Settling Day Part 41

'What is she like?' he asked quietly, but she noticed the tremor in his voice.

'Go and see. She is asleep. You can look at her face.'

He had not pulled on his boots, and he went quietly outside. He looked at the sleeping woman and staggered back as though he had been stabbed.

He put his hand to his face to shut out the sight.

What a flood of memories rushed over him.

Sal watched him. She knew now where she had seen such a face before. It was like Willie's face when he was at the point of death.

Jim Dennis looked at the sleeping woman again, and his features became hard and stern; his mouth was cruel and his eyes flashed ominously.

Yes, it was Maud come back. The woman who had so deeply wronged him and blighted his name, the woman who had disowned her own son--he could have forgiven her, perhaps, but for that.

He went inside and took up his revolver.

Sal looked at him, terrified, then she darted forward and held him by the arm.

'No, no, not that, master, not that. I know her. It is Willie's face.

You found me there half dead and carried me in your arms and restored me to life. You cannot kill her. She is Willie's mother!'

He still held the revolver and shook her off.

'It is murder, murder--and a woman in her sleep. Jim Dennis, you are a coward for the first time! Deal with the man who wronged her and you.

Have a settling day with him first.'

She had roused him. The taunt struck home.

'By G.o.d! I will, Sal. Settling day with him. It will be a heavy one.'

Out on to the verandah he went again, and when the woman opened her eyes she saw the man she had so deeply wronged looking down upon her like an embodiment of the spirit of vengeance.

So terrified was she at his look that she fainted and rolled on to the ground.

Sal went to her a.s.sistance.

'She comes not into my house again,' said Jim.

'What of the man?' asked Sal.

'She can come in,' answered Jim.

'Carry her in.'

'No.'

'Then I will,' and Sal lifted the light form in her arms and placed it on her own bed. 'What you did for me I do for her,' she said.

Maud Dennis, for such it was, although she bore no right to the name, gradually recovered.

Sal was at the bedside and smoothed her hair.

'Who are you?'

There was a faint suspicion of jealousy in the tone of her voice.

'I am Sal, Jim Dennis's housekeeper.'

'Not his wife?'

Sal looked at her with contempt as she answered,--

'No, not his wife.'

'Forgive me. I loved him so much long ago.'

'Then why did you leave him? It was cruel,' said Sal.

'It was kind. I should never have made him happy,' she said.

Jim Dennis came in.

'Leave us alone,' he said to Sal.

'You'll not hurt me, Jim? You'll not kill me?' said the wretched woman.

'Oh, if you knew how I have suffered! I am dying, Jim, and I have come to tell you all.'

'No, I will not kill you, and you deserve to suffer. I want to hear nothing, only one thing--his name,' said Jim Dennis.

'You must hear. I was tempted, tried. I did not tell him who I was, and he would never have known but when he deserted me in London, I meant to follow him some day and denounce him for the villain he is. He knows now, and let him beware of you. He ill-treated me. I lived a wretched life, and then when he had tired of me he cast me off. I wronged you past forgiveness, but how have I suffered for my sins? I worked and slaved day and night until at last I had to fall still lower.'

She shuddered, and he turned his face from her. This was the mother of his Willie! The lad should never know it, never see her. He must send to Barragong at once and have him detained there until he could act.

'I sc.r.a.ped enough money together to pay a pa.s.sage to Sydney in a sailing vessel, one of the poorer cla.s.s, and the miseries of that long voyage I shall never forget. In Sydney I found my parents were dead. I had no friends, very little money. I started to walk here. A team-master gave me a lift to Barragong.'

Jim Dennis started. Willie was there. Then he recollected the lad would not have known her had he seen her.

'From Barragong I walked to Swamp Creek, where a kindly man gave me food and rest.'

'Had he a big dog?' asked Jim.

'Yes, it was the dog attracted his attention to me.'

'Dr Tom, just like him,' thought Jim. 'He little thinks who she is.'

'Then I came on here. Let me die here, Jim. I have not long to live. You cannot thrust a dying woman out.'

He made no answer.