"Keep still!" ordered Frank. "See what you have done!"
"I didn't mean to—I didn't mean to do it!" whimpered the miserable old actor, beginning to tremble. "It was the whisky—you know it was the whisky! Why, my little pet, I wouldn't hurt her for the world! I love her so—love her so! She's the sunshine of my life—she's all I have left to live for! Oh, you all know how much I love her!"
"You have shown your love!"
"I swear I didn't know what I was doing!"
"That won't save you from the gallows if you have killed her!"
"The gallows!" whispered old Dan, his eyes, bloodshot, wide and staring. "The gallows!"
"It will be what you deserve."
"The gallows! Oh, God! not that—not that! She can't be dead! I won't believe it! Let me take her in my arms! Let me talk to her! I'll bring her back to life!"
"Back, old man!" came fiercely from Havener, as old Dan tried to kneel beside the girl. "You have done your work! Here it is! Now she is mine!"
"By what right?" weakly asked the wretched father.