464
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
— that his spine was smashed — that he was lying on an
extemporised bed, still in his clothes, in the little parlor
of Redman's Farm — cursing the dead mare in gasps —
railing at everybody — shuddering whenever they at-
empted to remove his clothes — hoping, in broken sen-
tences, that his people would give Bracton a d—d good
licking. Bracton's outrage was the cause of the entire
thing — and so help him Heaven, so soon as he should be
on his legs again, he would make him feel it, one way or
other.
Buddle thought he was in so highly excited a state,
that his brain must have sustained some injury also.
He asked Buddle about ten o'clock (having waked up
from a sort of stupor)—"what about Jim Dutton?"
and then, whether there was not some talk about a body
they had found, and what it was. So Buddle told him all
that was yet known, and he listened very attentively.
"But Larkin had been corresponding with Mark Wyl-
der up to a very late day, and if this body has been so
long buried, how the devil can it be he? And if it be as
bodies usually are after such a time, how can anybody
pretend to identify it? And I happen to know that Mark
Wylder is living," he added, suddenly.
The Doctor told him not to tire himself talking, and
offered, if he wished to make a statement before a mag-
istrate, to arrange that one should attend and receive it.
"I rather dislike it, because Mark wants to keep it
quiet; but if, on public grounds, it is desirable, I will
make it, of course. You'll use your discretion in men-
tioning the subject.'
So the Captain was now prepared to acknowledge the
secret meeting of the night before, and to corroborate the
testimony of his attorney and his butler.
Stanley Lake had now no idea that his injuries were