“No,” she said at last, looking him calmly in the eyes. “I have no soft feelings for criminals as criminals, none at all. And there is every reason why I should be adamant to this man, Dyck Calhoun. But, Lord Mallow, I would go carefully about this, if I were you. He is a man who takes no heed of people, high or low, and has no fear of consequences. Have you thought of the consequences to yourself? Suppose he resists, what will you do?”
“If he resists I will attack him with due force.”
“You mean you will send your military and police to attack him?” The gibe was covered, but it found the governor’s breast. He knew what she was meaning.
“You would not expect me to do police work, would you? Is that what your president does? What your great George Washington does? Does he make the state arrests with his own hand?”
“I have no doubt he would if the circumstances were such as to warrant it. He has no small vices, and no false feelings. He has proved himself,” she answered boldly.
“Well, in that case,” responded Lord Mallow irritably, “the event will be as is due. The man is condemned by my masters, and he must submit to my authority. He is twice a criminal, and—”
“And yet a hero and a good swordsman, and as honest as men are made in a dishonest world. Your Admiralty and your government first pardoned the man, and then gave him freedom on the island which you tried to prevent; and now they turn round and confine him to his acres. Is that pardon in a real sense? Did you write to the government and say he ought not to be free to roam, lest he should discover more treasure-chests and buy another estate? Was it you?”
The governor shook his head. “No, not I. I told the government in careful and unrhetorical language the incident of his coming here, and what I did, and my reasons for doing it—that was all.”
“And you being governor they took your advice. See, my lord, if this thing is done to him it will be to your own discomfiture. It will hurt you in the public service.”
“Why, to hear you speak, mistress, it would almost seem you had a fondness for the man who killed your father, who went to jail for it, and—”