From his expression
she felt sure that she must be hurting him, but when the injury
was exposed she looked up in wonderment.
"Leslie!" she exclaimed. "What in the world--"
"Well! You insisted on seeing it," he grumbled. "I told you it
wasn't much." He tried to meet her eyes, but failed.
There was a moment's pause, then Norine inquired, curiously: "What
is the trouble? You'd better 'fess up."
Branch struggled with himself, he swallowed hard, then said: "I'm-
-going to. You can see now why I didn't go to a doctor: _I_ did
it--shot myself. You won't give me away?"
"Why--I don't understand."
"Oh, I'm in trouble. I simply had to get away, and this was all I
could think of. I wanted to blow a real hole through myself and I
tried three times. But I missed myself."
"Missed yourself? How? Why?"
Branch wiped the sweat from his face. "I flinched--shut my eyes
and pulled the trigger."
Norine seated herself weakly; she stared in bewilderment at the
unhappy speaker. "Afraid? You, El Demonio! Why, you aren't afraid
of anything!"
"Say! You don't believe all that stuff, do you? I'm afraid of my
shadow and always have been. I'm not brave and never was. They
told me I was going to die and it scared me so that I tried to end
things quickly. I couldn't bear to die slowly, to KNOW that I was
dying by inches.
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