'Get back to the mine,' he ordered. 'You've no business to be up here, anyway. What'd happen if the police paid a visit? There's gossip enough as it is.'
'Who cares about the police?' I answered. I was angry at his interruption. I wanted time to work it out. The mine had killed them, he had said. And he was the mine. That meant that he had killed them. He had killed his wife — he, and not my mother. My God, what a fiend! He'd killed his wife and made my mother think she had done it. 'You crazy swine,' I muttered.
His son came forward and caught my arm as I moved towards the old man. I flung him off. There was murder in me at that moment. The Captain must have seen it in my eyes, for he cried out, 'Pryce!' His voice rang as though he was calling a platoon of infantry to attention. 'Stand back, will you.'
I said, 'This is between your father and me. You keep out of it. And when I've finished with him,' I added through my teeth, 'you can look after the bits.'
'Get out of here,' he ordered. 'Do you hear? Get out!'
'Not until I've finished with this murderous swine,' I said.
But as I started for the old man, who was cowering against the desk, the Captain suddenly called out, 'Stay where you are, Pryce — or by God I'll shoot you.'
I stopped then, for he had a gun in his hand.
'That's better,' he said. And his teeth showed angrily beneath his moustache. 'Stand back against the wall. Go on — stand back.' Reluctantly I did as he ordered. 'Now then, what's the trouble?' he asked. His voice was tense.
'This,' I answered hotly. 'Your father's a murderer. He's just tried to kill me down in Wheal Garth. And he killed his second wife. He pitched her down that shaft and then persuaded my mother that she'd done it. He killed my mother and Kitty's. For all I know he killed yours as well.'