He went out to seek her with that same fear in his heart which had tortured him for months before he fell asleep—the dread that the unscrupulous Regan would rob him of the woman he loved. The fear had all the growth of months of desperation when he had hated and planned through a dark, horrible season, when he had thought and thought, and almost determined——
Roy Lee on Earth was a man of honor. It was a great mystery to him when he lived there how men became so depraved as to commit some of their terrible crimes. It was no mystery now. In those long, hating days he had come to know that it is the great power of all those other souls in the world which holds the man of Earth in check to civilization.
When there are three people in one world, how much better, sometimes, that there be only two, there being no law, no knowledge, no hindrance to the deed save one man’s will to hold his hand, and the fear of a God away, oh! so very far away—somewhere!
It was years before, but not so to Roy Lee, as he stood again overlooking a gray sea, not knowing that his sleep had been of unusual duration, regarding his safety as one more of the mysteries, with Isabella lost, remembering his hate as yesterday’s hate, his fear as present as the fear of last night, the fear that Regan meant to take his life.
“I don’t wonder,” he muttered to the cliffs, “that Cain killed Abel! I only wonder that Abel did not kill Cain before he had a chance to strike!”
A lurid glare, as if it were a trail of blood, fell across the snow. The red Jupiter rose before his astonished eyes. The rays scorched his cheek like a near fire. Then he heard a step; he turned; there beside him stood Regan, with dark, furious face, scorn in every lineament, the grand, fierce eyes raging at the uncontrollable in Nature, that expectant, defiant gaze, which to Roy Lee had become so dreadful.
But it would not have happened even then, if Regan had not spoken, or even if he had said any other words, for Roy Lee called back to remembrance his earthly teaching. This man had been his friend in trouble, had saved his life! It was a sin to bring death upon a soul! Somewhere there was a God!—and he took away his hand from the hilt of a dagger.
“Tell me at once where is Isabella!”
It was no friend speaking to friend. It was an insolent, imperious demand—sovereign to subject!
“She is saved from you forever!”