[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE


EVA was still breathing faintly as the sun dropped behind the western hills. Shannon had not left the house all day. She felt that Custer needed her, that they all needed her, however little she could do to mitigate their grief. There was at least a sense of sharing their burden, and her fine sensibilities told her that this service of love was quite as essential as the more practical help that she would have been glad to offer had it been within her power.
She was standing in the patio with Custer, at sunset, within call of Eva's room, as they all had been during the entire day, when a car drove up along the south drive and stopped at the patio entrance. Three of the four men in it alighted and advanced toward them.
"You are Custer Pennington?" one of them asked.
Pennington nodded.
"And you are Miss Burke--Miss Shannon Burke?"
"I am."
"I am a deputy-sheriff. I have a warrant here for your arrest."
"Arrest!" exclaimed Custer. "For what?"