and knew that it was
weak and shaky, and I slacked up and watched him. He kept on, and just
before he came to it, when I was very close to him, for he was a slow
runner--yes? being so big and clumsy, he turned and shot at me with his
revolver, but he was in a hurry and missed; but he ran on. His feet
struck the planks of the bridge with a great jar and creaking, but he
kept running and stumbled and fell once with a mad clatter of the planks.
He was a coward with a heart of water, and would not stop when I called,
and come back for a little fight. The wires of the bridge hummed and
the bridge swung and creaked. When he was almost midway of the bridge the
big wires that held it began to shriek out of the old posts that held
them--though I had not touched them--and it seemed many years that passed
while the whole of it dangled in the air like a bird-nest in a storm; and
the creek down below laughed at that big coward. I still heard his hoofs
thumping the planks, until the bridge dropped from under him and left him
for a long second with his arms and legs flying in the air. Yes; it was
very horrible to see. And then his great body went