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Donnegan stepped to a chair and sat down. He took out his watch and heldit in his hand, studying the dial, and the colonel knew that his timelimit was taken literally.
"I swear to you," he said, "that if you can help me to the possession ofLandis while he is ill, I shall not lay a finger upon him or harm him inany way."
"You swear?" said Donnegan with that ugly smile.
"My dear boy, do you think I am reckless enough to break a promise Ihave given to you?"
The cynical glance of Donnegan probed the colonel to the heart, but theeyes of the fat man did not wince. Neither did he speak again, but thetwo calmly stared at each other. At the end of the minute, Donneganslipped the watch into his pocket.
"I am ready to listen to reason," he said. And the colonel passed one ofhis strong hands across his forehead.
"Now," and he sighed, "I feel that the crisis is passed. With a man ofyour caliber, Donnegan, I fear a snap judgment above all things. Sinceyou give me a chance to appeal to your reason I feel safe. As from thefirst, I shall lay my cards upon the table. You are fond of Lou. I tookit for granted that you would welcome a chance to brush Landis out ofyour path. It appears that I am wrong. I admit my error. Only foolscling to convictions; wise men are ready to meet new viewpoints. Verywell. You wish to spare Landis for reasons of your own which I do notpretend to fathom. Perhaps, you pity him; I cannot tell. Now, you wonderwhy I wish to have Landis in my care if I do not intend to put an end tohim and thereby become owner of his mines? I shall tell you frankly. Iintend to own the mines, if not through the death of Jack, then througha legal act signed by the hand of Jack."
"A willing signature?" asked Donnegan, calmly.
A shadow came and went across the face of the colonel, and Donnegancaught his breath. There were times when he felt that if the colonelpossessed strength of body as well as strength of mind even he,Donnegan, would be afraid of the fat man.
"Willing or unwilling," said the colonel, "he shall do as I direct!"
"Without force?"
"Listen to me," said the colonel. "You and I are not children, andtherefore we know that ordinary men are commanded rather by fear of whatmay happen to them than by being confronted with an actual danger. Ihave told you that I shall not so much as raise the weight of a fingeragainst Jack Landis. I shall not. But a whisper adroitly put in his earmay accomplish the same ends." He added with a smile. "Personally, Idislike physical violence. In that, Mr. Donnegan, we belong to oppositeschools of action."
The picture came to Donnegan of Landis, lying in the cabin of thecolonel, his childish mind worked upon by the devilish insinuation ofthe colonel. Truly, if Jack did not go mad under the strain he would bevery apt to do as the colonel wished.
"I have made a mess of this from the beginning," said Donnegan, quietly."In the first place, I intended to play the role of theself-sacrificing. You don't understand? I didn't expect that you would.In short, I intended to send Landis back to Lou by making a flash thatwould dazzle The Corner, and dazzle Nelly Lebrun as well--win her awayfrom Landis, you see? But the fool, as soon as he saw that I wasflirting with the girl, lowered his head and charged at me like a bull.I had to strike him down in self-defense.
"But now you ask me to put him wholly in your possession. Colonel, youomit one link in your chain of reasoning. The link is important--to me.What am I to gain by placing him within the range of your whispering?"
"Tush! Do I need to tell you? I still presume you are interested in Lou,though you attempted to do so much to give Landis back to her. Well,Donnegan, you must know that when she learns it was a bullet from yourgun that struck down Landis, she'll hate you, my boy, as if you were asnake. But if she knows that after all you were forced into the fight,and that you took the first opportunity to bring Jack intomy--er--paternal care--her sentiments may change. No, they willchange."
Donnegan left his chair and began to pace the floor. He was no moreself-conscious in the presence of the colonel than a man might be in thepresence of his own evil instincts. And it was typical of the colonel'sinsight that he made no attempt to influence the decision of Donneganafter this point was reached. He allowed him to work out the matter inhis own way. At length, Donnegan paused.
"What's the next step?" he asked.
The colonel sighed, and by that sigh he admitted more than words couldtell.
"A reasonable man," he said, "is the delight of my heart. The next step,Donnegan, is to bring Jack Landis to this house."
"Tush!" said Donnegan. "Bring him away from Lebrun? Bring him away fromthe tigers of Lord Nick's gang? I saw them at Milligan's place tonight.A bad set, Colonel Macon."
"A set you can handle," said the colonel, calmly.
"Ah?"
"The danger will in itself be the thing that tempts you," he went on."To go among those fellows, wild as they are, and bring Jack Landis awayto this house."
"Bring him here," said Donnegan with indescribable bitterness, "so thatshe may pity his wounds? Bring him here where she may think of him andtend him and grow to hate me?"
"Grow to fear you," said the colonel.
"An excellent thing to accomplish," said Donnegan coldly.
"I have found it so," remarked the colonel, and lighted a cigarette.
He drew the smoke so deep that when it issued again from between hislips it was a most transparent, bluish vapor. Fear came upon Donnegan.Not fear, surely, of the fat man, helpless in his invalid's chair, butfear of the mind working ceaselessly behind those hazy eyes. He turnedwithout a word and went to the door. The moment it opened under hishand, he felt a hysterical impulse to leap out of the room swiftly andslam the door behind him--to put a bar between him and the eye of thecolonel, just as a child leaps from the dark room into the lighted andcloses the door quickly to keep out the following night. He had tocompel himself to move with proper dignity.
When outside, he sighed; the quiet of the night was like a blessingcompared with the ordeal of the colonel's devilish coldness. Macon'sadvice had seemed almost logical the moment before. Win Lou Macon by thepower of fear, well enough, for was not fear the thing which she hadfollowed all her life? Was it not through fear that the colonel himselfhad reduced her to such abject, unquestioning obedience?
He went thoughtfully to his own cabin, and, down-headed in his musings,he became aware with a start of Lou Macon in the hut. She had changedthe room as her father had bidden her to do. Just wherein the differencelay, Donnegan could not tell. There was a touch of evergreen in onecorner; she had laid a strip of bright cloth over the rickety littletable, and in ten minutes she had given the hut a semblance of permanentlivableness. Donnegan saw her now, with some vestige of the smile of herart upon her face; but she immediately smoothed it to perfect gravity.He had never seen such perfect self-command in a woman.
"Is there anything more that I can do?" she asked, moving toward thedoor.
"Nothing."
"Good night."
"Wait."
She still seemed to be under the authority which the colonel haddelegated to Donnegan when they started for The Corner. She turned, andwithout a word came back to him. And a pang struck through Donnegan.What would he not have given if she had come at his call not with thesedumb eyes, but with a spark of kindliness? Instead, she obeyed him as asoldier obeys a commander.
"There has been trouble," said Donnegan.
"Yes?" she said, but there was no change in her face.
"It was forced upon me." Then he added: "It amounted to a shootingaffair."
There was a change in her face now, indeed. A glint came in her eyes,and the suggestion of the colonel which he had once or twice beforesensed in her, now became more vivid than ever before. The samecontemptuous heartlessness, which was the colonel's most habitualexpression, now looked at Donnegan out of the lovely face of the girl.
"They were fools to press you to the wall," she said. "I have no pityfor them."
For a moment Donnegan only stared at her; on what did she base herco
nfidence in his prowess as a fighting man?
"It was only one man," he said huskily.
Ah, there he had struck her home! As though the words were a burden, sheshrank from him; then she slipped suddenly close to him and caught bothhis hands. Her head was raised far back; she had pressed close to him;she seemed in every line of her body to plead with him against himself,and all the veils which had curtained her mind from him dropped away. Hefound himself looking down into eyes full of fire and shadow; and eagerlips; and the fiber of her voice made her whole body tremble.
"It isn't Jack?" she pleaded. "It isn't Jack that you've fought with?"
And he said to himself: "She loves him with all her heart and soul!"
"It is he," said Donnegan in an agony. Pain may be like a fire thattempers some strong men; and now Donnegan, because he was in torment,smiled, and his eye was as cold as steel.
The girl flung away his hands.
"You bought murderer!" she cried at him.
"He is not dead."
"But you shot him down!"
"He attacked me; it was self-defense."
She broke into a low-pitched, mirthless laughter. Where was thefilmy-eyed girl he had known? The laughter broke off short--like a sob.
"Don't you suppose I've known?" she said. "That I've read my father?That I knew he was sending a bloodhound when he sent you? But, oh, Ithought you had a touch of the other thing!"
He cringed under her tone.
"I'll bring him to you," said Donnegan desperately. "I'll bring him hereso that you can take care of him."
"You'll take him away from Lord Nick--and Lebrun--and the rest?" And itwas the cold smile of her father with which she mocked him.
"I'll do it."
"You play a deep game," said the girl bitterly. "Why would you do it?"
"Because," said Donnegan faintly. "I love you."
Her hand had been on the knob of the door; now she twitched it open andwas gone; and the last that Donnegan saw was the width of the startledeyes.
"As if I were a leper," muttered Donnegan. "By heaven, she looked at meas if I were unclean!"
But once outside the door, the girl stood with both hands pressed to herface, stunned. When she dropped them, they folded against her breast,and her face tipped up.
Even by starlight, had Donnegan been there to look, he would have seenthe divinity which comes in the face of a woman when she loves.