Page:Scribner's Monthly, Volume 12 (May–October 1876).djvu/43

Rh could not move. It was a forced confession. Yes, Mother of God, by force!" Luckily for Victor the darkness hid the scorn that momentarily flashed in the woman's eyes at this corroboration of her husband's strength, and the weakness of the man before her. "And is this all that you have to tell me?" she only said. "All—I swear to you, Julie—all!" "Then listen, Victor Ramirez," she said, swiftly stepping from the tree into the path before him, and facing him with a white and rigid face. "Whatever was your purpose in coming here, it has been successful! You have done all that you intended, and more! The man whose mind you came to poison, the man you wished to turn against me, is gone! has left me—left me never to return! He never loved me! Your exposure of me was to him a godsend, for it gave him an excuse for the insults he has heaped upon me, for the treachery he has always hidden in his bosom!" Even in the darkness she could see the self-complacent flash of Victor's teeth, could hear the quick, hurried sound of his breath as he bent his head toward her, and knew that he was eagerly reaching out his hand for hers. He would have caught her gesturing hand and covered it with kisses but that, divining his intention, without flinching from her position she whipped both her hands behind her. "Well, you are satisfied! You have had your say and your way. Now I shall have mine. Do you suppose I came here to-night to congratulate you? No, I came here to tell you that, insulted, outraged, and spurned as I have been by my husband, Gabriel Conroy—cast-off and degraded as I stand here to-night—I love him! Love him as I never loved any man before; love him as I never shall love any man again; love him as I hate you! Love him so that I shall follow him wherever he goes, if I have to drag myself after him on my knees. His hatred is more precious to me than your love. Do you hear me, Victor Ramirez? That is what I came here to tell you! More than that—listen! The secret you have whispered to me just now, whether true or false, I shall take to him. I will help him to find his sister. I will make him love me yet if I sacrifice you, everybody, my own life, to do it! Do you hear that? Victor Ramirez, you dog! you Spanish mongrel! you half-breed bastard! Oh, grit your teeth there in the darkness; I know you. Grit your teeth as you did to-day when Gabriel held you squirming under his thumb! It was a fine sight, Victor, worthy of the manly secretary who stole a dying girl's papers! worthy of the valiant soldier who abandoned his garrison to a Yankee peddler and his mule. Oh, I know you, sir, and have known you from the first day I made you my tool—my dupe! Go on, sir, go on; draw your knife, do! I am not afraid, coward! I shall not scream, I promise you! Come on!" With an insane, inarticulate gasp of rage and shame, he sprang toward her with an uplifted knife. But at the same instant she saw a hand reach from the darkness and fall swiftly upon his shoulder, saw him turn and with an oath struggle furiously in the arms of Devarges, and, without waiting to thank her deliverer, or learn the result of his interference, darted by the struggling pair and fled. Possessed only by a single idea, she ran swiftly to her home. Here she penciled a few hurried lines, and called one of her Chinese servants to her side. "Take this, Ah Ri, and give it to Mr. Conroy. You will find him at Lawyer Maxwell's, or if not there he will tell where he has gone. But you must find him. If he has left town already you must follow him. Find him within an hour and I'll double that"—she placed a gold piece in his hand. "Go, at once." However limited might have been Ah Ri's knowledge of the English language, there was an eloquence in the woman's manner that needed no translation. He nodded his head intelligently, said " Me shabbe you—muchee quick," caused the gold piece and the letter to instantly vanish up his sleeve, and started from the house in a brisk trot. Nor did he allow any incidental diversion to interfere with the business in hand. The noise of struggling in the underbrush on Conroy's Hill, and a cry for help, only extracted from Ah Ri the response, "You muchee go-to-hellee—no foolee me! " as he trotted unconcernedly by. In half an hour he had reached Lawyer Maxwell's office. But the news was not favorable. Gabriel had left an hour before, they knew not where. Ah Ri hesitated a moment, and then ran quickly down the hill to where a gang of his fellow-countrymen were working in a ditch at the roadside. Ah Ri paused, and uttered in a high recitative a series of the most extraordinary ejaculations, utterly unintelligible to the few