She took a step nearer and looked the girl steadily in the face.
"Perhaps you will stop this sort of talk, and tell me what is
going to happen to me--if you know?" she said quietly.
"Why do you reckon Mr. Norton was shot? I can tell you why--it
was all along of you--that was why!" The girl's furtive glance,
which searched and watched the gathering shadows, came back as it
always did to Betty's pale face. "You ain't no safer than he
was, I tell you!" and she sucked in her breath sharply between
her full red lips.
"What do you mean?" faltered Betty.
"Do you reckon you're safe here in the big house alone? Why do
you reckon Mr. Tom cleared out for Memphis? It was because he
couldn't be around and have anything happen to you--that was
why!" and the girl sank her voice to a whisper. "You quit Belle
Plain now--to-night--just as soon as you can!"
"This is absurd--you are trying to frighten me!"
"Did they stop with trying to frighten Charley Norton?" demanded
Bess with harsh insistence.
Whatever the promptings that inspired this warning, they plainly
had nothing to do with either liking or sympathy. Her dominating
emotion seemed to be a sullen sort of resentment which lit up her
glance with a dull fire; yet her feelings were so clearly and so
keenly personal that Betty understood the motive that had brought
her there. The explanation, she found, left her wondering just
where and how her own fate was linked with that of this poor
white.
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