You say that blood is thicker than water. You
are right. I cannot find it in my heart to betray you. You may tell
the world whatever story you like about Edward. He is dead, and I
shall soon be dead. You can hurt neither of us, no matter what you
do. I ask two things of you. One is that you will be good to my
baby as long as you may live, and the other is that you will bury
me up there where you put Edward last night. I must lie near him
always. Say to people that I have asked you to bury me in that pit
at the top of Quill's Window,--that it was my whim, if you like.
Close it up after you have placed me there and cover it with great
rocks, so that Edward and I may never be disturbed. I want no
headstone, no epitaph. Just the stones as they were hewn by God."
David Windom promised. He was alone in the room with her when she
died.
IV
Twenty years passed. Windom came at last to the end of his days.
He had fulfilled his promises to Alix. He had taken good care of
her daughter, he had given her everything in his power to give,
and he had worshipped her because she was like both of the Alixes
he had loved. She was Alix Crown,--Alix the Third, he called her.
On the day of his death, Windom confessed the crime of that far
off night in March. In the presence of his lawyer, his doctor,
his granddaughter and the prosecuting attorney of the county, he
revealed the secret he had kept for a score of years.
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