The Shadow of a Crime Part 33

"Be plain, sir; what do you mean?" said w.i.l.l.y.

"That wise brain of yours should have jumped my meaning; it is that Angus Ray was as much a traitor as his son Ralph Ray, and that if the body of the latter is not delivered to judgment within fourteen days, the _whole_ estate of Shoulthwaite will be forfeited to the Crown as the property of a felon and of the outlawed son of a felon."

"It's a quibble--a base, dishonorable quibble," said w.i.l.l.y; "my father cared nothing for your politics, your kings, or your commonwealths."

The constables shifted once more in their seats.

"He feels it when it comes nigh abreast of himself," said one of them, and the others laughed.

Rotha was in an agony of suspense. This, then, was what the woman had meant by her forebodings of further disaster to the semiconscious sufferer in the adjoining room. The men rose to go. Wrapping his cloak about him, the constable who had been spokesman said,--

"You see it will be wisest to do as we say. Find him for us, and he _may_ have the benefit of pardon and indemnity for his life and estate."

"It's a trick, a mean trick," cried w.i.l.l.y, tramping the floor; "your pardon is a mockery, and your indemnity a lie."

"Take care, young man; keep your strong words for better service, and do you profit by what we say."

"_That_ for what you say," cried w.i.l.l.y, losing all self-control and snapping his fingers before their faces. "Do your worst; and be sure of this, that nothing would prevail with me to disclose my brother's whereabouts even if I knew it, which I do not."

The constables laughed. "We know all about it, you see. Ha! ha! You want a touch of your brother's temper, young master. He could hardly fizz over like this. We should have less trouble with him if he could.

But he's a vast deal cooler than that--worse luck!"

w.i.l.l.y's anger was not appeased by this invidious parallel. "That's enough," he cried at all but the full pitch of his voice, pointing at the same time to the door.

The men smiled grimly and turned about.

"Remember, a fortnight to-day, and we'll be with you again."

Rotha clung to the rannel-tree rafter to support herself. w.i.l.l.y thrust out his arm again, trembling with excitement.

"A fortnight to-day," repeated the constable calmly, and pulled the door after him.

CHAPTER XXIII. SHE NEVER TOLD HER LOVE.

When the door had closed behind the constables, w.i.l.l.y Ray sank exhausted into a chair. The tension of excitement had been too much for his high-strung temperament, and the relapse was swift and painful.

"Pardon and indemnity!" he muttered, "a mockery and a lie--that's what it is, as I told them. Once in their clutches, and there would be no pardon and no indemnity. I know enough for that. It's a trick to catch us, but, thank G.o.d, we cannot be caught."

"Yet I think Ralph ought to know; that is, if we can tell him," said Rotha. She was still clinging to the rannel-tree over the ingle. Her face, which had been flushed, was now ashy pale, and her lips were compressed.

"He would deliver himself up. I know him too well; I cannot doubt what he would do," said w.i.l.l.y.

"Still, I think he ought to know," said Rotha. The girl was speaking in a low tone, but with every accent of resolution.

"He would be denied the pardon if he obtained the indemnity. He would be banished perhaps for years."

"Still, I think he ought to know." Rotha spoke calmly and slowly, but with every evidence of suppressed emotion.

"My dear Rotha," said w.i.l.l.y in a peevish tone, "I understand this matter better than you think for, and I know my brother better than you can know him. There would be no pardon, I tell you. Ralph would be banished."

"Let us not drive them to worse destruction," said Rotha.

"And what _could_ be worse?" said w.i.l.l.y, rising and walking aimlessly across the room. "They might turn us from this shelter, true; they might leave us nothing but charity or beggary, that is sure enough. Is this worse than banishment? Worse! Nothing can be worse--"

"Yes, but something _can_ be worse," said the girl firmly, never shifting the fixed determination of her gaze from the spot whence the constables had disappeared. "w.i.l.l.y, there _is_ worse to come of this business, and Ralph should be told of it if we can tell him."

"You don't know my brother," repeated w.i.l.l.y in a high tone of extreme vexation. "He would be banished, I say."

"And if so--" said Rotha.

"If so!" cried w.i.l.l.y, catching at her unfinished words,--"if so we should purchase our privilege of not being kicked out of this place at the price of my brother's liberty. Can you be so mean of soul, Rotha?"

"Your resolve is a n.o.ble one, but you do me much wrong," said Rotha with more spirit than before.

"Nay, then," said w.i.l.l.y, a.s.suming a tone of some anger, not unmixed with a trace of reproach, "I see how it is. I know now what you'd have me to do. You'd keep me from exasperating these bloodhounds to further destruction in the hope of saving these pitiful properties to us, and perchance to our children. But with what relish could I enjoy them if bought at such a price? Do you think of that? And do you think of the curse that would hang on them--every stone and every coin--for us and for our children, and our children's children? Heaven forgive me, but I was beginning to doubt if one who could feel so concerning these things were worthy to bear the name that goes along with them."

"Nay, sir, but if it's a rue-bargain it is easily mended," said the girl, her eyes aflame and her figure quivering and erect.

w.i.l.l.y scarcely waited for her response. Turning hurriedly about, he hastened out of the house.

"It is a n.o.ble resolve," Rotha said to herself when left alone; "and it makes up for a worse offence. Yes, such self-sacrifice merits a deeper forgiveness than it is mine to offer. He deserves my pardon.

And he shall have it, such as it is. But what he said was cruel indeed--indeed it was."

The girl walked to the neuk window and put her hand on the old wheel.

The tears were creeping up into the eyes that looked vacantly towards the south.

"Very, very cruel; but then he was angry. The men had angered him. He was sore put about. Poor w.i.l.l.y, he suffers much. Yet it was cruel; it _was_ cruel, indeed it was."

Rotha walked across the kitchen and again took hold of the rannel-tree. It was as though her tempest-tossed soul were traversing afresh every incident of the scenes that had just before been enacted on that spot where now she stood alone.

Alone! the burden of a new grief was with her. To be suspected of selfish motives when nothing but sacrifice had been in her heart, that was hard to bear. To be suspected of such motives by that man, of all others, who should have looked into her heart and seen what lay there, that was yet harder. "w.i.l.l.y's sore put about, poor lad," she told herself again; but close behind this soothing reflection crept the biting memory, "It was cruel, what he said; indeed it was."

The girl tried to shake off the distress which the last incident had perhaps chiefly occasioned. It was natural that her own little sorrow should be uppermost, but the heart that held it was too deep to hold her personal sorrow only.

Rotha stepped into the room adjoining, which for her convenience, as well as that of the invalid, had been made the bedroom of Mrs. Ray.

Placid and even radiant in its peacefulness lay the face of Ralph's mother. There was not even visible at this moment the troubled expression which, to Rotha's mind, denoted the baffled effort to say, "G.o.d bless you!" Thank G.o.d, she at least was unconscious of what had happened and was still happening! It was with the thought of her alone--the weak, unconscious sufferer, near to death--that Rotha had said that worse might occur. Such an eviction from house and home might bring death yet nearer. To be turned into the road, without shelter--whether justly or unjustly, what could it matter? --this would be death itself to the poor creature that lay here.

No, it could not, it should not happen, if she had power to prevent it.

Rotha reached over the bed and put her arms about the head of the invalid and fervently kissed the placid face. Then the girl's fair head, with its own young face already ploughed deep with labor and sorrow, fell on to the pillow, and rested there, while the silent tears coursed down her cheeks.

"Not if I can prevent it," she whispered to the deaf ears. But in the midst of her thought for another, and that other w.i.l.l.y's mother as well as Ralph's, like a poisonous serpent crept up the memory of w.i.l.l.y's bitter reproach. "It was cruel, very cruel."

In the agony of her heart the girl's soul turned one way only, and that was towards him whose absence had occasioned this latest trouble.