“It can be put straight, which is the next best thing,” broke in Willard fiercely. “I’m not here to listen to your plans; but you must listen to mine! I have no time to lose, nor have you; so I’ll put my meaning in the plainest words possible, and I’ll thank you not to interrupt me. I’m not going to lecture you on morality, and that sort of thing—that’s not my business. I have followed you with one object, and one only, and that is to take you back to your husband. Don’t try to shut me up!” he almost screamed; for Nancy’s indignation had crimsoned her face and neck again. “You’ve got to hear what I have to say, and it must be here and now. You’ll know why when I have finished. I’ve thought this wretched affair through from A to Z, and my way has to be your way—unless you prefer the alternative. You either come with me now, this instant, and promise not to leave me until I hand you over to your husband, or I shall shoot Power at sight. That is my offer. Take it or leave it. I give you your fancy man’s life in exchange for your obedience. Refuse, and I fill him full of lead. I’m running no bluff on you. I mean just what I am saying. I am not even taking any great risk, because there isn’t a jury in America that would convict a father for killing the man who betrayed his daughter while her husband’s back was turned. The dirty hound! I’ve got both him and you in a tight place, and now you’re going to suffer, each of you. Condemn him to death if you like. I don’t care a red cent which way your choice goes. But, if you want him to live, you must return to Marten, and be his good and loving wife once more. No, you gain nothing by shrinking away in horror at the notion. Nor will death serve your ends, since a silly woman would think little of giving her life to save her lover. You have my full and complete terms, no less, in exchange for Power’s life. It won’t save him if you agree to come away with me and throw yourself overboard before our steamer reaches Europe. That will mean simply that I take the next boat west, and kill Power. My plea still holds good. I am prepared to face any court with the proofs of my story. But I can’t waste any more time. Which is it to be—go or stay—give Power his life or take it? If you want to please me, which is about the last thing you would think of, refuse to come with me, because I am aching to empty these into his rotten carcass.”
Nancy had shrunk from his growing frenzy no less than from his monstrous decree; but her dilated eyes were fixed on his, utterly regardless of the brace of heavy-caliber revolvers he had produced, apparently to lend a theatrical effect to his words. In truth, the man had no such thought in his mind. He was beyond the reach of any impulse of that sort. His maniacal fury was real enough to convince the most skeptical that he fully intended every word of that murderous threat. Nor did the distracted girl harbor any doubt on that score. Suddenly, awfully, she had been scourged to the verge of a precipice, and it was borne in on her she had no option but to make the heartrending decision which the man whom she had once loved as a father was forcing on her.
Her very lips blanched, and she gazed at Willard with all the hatred and passionate scorn of a woman wronged beyond redress.
“You—you—” she gasped incoherently, “you are not God! It is God alone who wields such power over men and women. He, and He only, may pronounce a decree of life or death against those who have sinned—not you, a man who sold his own daughter for money!”
“Power told you that, did he? The story came well from the mouth of the cheat who robbed me of my property.”
“But that is a lie. Why demean yourself by uttering such a plea?”
“We can argue the rights and wrongs of the matter some other time. Are you coming with me, or not?”
“No, a thousand times no!” she almost shrieked.
Willard repocketed the pistols, and turned to leave the hut. “That’s right!” he chuckled sardonically. “I’d as soon have it that way as the other.”
Nancy was quite beside herself with agony, or she would never have snatched up the gun and held it pointblank at his back.