Page:Vance--The trey o hearts.djvu/35

19 and son, and by careful speculations repaired my fortunes. In Rose I had the lure to draw the boy back to America; in you, the one person I could trust.

"I sent Rose abroad under an assumed surname and arranged that she should meet Law. They fell in love at sight. Then I wrote her that the man she had chosen was the son of him who had murdered all of me but my brain. It fell out as I foresaw: she broke off with Law without telling him the truth. You can imagine the scene—passionate renunciation—pledges of constancy—the arrangement of a secret code whereby, when she needed him, she would send him a single rose—the birth of a great romance!"

The old man laughed sardonically. "Well … the rose has been sent; Law is already homeward bound; my agents are watching his every step. The rest is in your hands."

The girl bent forward, her eyes aflame in a pallid face.

"What is it you want of me?" she asked in a vibrant voice.

"Bring Alan Law to me. Dead or alive, bring him to me. But alive, if you can compass it: I wish to see him die."

The hand of youth grasped the icy hand of death-in-life.

"I will bring him," Judith swore. "Dead or alive, you shall have him here."