absolutely necessary," resumed Blake coldly. "So long as you understand the fact, the details may well be spared. I will not even mention the poor victim's name, whose remains lie at this moment exactly as I have described, beneath this very room-under our very feet! The verification of my statement—or its disproof-is easy; but I will suppose that you accept it. There is no more choice for you, indeed, than there was for your husband himself when he found me yonder "—he pointed with his finger downward-" in possession of his ghastly secret, I think there was a moment when he thought to kill me also, and thereby conceal the evidence of his first crime by a second; but I was armed; or perhaps he had already had enough of bloodshedding. 'I know who this was, and by whose hand he came by his end,' said I. He made no effort to deny it, but stood speechless, overwhelmed with remorse and terror. I was frightened myself, I own and eager enough to get to the upper air. Go first,' said I (for I was not so foolish as to let him come behind me); and he obeyed me like a child. When we got to the toolhouse, I put the wood back over the hole with my own hands, for he seemed quite helpless, and gazed at me like one walking in his sleep. When I told him, however, by way of comfort, how fortunate it was that an old acquaintance like myself, who understood the relations between him and his brother, and could make allowance for great provocation, had discovered his secret, since it would remain quite safely in my hands,-upon certain equitable conditions, he seemed to recover himself a little, and be inclined to listen to reason. On the other hand, it was foolish in him, and a mere waste of breath, to endeavour to explain to me that the whole affair had happened by accident. That might have been the case or not; if it was so, it was no doubt a matter for his private satisfaction; but so far as I was concerned (as I pointed out to him), it could not make one halfpenny worth of difference in my pecuniary demands. Again, it was still more foolish in him the man who had struck me down in the open street-to attempt to appeal to my compassion. I refer to it, however, for two reasons; first, because his stooping to such a humiliation will bring home to you, more than any words of mine, the fact that he lay-and lies-completely in my power; and secondly, as a guide for your own proceedings. You have heard of a heart of stone; but stone may be worn away, they say, by water-drops, and therefore, perhaps, by woman's tears. My heart is made of sterner stuff. Besides, I hate you both, and would not spare you a single turn of the rack-so long as it kept life in you!" "Monster! what is it you demand?" asked Maggie hoarsely. "Money! A round sum down. So much paid quarterly -and to the very day. It will not beggar you; you will not go about in rags, as I have done; but you will be poor, and I shall be rich. Money!" "I will not give you one farthing, though it were to save your soul." She had risen from her chair, and stood confronting him with pale, resolute face, and unshrinking eye. "Thief, by your own admission; coward, by your presence here; liar, by the story you have fabricated against my husband's honour-I will give you nothing-nothing! I defy you!" "Oh ho, madam, so you guessed it from the first, did you," answered he, "and made up your mind to fight it out? Have you forgotten, then, what I told you a week ago, that I have in my possession-I have it here—the proof, the damning proof, of what I have told you, in your husband's own handwriting? Do you suppose that I trusted to his bare word? No, no! Here it is, in black and white-his own admission." "Let me look at it." She had moved towards him, and he stepped back towards the curtained window to avoid her. "Gently, gently. Keep your distance, madam. I am not going to let your nimble fingers touch a document that is worth to me five thousand pounds at least." "It is worth nothing: I do not believe in its existence. It is just as likely as not to be blank paper, and all this wicked talk a scheme to extort money from a defenceless woman. Let me see it, I say." "You shall see it, but at safe distance," replied Blake, still retiring before her. "That means it is a forgery," answered Maggie boldly. "Forgery or not, madam, it shall never leave my ". Here the curtains opened behind the speaker, a strong arm stretched over his shoulder, and plucked the paper from his grasp; he turned round with the cry of a wild beast, and found himself face to face, not with John Milbank, as his fears foreboded, but with the inspector of police! "I will show the document to the lady myself," said Mr Brain. |