Part 39 (1/2)

”I am at your service for a few minutes,” he said stiffly; ”but our interview must be short, for I have much to do.”

”And I have much to speak to you about,” I said, still confused as to the issues of our interview, but dimly feeling that he was in some way responsible for Ruth's death.

”I am ignorant as to what it can be,” he said, looking at me curiously, ”for certainly I do not remember ever seeing you before.”

”You do not remember,” I said, ”but you have nevertheless seen me.”

”Yes?” he said, still questioningly.

”Yes!” I replied. ”I am at present travelling like that ancient G.o.d of night whom men call Nemesis. I was for years lost to the earth, now I am come back, if not to restore the righteous to their true position, at any rate to punish betrayers and oppressors, and you are both a betrayer and an oppressor.”

”Do you know to whom you are speaking?”

”Yes.”

”Then I will call a servant and see that you are shown off the premises.”

”No, you will not.”

He looked at me strangely. ”A friend of the Trewinions,” he murmured, ”surely he must be mad.”

”Yes, I am nearly mad,” I replied, ”but I am sane enough to know that Ruth Morton was not fairly treated, and although there is nothing but darkness for me in the world, and although every deed I do leads me further into the thick darkness, it shall be my work to unmask villainy.”

”Unmask villainy?” he said, as if in surprise, and then made a movement towards the door.

”No,” I said. ”Think one minute before you call a servant. Let your mind go back a few years. Remember a dark, wild night many years ago, when you and your mistress were s.h.i.+pwrecked upon a rock on the northern coast. Think of who saved you.”

”It cannot be!” he said, staring amazedly at me.

”You did not like him, did you?” I said. ”You cared more for the younger brother, and played on the elder's trusting nature and helped to get him away. You swore that a body which was washed on the sh.o.r.e was his, although in your heart you knew it was not. You persecuted your mistress by constantly trying to make her marry the man she did not love, and on the tenth anniversary of his departure you appeared armed with her father's will and drove her to the promise which killed her.”

He grew as pale as a sheet.

”You are Roger!” he gasped.

”I am Roger,” I said.

”But what will you do?” he said, his face ashy pale.

”Do?” I cried. ”I will destroy Ruth's destroyers, and then destroy myself. I will sift your dealings to the bottom and then----”

”Stop, Roger,” he cried; ”stop! I have sinned, but I have also been sinned against. I loved Ruth, ay, loved her like my own child; but Wilfred got me into his power, and then, like the devil he was, he made me do his will. Oh, I have suffered as well as you, more than you! He found out the one weak place in my life, as he found out everything else, and then he held me fast. Oh, I have waded through the blackest slime for him. But for his power over me I should have scorned to do what I did; I would have died before I would have taken advantage of her loyalty to her father's slightest wish; and now----”

”Now, because you had no mercy on her or on me, I shall have no mercy on you,” I said. ”Everything shall be made known, all your deeds shall be dragged into the light of day.”

”No, no, Roger; she would not have done that. She forgave me everything, for at the last I confessed to her all that had been done.

She suffered terribly at your departure, and more, I believe at the thought of wedding Wilfred, and yet she forgave me. Oh, I wish you had seen her at the last, so calm, so patient, and so beautiful. She loved you to the last, Roger, and one thought that cheered her in the hour of death was that she would soon see you again.”

”Did she think I was dead?”