Still Hal did not speak, but catching the old man by the arm he pointed silently to the still figure at their feet; the stream of light from the open doorway fell across the Spaniard’s face and the white hand which held the knife.
Gilbot bent down for a moment, and when he looked up his face was even paler than the boy’s.
“Who?—— What—what happened?” he whispered.
Hal looked silently at Nan.
The old woman faced him without flinching.
“As I come up the road, I see him come out o’ the door waving his arms, and then suddenly drop like a sack; when I come up to him he was like this,” she said. “He killed hisself, I reckon,” she added carelessly.
Old Gilbot looked down at the huddled form.
“Twas just what I feared when I come to the door,” he muttered. “Lord! what things men do because o’ wenches—and in my house, too! What’s to happen now?”
CHAPTER XXV
TEN minutes later, Joe Pullen, who stood on the beach watching the Anny’s red lantern swing to and fro in the sharp breeze, was startled by the sudden appearance of Hal at his elbow. The boy’s face showed livid in the faint light, and his eyes seemed to have turned dead and dull like those of a corpse. When he spoke, his voice was strangely high and uncontrolled.