"She can ruin him," said Mrs. Mountford coldly.
"The deil she can."
"If Captain Kyles marries this Donna Maria," said Mrs. Mountford in a quiet and deadly tone, "you tell Mr. Herries that I can save him."
Gowrie was so astonished by this speech that he would have asked for further information. But Mrs. Mountford, conscious perhaps that she had said too much, pushed him out of the room, and shortly he was hurrying towards the police-station as fast as his wicked old legs could carry him, sorely puzzled as to her meaning.
"Maybe the Captain killed the auld mon," thought Gowrie, "but for why? Hoots! there's a deal o' deevilry in this case. Yon lassie wi' the bairn's face kens mair aboot the death o' her faither nor she'll say. But if this Don Giovanny--and that Kyles is, no less--plays her false, a' the fat wull be on the fire. Weel, the mair necessity for me tae hurry up wi' the arrest, and get the siller."
Meanwhile, Maud Tedder was shut up in her room, lying on her bed and raging as only a woman scorned can rage. Of late she had noted, and especially since the death of her father, that Kyles was not so attentive as he had been. Now she learned that he was engaged to Donna Maria Guzman, when he had explicitly stated to her that he did not care for that lady. Apparently it was the money he was after, and this thought made the jealous heart of Maud burn within her. She loved Kyles, and would have sacrificed a thousand cousins to make him her husband. That could be done, she thought, if she recovered her fortune by getting Herries hanged. And if he was arrested he certainly would be hanged, therefore she was quite willing to give half a year's income to bring about this result.
All that day and the next she lay in bed, denying herself to everyone, longing for news. Late in the afternoon of the day following Gowrie's visit, she received a wire from Anderfield, sent by the old man.
"Herries arrested," ran the wire, "he was already married."
"Married," said Maud to herself, smiling cruelly, "his honeymoon will be spent in gaol, and will end on the gallows."