He paused, regarding her so intensely that the blood 317 beat up into her face. There was no mistaking that look and it thrilled her to the soul.
“Yes?” she managed to say.
“It means my happiness, now and for all time to come,” he went on. “See, I shall have accomplished what I set out to do and what in justice had to be done, bringing these men to punishment––to punishment in one form or another. I shall have given my employer, the company, service worthy of the hire. I shall have rid you and San Mateo of an unscrupulous parasite in the person of Ed Sorenson, though my persecution of him now shall stop and I shall leave him enough out of the property recovered from his father to live in comfort somewhere with his mother.
“Mr. Pollock states I shall have no trouble in getting legal title and possession of most of the wealth of these four men,––I and any relatives of the dead Jim Dent who can be found. For thirty years’ accumulated interest charges owing me will swallow up all the men’s properties. That, however, is only a material victory. I shall have relieved Johnson of fear of financial constraint; and saved his daughter from a serious mistake. I shall have started Martinez on the road to success––and I should not be surprised if he prospered, became the leading attorney in this county, was elected judge and so on.
“In a way, too, I shall have helped to remove the oppressive weight of these men, Sorenson, Burkhardt, Judge Gordon and Vorse, with their sinister influence, from this community and region. They have always held the natives in more or less open subjection, financial, political, and moral. There should be a freer air in San Mateo henceforth. The people will have a chance to grow. They no longer will feel the threat of brutal 318 masters always over them; and with the completion of the irrigation project and the infusion of new settlers they will become better citizens.
“I see all this,” he concluded. “It pleases me; it gives me cause for satisfaction. But it doesn’t give me the happiness I want, or the love. That is alone in your hands to bestow.”
Janet felt herself trembling; she could not speak.
“I think I felt the stirring of love from the moment I saw you there at the ford,” he exclaimed. “Last night when I knew that wretch had carried you off to the mountains, I could have torn him limb from limb. That was my love speaking, Janet. If I should have to go through life without you––oh, the thought is too bitter to dwell on!––then I should think life not worth living. But I have imagined that you might have for me a little–––”
Janet swiftly clasped his hand with her own.
“I love you,” she cried softly. “I was sitting here when you came because I loved you. If I am necessary to your happiness, you also are necessary to mine. I honor you for what you have done and love you for what you are, a strong true heart.”