There was a look in Burlingame’s face which Heaven would not have accepted as goodness, and there was that in his voice which did not belong to the Courts of the Lord. Malice, though veiled, showed in face and sounded in voice. Even as he spoke, Joel Mazarine turned his horse’s head towards Askatoon.
“You’re sure a woman was with him? You’re sure she was with him?” he asked in chaos of passion.
“I couldn’t see her face; it was too far away,” answered Burlingame suggestively, “but you can form your own conclusions—and the express is due in thirty minutes!”
He looked at his watch complacently. “What’s the good, Mazarine? Why don’t you say, ‘Go and sin no more?’ Or why don’t you divorce her with the evidence about that night on the prairie? I could have got you a verdict and damages. Yes, I could have got you plenty of damages. He’s rich. You took her back and condoned; you condoned, Mazarine, and now you’ll neither have damages nor wife—and the express goes in thirty minutes!”
“The express won’t take Mrs. Mazarine away tonight,” the old man said, a look of jungle fierceness filling his face.
Burlingame laughed unpleasantly. “Yes, you’ll foul your own nest, Mazarine, and then bring her back to live in it. I know you. It isn’t the love of God in your heart, because you’ll never forgive her; but you’ll bring her back to the nest you fouled, just because you want her—‘You damned and luxurious mountain goat,’ as Shakespeare called your kind.”
With another laugh, which somewhat resembled that of the two strange vanished Chinamen, Burlingame flicked his horse and cantered away. A little time afterwards, however, he turned and looked toward Askatoon, and he saw the old man whipping his horse into a gallop to reach Askatoon railway station before the express went East.
“It’s true, Mazarine,” he said aloud. “Orlando booked for the sleeper going East in thirty minutes; but the sleeper was for one only, and that one was his mother, you old hippopotamus.... But I wonder where she is—where the divine Louise is? She hasn’t levanted with her Orlando. ... Now, I wonder!” he added.
Then, with a sudden impulse, he dug heels into his horse’s sides, and galloped back towards Askatoon. He wanted to see what would happen before the express went East.