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"No, he is not" His hand dropped from my shoulder, and he circled the table, until he stood by Beardsley’s side

"If ye understand me, man--close your eye," he said quietly There was a moment’s silence, and Beardsley’s bloodshot eye fixed on Jaence The lid closed slowly, then rose again

Jamie turned to me

"Go," he said "Let it be his choice If--or if not--I will call for ye"

My knees were tre, and I knotted my hands in the folds of my skirt

"No," I said I looked at Beardsley, then sed hard and shook ain "I--if youyou must have a witness"

He hesitated a lanced at Mrs Beardsley She stood stock-still, hands knotted under her apron, eyes darting from me to Jamie to her husband and back Jamie shook his head briefly, then turned back to the strickenhis shoulders

"Blink once for yes, twice for nay," he said "You understand?"

The eyelid lowered without hesitation

"Listen, then" Jaan to speak, in a flat, unemotional tone of voice, his eyes steady on the ruined face and the fierce gaze of its open eye

"Ye ken what has happened to you?"

Blink

"Ye ken that my wife is a physician, a healer?"

The eye rolled in my direction, then back to Jamie Blink

"She says that you have suffered an apoplexy, that the da sound came from the lopsided mouth This was not news Blink

"Your foot is putrid If it is not taken off, you will rot and die You understand?"

No response The nostrils flared suddenly, ; then the air was expelled with a snort He had smelled the rot; had suspected, perhaps, but not known for sure that it came from his own flesh Not ’til now Slowly, a blink

The quiet litany went on, statements and questions, each a shovelful of dirt, taken fro with the inexorable words, "You understand?"

My hands and feet and face felt numb The odd sense of sanctuary in the rooer a place of refuge A place nohich so to a solemn, predestined end

And it was predestined, I understood Beardsley hadsince--perhaps even before we arrived He had had a atory, after all, suspended in the cold dark between heaven and earth, in which to think, to corips with his prospects and make his peace with death

Did he understand?

Oh, yes, very well

Jamie bent over the table, one hand on Beardsley’s ar absolution and salvation Mrs Beardsley stood frozen in the fall of light froel of denunciation

The statements and the questions came to an end

"Will ye have my wife take your foot and tend your wounds?"

One blink, then two, exaggerated, deliberate

Ja a sigh of each word

"Do ye ask ed lifeless and the other was drawn and haggard, there was enough of Beardsley left to show expression The workable corner of the mouth turned up in a cynical leer What there is left of it, said his silence The eyelid fell--and stayed shut

Jamie closed his own eyes A small shudder passed over hi off cold water, and turned to the sideboard where his pistols lay

I crossed swiftly to hi a hand on his arm He didn’t look atHis face hite, but his hands were steady