‘Enough to send you to prison, Mr. Rodman. You can’t do quite what you like! If there’s law in this country I’ll see you punished!’
He let her rave for a minute or two, and by that time had laid his plans.
‘Will you let me speak? Now I give you a choice. Either you can do as you say, or you can be out of this country, with me and Jack, before to-morrow morning. In a couple of hours I can get more money than you ever set eyes on; I’ll be back here with it’—he looked at his watch—‘by one o’clock. No, that wouldn’t be safe either—that fellow might send someone here by then. I’ll meet you on Westminster Bridge, the north end, at one. Now you’ve a minute to choose; he may have gone straight away to the police station. Punish me if you like—I don’t care a curse. But it seems to me the other thing’s got more common sense in it I haven’t seen that woman for a month, and never care to see her again. I don’t care over much for you either; but I do care for Jack, and for his sake I’ll take you with me, and do my best for you. It’s no good looking at me like a wild beast You’ve sense enough to make a choice.’
She clasped her hands together and moaned, so dreadful was the struggle in her between passions and temptations and fears. The mother’s heart bade her trust him; yet could she trust him to go and return?
‘You have the cunning of a devil,’ she groaned, ‘and as little heart! Let you go, when you only want the chance of deserting me again!’
‘You’ll have to be quick,’ he replied, holding his watch in his hand, and smiling at the compliment in spite of his very real anxiety. ‘There may be no choice in a minute or two.’
‘I’ll go with you now; I’ll follow you where you go to get the money!’
‘No, you won’t. Either you trust me or you refuse. You’ve a free choice, Clara. I tell you plainly I want little Jack, and I’m not going to lose him if I can help it.’
‘Have you any other children?’
‘No—never had.’