Part 2 - Chapter 5 - Page 2

ferocity which had sent her shrinking
back in horror as from something which had never before intruded
into her gentle life.

"It's you!" said he, mopping his brow. "And to think that you
should come to me, heart of my heart, and I should find nothing
better to do than to want to strangle you! Come then, darling,"
and he held out his arms, "let me make it up to you."

But she had not recovered from that sudden glimpse of guilty fear
which she had read in the man's face. All her woman's instinct
told her that it was not the mere fright of a man who is
startled. Guilt--that was it--guilt and fear!

"What's come over you, Jack?" she cried. "Why were you so scared
of me? Oh, Jack, if your conscience was at ease, you would not
have looked at me like that!"

"Sure, I was thinking of other things, and when you came tripping
so lightly on those fairy feet of yours--"

"No, no, it was more than that, Jack." Then a sudden suspicion
seized her." Let me see that letter you were writing."

"Ah, Ettie, I couldn't do that."

Her suspicions became certainties. "It's to another woman," she
cried. "Iknow it! Why else should you hold it from me? Was it
to your wife that you were writing? How am I to know that you
are not a married man--you, a stranger, that nobody knows?"

"I am not married, Ettie. See now, I swear it! You're the only
one woman on earth to me. By the cross of Christ I swear it!"

He was so white with passionate earnestness that she could not
but believe him.

"Well, then," she cried, "why will you not show me the letter?"

"I'll tell you, acushla," said he. "I'm under oath not to show
it, and just as I wouldn't break my word to you so I would keep
it to those who hold my promise. It's the business of the lodge,
and even to you it's secret. And if I was scared when a hand
fell on me, can't you understand it when it might have been the
hand of a detective?"

She felt that he was telling the truth. He gathered her into his
arms and kissed away her fears and doubts.

"Sit here by me, then. It's a queer throne for such a queen; but
it's the best your poor lover can find. He'll do better for you
some of these days, I'm thinking. Now your mind is easy once
again, is it not?"

"How can it ever be at ease, Jack, when I know that you are a
criminal among criminals, when I never know the day that I may
hear you are in court for murder? 'McMurdo the Scowrer,' that's
what one of our boarders called you yesterday. It went through
my heart like a knife."

"Sure, hard words break no bones."

"But they were true."

"Well, dear, it's not so bad as you think. We are but poor men
that are trying in our own way to get