Page:In the Roar of the Sea.djvu/390

382 "He stuffs birds so beautifully, and Uncle Zachie—I mean Mr. Menaida—has set his heart on making a collection of the Spanish and Portuguese birds."

"Oh, yes; he understands the properties of arsenic," said Coppinger, with a scoff.

Judith's eyes fell. Captain Gruel's tone was not reassuring.

"You say that you care not where Jamie be, so long as he is where he cannot hurt you," said Judith.

"I did not say that," answered Coppinger. "I said that he must be placed where he can injure no one."

"He can injure no one if he is with Mr. Menaida, who will well watch him, and keep him employed."

Coppinger laughed bitterly. "And you? Will you be satisfied to have the idolized brother with the deep seas rolling between you?"

"I must endure it. It is the least of evils."

"But you would be pining to have wings and fly over the sea to him."

"If I have not wings I cannot go."

"Now hearken," said Coppinger. He clinched his fist and laid it on the table. "I know very well what this means. Oliver Menaida is at the bottom of this. It is not the fool Jamie who is wanted in Portugal, but the clever Judith. They have offered to take the boy, that through him they may attract you, unless," his voice thrilled, "they have already dared to propose that you should go with them."

Judith was silent.

Coppinger clinched his second hand and laid that also on the table. "I swear to heaven," said he, "that if I and that Oliver Menaida meet again, it is for the last time for one or other of us. We have met twice already. It is an understood thing: between us, when we meet again, one wets his boots in the other's blood. Do you hear? The world will not hold us two any longer. Portugal may be far off, but it is too near Cornwall for me."

Judith made no answer. She looked fixedly into the gloomy eyes of Coppinger, and said——

"You have strange thoughts. Suppose—if you will—that the invitation included me, I could not have accepted it."

"Why not? You refuse to regard yourself as married,