The Victim: A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis Part 89

He thrust a well-thumbed copy of the cipher code of the Federal Secret Service into her hand.

"You--you--can't execute him, d.i.c.k," Jennie sobbed.

"I will."

"You can't. I love him. He can do no more harm here."

"He's done enough. His life belongs to the South--"

She placed her trembling hand on his arm.

"You are sure that deep down in your heart there's not another motive?"

"No matter how many motives--one is enough. I have the evidence on which to send him to the gallows--"

The girl's head drooped.

"And I gave it to you--G.o.d have mercy!"

The tears began to stream down her checks. d.i.c.k moved uneasily and looked the other way.

"I've got to do it," he repeated stubbornly.

Her voice was the merest whisper when she spoke.

"You're not going to arrest him, d.i.c.k. He will leave Richmond never to enter the South again. I'll pledge my life on his promise. His death can do us no good. It can do you no good--I--I--couldn't live and know that I had killed the man I love--"

"You haven't killed him. He has forfeited his life a thousand times in his work as a spy."

"I sent for you. I caused his betrayal. I shall be responsible if he dies--"

Again the little head drooped in pitiful suffering. She lifted it at last with a smile.

"d.i.c.k, you're too big and generous for low revenge. You hate this man.

But you love me. I know that. I'm proud and grateful for it. I appeal to the best that's in you. Save my life and his--"

"You couldn't live if he should die, Jennie?" the man asked tenderly.

"Not if he should die in this way--"

The Captain struggled and hesitated.

Again her hand touched his arm.

"I ask the big divine thing of you, d.i.c.k?"

"It's hard. I've won and you take my triumph from me. For two years I've given body and soul to the task of unmasking this man."

"I'm asking his life--and mine--" the pleading voice repeated.

"I'll give him up on one condition--"

"What?"

The Captain held her gaze in silence a moment.

"That you send him back to the North and put him out of your life forever!"

Jennie laughed softly through her tears.

"You big, generous, foolish boy--you might have left that to me--"

"All right," he hastened to agree. "I'll leave it to you. Forgive me. I can't deny you anything--"

"You're a glorious lover, d.i.c.k!" she cried tenderly. "Why didn't I love you?"

"I don't know, honey," he replied chokingly. "We just love because we must--there's no rhyme or reason to it--"

He paused and laughed.

"Well, it's all over now, Jennie. I've given him back to you--good-by--"

She grasped his hand and held it firmly.

"Don't you dare say good-by to me, sir--you've got to love me, too--as long as I live--my first sweetheart--brave, generous, kind--"

She drew his blond head low and kissed him.

He looked at her through dimmed eyes and slowly said:

"That makes life worth living, Jennie."

He turned and quickly left the house.

She heard his low orders to his men and watched them pa.s.s up the street with their rifles on their shoulders.

She opened the door and Socola entered, his face deathlike in its pallor.

"Why did he stay so long?"

"He has searched your room and found your cipher code--"

"And you have saved my life?"

"It was I who put it in peril--"

"No--I gave my life in willing sacrifice when the war began--"