"Who's _there_ ?" she repeated.
"It's only me, ma'am," said Sim Gage, his voice trembling.
"You said you wouldn't come!--Go away!" "I wanted to tell you----" "Go away!" He went outside, but continued stubbornly, gently.
"-- I wanted to say to you, ma'am," said he, "you can lock this here door on the inside.

You come around, and you'll find a slat that drops into the latch.

Now, there's a nail on a string, fastened to that latch.

You can find that nail, and if you'll just drop that bar and push the nail in the hole up above it--why, you'll be safe as can be, and there can't _no_ one get in." He stood waiting, fumbling at the button of the flash light.

By accident it was turned on again.
He saw her then sitting half upright in the bed, both her white arms holding the clothing about her, the piled mass of her dark hair framing a face which showed white against the background.