Alice Wilde: The Raftsman's Daughter — page 48: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

44 ALICE WILDE. He was sitting in the very spot where they had found him, on the previous afternoon, with a heap of evergreens gathered about him, preoccupied in making garlands, so that he saw nothing, heard nothing, until something—it seemed to hima club wielded by some assailant who had crept up behind him —struck him a blow which instantly deprived him of his senses. How long he lay, bleeding and stunned, he could only guess; it seemed to be deep night when he recalled what had happened, and found himself lying on the ground, con- fused by the pain in his head and faint from loss of blood. He managed to crawl upon the log, so as to lean his head upon his arms, and had been there many hours. He heard the shouts and saw the lights which came near him two or three times, but he could not make noise enough to attract at- tention. When he heard Alice’s voice, he had lifted himself into a sitting posture, but the effort was too great, and he sank again, exhausted, at the moment relief reached him. His hearers looked in each other’s faces as they heard his story. Whe could have done that murderous deed? What was the object ? the pleasant young stranger had no enemies, —he had not been robbed; there were no Indians known to be about, and Indians would have finished their work with the scalping-knife. Alas ! the terrible secret preyed at the heart of Alice Wilde. She knew, though no mortal lips had revealed it, who was the would-be murderer. <A pair of eyes had unconsciously betrayed it. She had read “murder” there, and the wherefore was now evident. Yet she had no proof of that of which she was so conscious. Should she denounce the guilty man, people would ask for evi- dence of his crime. What would she have to offer ?—that the criminal loved her, and she loved the victim. No! she would keep the gnawing truth in her own bosom, only whispering a warning to the sufferer should he ever be well enough to need it; a matter by no means settled, as David Wilde was doctor enough to know. | Despite of all the preventives within reach, a fever set in that night, and for two or three days, Philip was very ill, a part of the time delirious; there was much more probability of his dying than recovering. Both Mr. Wilde and Pallas comicbooks.com