Part 54 (1/2)

”Sit down,” Lucas reiterated. ”You can't do anything more than that. Now will you take the trouble to make me understand what exactly are your present intentions, and why?”

”Doesn't that letter tell you?” said Nap.

”This letter,” Lucas answered, ”is the desperate appeal of a very unhappy woman who is in mortal dread of your murdering her husband.”

”That all?” said Nap. The red glare of savagery flickered for an instant in his eyes. ”She has no fears on her own account then?”

”Will you explain?”

”Oh, certainly, if you need explanation. I mean that the death of Sir Giles Carfax is no more than a stepping-stone, a means to an end. So long as he lives, he will stand in my way. Therefore Sir Giles will go. And mark me, any other man who attempts to come between us I will kill also.

Heaven knows what there is in her that attracts me, but there is something--something I have never seen in any other woman--something that goes to my head. Oh, I'm not in love with her. I'm long past that stage.

One can't be in love for ever, and she is as cold as the North Star anyway. But she has driven me mad, and I warn you--I warn you--you had better not interfere with me!”

He flung the words like a challenge. His lower jaw was thrust forward. He looked like a savage animal menacing his keeper.

But Lucas lay without moving a muscle, lay still and quiet, without tension and without emotion of any description, simply watching, as a disinterested spectator might watch, the fiery rebellion that had kindled against him.

At length very deliberately he held out the revolver.

”Well,” he drawled, ”my life isn't worth much, it's true. And you are quite welcome to take your gun and end it here and now if you feel so disposed. For I warn you, Nap Errol, that you'll find me considerably more in your way than Sir Giles Carfax or any other man. I stand between you already, and while I live you won't shunt me.”

Nap's lips showed their scoffing smile. ”Unfortunately--or otherwise--you are out of the reckoning,” he said.

”Am I? And how long have I been that?”

Nap was silent. He looked suddenly stubborn.

Lucas waited. There was even a hint of humour in his steady eyes.

”And that's where you begin to make a mistake,” he said presently.

”You're a poor sort of blackguard at best, Boney, and that's why you can't break away. Take this thing! I've no use for it. But maybe in Arizona you'll find it advisable to carry arms. Come over here and read Cradock's letter.”

But Nap swung away with a gesture of fierce unrest. He fell to prowling to and fro, stopping short of the bed at each turn, refusing doggedly to face the quiet eyes of the man who lay there.

Minutes pa.s.sed. Lucas was still watching, but he was no longer at his ease. His brows were drawn heavily. He looked like a man undergoing torture. His hand was still fast closed upon Anne's letter.

He spoke at last, seeming to grind out the words through clenched teeth.

”I guess there's no help for it, Boney. We've figured it out before, you and I. I'm no great swell at fighting, but--I can hold my own against you. And if it comes to a tug-of-war--you'll lose.”

Nap came to his side at last and stood there, still not looking at him.

”You seem almighty sure of that,” he said.

”That's so,” said Lucas simply. ”And if you care to know why, I'll tell you. It's just because your heart isn't in it. One half of you is on my side. You're just not blackguard enough.”

”And so you want to send me to Arizona to mature?” suggested Nap grimly.