“And kicking, your honour. I had to do all I done an’ give they policemen the slip, for the law was too strong for me. But afore God I swear I’m an innocent man, and, after my wife, I’d sooner you believed in me than any living.”
“Oaths are nothing to you,” said the other, coldly. “Come aside and speak to me.”
They walked apart on the wharf, and Vivian continued,—
“Why did you lie to the officers and deceive them, and escape, and subsequently delude the world into supposing that you had destroyed yourself? Tell me that. Were those the actions of an innocent man, Daniel Sweetland? I do not think so. If you can prove to me that you did not murder Adam Thorpe, do it; if not, my duty, painful as it may be, is clear. You have escaped justice thus far; but you shall not escape it altogether, if I can prevent you.”
Dan stared aghast at such a turn of affairs. The speaker was inflexible. No gentleness marked his voice. He had not noticed the hand that Daniel ventured timidly to put forward.
“I thought ’twas Providence that threw me here,” said the sailor. “I counted to find you, sir, as was my friend always, ready to stand up for me against—— But what can I say? How can I prove aught, having no witnesses? My gun was found—the beautiful gun you gived me. And if I swear afore my Maker I know no more than you do how it comed in Middlecott woods upon that night, what’s the use? I see in your face you be against me and won’t believe me.”
“I am not a fool, whatever else I may be,” answered the other. “To say you do not know how that gun came into Middlecott Lower Hundred is folly. You alone had access to the gun. You must know. Whether you killed Thorpe or not, I cannot say; that you saw him die, I believe; and if you could have thrown the blame elsewhere, you would naturally have done so. I am sorry you dared to come to me—sorry for your sake and my own. I have enough anxiety and difficulty on my hands at present without you.”
“Very well,” said Sweetland, “if that’s your answer, then we be man to man and no love lost. I’ll go my way and you can go yours, an’ I hope afore your beard’s growed you’ll get a larger heart in you. If it had been t’other way round, I’d have believed your word like the Bible, an’ I’d have fought for you an’ spared no sweat to show the world you was an honest, true man. But since you won’t believe further than you can see, and haven’t got no friendship stronger than what goes down afore this trial, then go your way, an’ be damned to you; an’ may you never find yourself at a loose end with nought but sudden death waiting for you an’ no friend’s hand ready to help!”
“Friendships may be broken, and I will never willingly assist a criminal against the laws he has defied and the State he has outraged. You fled to escape the just penalty of your deeds, and no honourable man would succour you. It is not I that am faithless, but yourself. I have never changed; my devotion to duty and to honour has never been hidden from you, and if you had ordered your life on my example, you would not stand where you do to-day.”