He was my
friend, and above my life I loved him. I wad gladly have died to
save him."
"And yet you say you are responsible for his death!"
"Let me tell ye!" cried Dannie eagerly, and began on the story
the priest wanted to hear from him. As he finished Father
Michael's face lighted.
"What folly!" he said, "that a man of your intelligence should
torture yourself with the thought of responsibility in a case
like that. Any one would have claimed the fish in those
circumstances. Priest that I am, I would have had it, even if I
fought for it. Any man would! And as for what followed, it was
bound to come! He was a tortured man, and a broken one. If he had
not lain out that night, he would a few nights later. It was not
in your power to save him. No man can be saved from himself,
Dannie. Did what he said make no impression on you?"
"Enough that I would have killed him with my naked hands if he
had na taken it back. Of course he had to retract! If I believed
that of Jimmy, after the life we lived together, I would curse
God and mon, and break fra the woods, and live and dee there alone."
"Then what was he trying to tell you when he died?" asked the
bewildered priest.
"To take care of Mary, I judge."
"Not to marry her; and take her for your own?"
Dannie began to tremble.
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