第79章 BOOK III:THE HEART OF MAN(32)
I have no mercy for any such display of intolerance on the part of the rich and the fortunate.I hated her for it;I hated her class,herself and all she stood for.To strike the dealer of such a hurt I felt to be my right.Though a man of small beginnings and of a stock which such as you call common,I have a pride which few of your blood can equal.I could not work,or sleep or eat with such a sting in my breast as she had planted there.To rid myself of it,I determined to kill her,and I did.How?Oh,that was easy,though it has proved a great stumbling-block to the detectives,as Iknew it would!I shot her -but not with an ordinary bullet.My charge was a small icicle made deliberately for the purpose.It had strength enough to penetrate,but it left no trace behind it.
'A bullet of ice for a heart of ice,'I had said in the torment of my rage.But the word was without knowledge,Mr.Challoner.Isee it now;I have seen it for two whole weeks.I did not misjudge her condemnation of me,but I misjudged its cause.It was not to the comparatively poor,the comparatively obscure man she sought to show contempt,but to the brother of Oswald whose claims she saw insulted.A woman I should have respected,not killed.A woman of no pride of station;a woman who loved a man not only of my own class but of my own blood -a woman,to avenge whose unmerited death I stand here before you a self-condemned criminal.That is but justice,Mr.Challoner.That is the way I look at things.
Though no sentimentalist;and dead to all beliefs save the eternal truths of science,I have that in me which will not let me profit,now that I know myself unworthy,by the great success I have earned.
Hence this confession,Mr.Challoner.It has not come easily,nor do I shut my eyes in the least to the results which must follow.
But I can not do differently.To-morrow,you may telegraph to New York.Till then I desire to be left undisturbed.I have many things to dispose of in the interim."Mr.Challoner,very white by now,pointed to the door before he sank again into his chair.Brotherson took it for dismissal and stepped slowly back.Then their eyes met again and Mr.Challoner spoke his first word:
"There was another -a poor woman -she died suddenly -and her wound was not unlike that inflicted upon Edith.Did you -""I did."The answer came without a tremour."You may say and so may others that I was less justified in this attack than in the other;but I do not see it that way.A theory does not always work in practice.I wished to test the unusual means I contemplated,and the woman I saw before me across the court was hard-working and with nothing in life to look forward to,so -"A cry of bitter execration from Mr.Challoner cut him short.
Turning with a shrug he was about to lift his hand to the door,when he gave a violent start and fell hastily back before a quickly entering figure of such passion and fury as neither of these men had ever seen before.
It was Oswald!Oswald,the kindly!Oswald,the lover of men and the adorer of women!Oswald,with the words of the dastardly confession he had partly overheard searing hot within his brain!
Oswald,raised in a moment from the desponding invalid to a terrifying ministrant of retributive justice.
Orlando could scarcely raise his hand before the other's was upon his throat.
"Murderer!doubly-dyed murderer of innocent women!"was hissed in the strong man's ears."Not with the law but with me you must reckon,and may God and the spirit of my mother nerve my arm!"
XL
DESOLATE
The struggle was fierce but momentary.Oswald with his weakened powers could not long withstand the steady exertion of Orlando's giant strength,and ere long sank away from the contest into Mr.
Challoner's arms.
"You should not have summoned the shade of our mother to your aid,"observed the other with a smile,in which the irony was lost in terrible presage."I was always her favourite."Oswald shuddered.Orlando had spoken truly;she had always been blindly,arrogantly trustful of her eldest son.No fault could she see in him;and now -Impetuously Oswald struggled with his weakness,raised himself in Mr.Challoner's arms and cried in loud revolt:
But God is just.He will not let you escape.If He does,I will not.I will hound you to the ends of this earth and,if necessary,into the eternities.Not with the threat of my arm -you are my master there,but with the curse of a brother who believed you innocent of his darling's blood and would have believed you so in face of everything but your own word."Peace!"adjured Orlando."There is no account I am not ready to settle.I have robbed you of the woman you love,but I have despoiled myself.I stand desolate in the world,who but an hour ago could have chosen my seat among the best and greatest.What can your curses do after that?""Nothing."The word came slowly like a drop wrung from a nearly spent heart."Nothing;nothing.Oh,Orlando,I wish we were both dead and buried and that there were no further life for either of us."The softened tone,the wistful prayer which would blot out an immortality of joy for the one,that it might save the other from an immortality of retribution,touched some long unsounded chord in Orlando's extraordinary nature.
Advancing a step,he held out his hand -the left one."We'll leave the future to itself,Oswald,and do what we can with the present,"said he."I've made a mess of my life and spoiled a career which might have made us both kings.Forgive me,Oswald.
I ask for nothing else from God or man.I should like that.It would strengthen me for to-morrow."But Oswald,ever kindly,generous and more ready to think of others than of himself,had yet some of Orlando's tenacity.He gazed at that hand and a flush swept up over his cheek which instantly became ghastly again.