ied to shoot
him? She shuddered whenever she pictured the conflict. She was horribly
afraid.

Yet she played her part unfalteringly, and Mercer never suspected the
seething anguish of suspense and uncertainty that underlay her steadfast
composure. He thought her quieter than usual, deemed her shy; and he
treated her in consequence with a tenderness of which she had not
believed him capable--a tenderness that wrung her heart.

She was thankful when the morning came, and he left her, for the strain
was almost more than she could endure.

But in the interval of solitude that ensued she began to build up her
strength anew. Alone with her doubts, she faced the fact that she would
probably never know the truth. She could not rely upon Beelzebub for
accuracy, and she could not refer to her husband. The only course open
to her was to bury the evil thing as deeply as might be, to turn her
face resolutely away from it, to forget--oh, Heaven, if she could but
forget!

All through that day Beelzebub slept, curled up in the straw. She
visited him several times, but he needed nothing. Nature had provided
her own medicine for his tortured body. In the evening a man came with a
note from Curtis. The case was undoubtedly one of smallpox, he wrote,
and he did not think his patient would recover. There was a good deal of
panic at Wallarroo, and he had removed the man to a cattle-shed at some
distance from the township where they were isolated. There were one or
two things he needed which he desired Mercer to send on the following
day to a place he described, whence he himself would fetch them.

"Beelzebub can go," said Mercer.

"If he is well enough!" said Sybil.

He frowned.

"You don't seem to realize what these niggers are made of. Of course, he
will be well enough."

She said no more, for she saw that the topic was unwelcome; but she
determined to make a stand on Beelzebub's behalf the next day, unless
his condition were very materially improved.

XII

It was with surprise and relief that upon entering the kitchen on the
following morning Sybil found Beelzebub back in his accustomed place. He
greeted her with a wider grin than usual, which she took for an
expression of gratitude. He seemed to have made a complete recovery, for
which she was profoundly thankful.

She herself was feeling better that day. Her arm pained her less, and
she no longer carried it in a sling. She had breakfasted in bed, Mercer
himself waitin