_ PART IV CHAPTER II. THE VILLAIN SCORES
"Now, sir!" said Saltash, and turned. His tone was brief; the smile had gone from his face. He came to Jake with a certain haughtiness, and stood before him.
Jake squared his shoulders. "So--you've married her!" he said.
"I have." There was a note of challenge in the curt rejoinder. Saltash's brows were drawn.
"I should like to see--proof of that," Jake said, after a moment.
"The devil you would!" Again the hot gleam shone in the odd eyes. Saltash stood for a second in the attitude of a man on the verge of violence. Then, contemptuously, he relaxed.
He lounged back against the mantel-piece and smoked his cigarette. "The devil you would, Jake!" he said again, in a tone so different that the words might have been uttered in another language. "And why--if one be permitted to ask?"
"I think you know why," Jake said.
"Oh, do I? You virtuous people are always the first to suspect evil." Saltash spoke with deliberate cynicism. "And suppose the marriage is not genuine--as you so politely hint--what then, my worthy Jake? What then?"
Jake faced him unwaveringly. "If not," he said, "she goes back with me."
Saltash's eyes suddenly flashed to his, but he did not alter his position. "Sure of that?" he asked casually.
"Sure!" said Jake.
"And if I refuse to part with her? If she refuses to go?"
"Either way," said Jake immovably.
"And why?" Saltash straightened suddenly. "Tell me why! What in hell has it got to do with you?"
"This," said Jake. "Just the fact that she's a girl needing protection and that I--can give it."
"Are you so sure of that?" gibed Saltash. "I think you forget, don't you, that I was her first protector? No one--not even Bunny--could have got near her without my consent."
"She was your find right enough," Jake admitted. "I always knew that--knew from the first you'd faked up a lie about her. But I hoped--I even believed--that you were doing it for her sake--not your own."
"Well?" flung Saltash. "And if I was?"
"And if you were," said Jake, "it was a thing worth doing--worth sticking to. Bunny is a respectable citizen. He'd have married her--made her happy."
Saltash's mouth twisted. "Bunny had his chance--missed it," he said. "He'll know better next time. I'm not troubling about Bunny. He didn't deserve to win."
"And so you decided to play him a damn trick and cut him out?" said Jake.
Saltash snapped his fingers. "I did my best for him, but I couldn't push him through against his will. Why didn't he come after her when he found she had gone? Didn't he know where to look?"
"Just because he knew," said Jake.
Saltash moved abruptly. "Damnation! You shall have what you've come for. If seeing is believing--then you shall believe--that even Charles Burchester can protect a girl at a pinch from the snares of the virtuous!" He pulled an envelope from an inner pocket, and flung it with a passionate gesture upon the table in front of Jake.
Jake's eyes, red-brown and steady, marked the action and contemplated him thereafter for several silent seconds. Then, at length, very slowly. "Maybe--after all--I don't need to see, my lord," he said. "Maybe--I've made a mistake."
He spoke with the utmost quietness, but his manner had undergone a change. It held a hint of deference. He made no move to touch the envelope upon the table.
Saltash's brows went up. "Satisfied?" he questioned curtly.
"On that point, yes." Jake continued to look at him with a close and searching regard.
"Not on all points?" Saltash flicked the ash from his cigarette with a movement of exasperation.
Jake turned and slowly walked to the window. There fell a silence between them. He stood staring down upon the scene that Toby had gazed upon a little earlier, but he saw nothing of it. The hardness had gone out of his face, and a deep compassion had taken its place.
Saltash continued to smoke for several restless seconds. Finally, he dropped the end of his cigarette into a tray and spoke.
"Anything more I can do for you?"
Jake wheeled in his massive way, and came back. "Say!" he said slowly. "I'm kind of sorry for that little girl."
Saltash made an abrupt movement that passed unexplained. "Well?" he said.
Jake faced him squarely. "If I'd been at home," he said, "this would never have happened. Or if it had happened--if it had happened--" He paused.
"You'd have made a point of coming to the wedding?" suggested Saltash.
Jake passed the suggestion by. "I'd have known how to deal with it, anyway. Now, it seems, it's too late."
Saltash took up the envelope from the table, and returned it to his pocket. "I believe you'd have been better pleased if I hadn't married her," he observed.
Jake shook his head. "I'd be better pleased--maybe--if I knew for certain what you did it for."
"My good Jake. I don't go in for aims and motives," protested Saltash. "Call it a marriage of convenience if you feel that way! It's all the same to me."
Jake's brows contracted. "I'd give a good deal not to call it that," he said.
Saltash laughed. "Call it what you like--a whim--a fancy--the craze of the moment! You needn't waste any sentiment over it. I'm sorry about Bunny, but, if he hadn't been an ass, it wouldn't have happened. You can't blame me for that anyhow. You did the same thing yourself."
"I!" The red-brown eyes suddenly shone. "I don't follow you," said Jake deliberately.
"You married your wife to deliver her from--a fate you deemed unsuitable." Saltash's teeth showed for a moment in answer to the gleam in Jake's eyes. "You did it in an almighty hurry too."
"But--damn it--she needed protection!" Jake said. "And--at least--I loved her!"
Saltash bowed. "Hence your motive was an entirely selfish one. My wife--_au contraire_--is quite unhampered by a husband's devotion. I have never made love to her--yet. I have only--protected her."
He paused, and suddenly the old monkey-like look of mischief flashed back into his face.
"I lay claim to the higher virtue, Jake," he said. "Heaven alone knows how long it will last. I've never scored over you before, but on this occasion--" He stopped with a careless wave of the hand.
"Yes," Jake said. "On this occasion--you've got me beat. But--I didn't fight for my own sake, nor yet for the off chance of downing you, which I own would have given me considerable pleasure once. It was for the child's sake." An unwonted note of entreaty suddenly sounded in his voice. "I don't know what your game is, my lord; but she's yours now--to make--or break. For God's sake--be decent to her--if you can!"
"If I can!" Saltash clapped a sudden hand upon Jake's shoulder, but though the action was obviously a kindly one, it held restraint as well. "Do you think I don't know how to make a woman happy, Jake? Think I haven't studied the subject hard enough? Think I'm a fool at the game?"
Jake looked him straight in the face. "No. I don't think you a fool, my lord," he said. "But I reckon there's one or two things that even you may have to learn. You've never yet made any woman permanently happy. There's only one way of doing that. Bunny would have done it--and won out too. But you--I'm not so sure of you."
"Oh, Bunny would have won out, would he?" Saltash's hand closed like a trap upon Jake's shoulder. There was a challenging quality in his smile.
Jake nodded. "Yes. Bunny's got the real stuff in him. Bunny would have put her happiness before his own always. He would have given her the love that lasts. It's the only thing worth having, after all."
"Well?" The challenge became more marked upon the swarthy face. The smile had vanished. "And you think I am incapable of that?"
"I haven't said so," Jake said sombrely.
"But it's up to me to prove it?" There was a certain insistence in Saltash's tone, albeit a mocking spirit looked out of his eyes.
Jake faced it unwaveringly for several seconds. Then: "Yes. I reckon it is up to you," he said, and turned deliberately away. "I'm going now."
"All right." Saltash's hand fell. "I give you credit for one thing, Jake," he said. "You haven't offered to take her off my hands. For that piece of forbearance I congratulate you. Do you want to see her before you go?"
"Not specially," said Jake.
Saltash's eyes followed him with a look half-malicious, half-curious. "Nor to send her a message?" he questioned.
"No." Jake's tone was brief.
"You're not wanting to offer her a safe harbour when her present anchorage fails her?" jested Saltash.
Jake turned at the door as one goaded. "When that happens," he said very deliberately. "I guess she'll be past any help from me, poor kid!"
Saltash's black brows descended. He scowled hideously for a moment. Then, "I congratulate you again," he said coolly. "You are just beginning to see things--as they are."
Jake made a brief sound that might have indicated contempt and opened the door. He went out with finality, and Saltash listened to the tread of his retreating feet with a grin of sheer cynical triumph.
"So," he said lightly, "the villain scores at last!"
But as he turned towards the other room, the cynicism passed from his face. He stood for a moment or two motionless at the door; then broke into a careless whistle and opened it. _