Part 81 (2/2)
Standing so, with the moonlight s.h.i.+ning on his face, he showed her that which her heart ached to see. For though the dusky eyes were fixed and still, unveiled but unrevealing, though the high cheek-bones and lantern jaw were grim as beaten bra.s.s, she had a glimpse beyond of the seething, volcanic fires she dreaded, and she knew that he had spoken the truth. It was better for them both that he should go.
”I will come back to you, Anne,” he said, speaking very steadily. ”I will come back to you--if I find I can.”
It was final, and she knew it. She held out her hand to him in silence, and he, stooping, pressed it dumbly against his lips.
Thereafter they walked back to the house together, and parted without a word.
CHAPTER XIX
OUT OF THE FURNACE
Capper looked round with a certain keenness that was not untouched with curiosity when Nap unexpectedly followed him to his room that night.
”Are you wanting anything?” he demanded, with his customary directness.
”Nothing much,” Nap said. ”You might give me a sleeping-draught if you're disposed to be charitable. I seem to have lost the knack of going to sleep. What I really came to say was that Hudson will go with you to-morrow if you will be good enough to put up with him. He won't give you any trouble. I would let him go with me next week if his wits would stand the strain of travelling in my company, but I don't think they will. I don't want to turn him into a gibbering maniac if I can help it.”
”What have you been doing to him?” said Capper.
Nap smiled, faintly contemptous. ”My dear doctor, I never do anything to anybody. If people choose to credit me with possessing unholy powers, you will allow that I am scarcely to be blamed if the temptation to trade now and then upon their fertile imaginations proves too much for me.”
”I allow nothing,” Capper said, ”that is not strictly normal and wholesome.”
”Then that places me on the black list at once,” remarked Nap.
”Good-night!”
”Stay a moment!” ordered Capper. ”Let me look at you. If you will promise to behave like an ordinary human being for once, I'll give you that draught.”
”I'll promise anything you like,” said Nap, a shade of weariness in his voice. ”I'm going up to town to-morrow, and I never sleep there so I reckon this is my last chance for some time to come.”
”Are you trying to kill yourself?” asked Capper abruptly.
But Nap only threw up his head and laughed. ”If that were my object I'd take a shorter cut than this. No, I guess I shan't die this way, Doctor.
You seem to forget the fact that I'm as tough as leather, with the vitality of a serpent.”
”The toughest of us won't go for ever,” observed Capper. ”You get to bed.
I'll come to you directly.”
When he joined him again, a few minutes later, Nap was lying on his back with arms flung wide, staring inscrutably at the ceiling. His mind seemed to be far away, but Capper's hand upon his pulse brought it back. He turned his head with the flicker of a smile.
”What's that for?”
”I happen to take an interest in you, my son,” said Capper.
”Very good of you. But why?”
Capper was watching him keenly. ”Because I have a notion that you are wanted.”
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