Meanwhile Crellock had returned to the dining-room and examined the wounded man again.
“It wouldn’t be hard,” he said to himself, with a laugh. “He is half killed, so it would only be half a murder. Why shouldn’t I? He would be out of his misery; and that drunken wretch gave me the credit of being about to do it.”
He stood gazing down at the sleeping face faintly seen by the candle-light; and then turned away to go out through the glass door, and pace the verandah again.
“I wonder whether that’s what they call a temptation,” he thought. “It would be very easy, and then—”
He stopped to lean over the rails again, and gaze before him out into the night.
“No,” he said softly. “I told the little lass I wouldn’t drink again, so as to be more fit to come nigh her, and I don’t think I should do to go nigh her if I killed that spark of a fellow so as to be sure of getting a wife. It’s curious what a woman can do,” he went on musing. “They can make anything of a man—go through fire and water to get her, but it must be fire and water such as she’d be glad to see me go through. A year or so ago I’d got to that state with the prison life and the lash, that I’d have given any soldier or warder a crack on the head and killed him, and felt the happier for doing it. Since I’ve been nigh her—since that day she hung over me, and gave me water, and wiped the sweat from my face, I’ve seemed as if I must make myself cleaner about the heart; and I have, all but the drink, and that was his fault, for he was never happy when he wasn’t forcing it on one.
“No, my fine fellow,” he said with a sigh, “you’re safe enough for me. I won’t hurt you; and as to her liking you—bah! If she does, I’ll soon make her forget that.”
He took a cigar from his pocket, and was in the act of placing it between his lips when his gaze became fixed, and he stood staring straight before him.
“Who’s there?” he said in a quick, sharp whisper. “I can see you. You there!”
He sprang over the rail, and his hand went by old habit into his pocket in search of a weapon; but the answer that came disarmed him.