“Yes, yes; but it was the slightest touch of the hand—it was more in the way of pushing him from the room—you could hardly say I struck him—you could hardly call it an assault, could you, Wayne?”
It was the plea of a man begging for mercy; but contempt and scorn were gathering might in Wayne’s heart. Mrs. Craighill was calling the third doctor, who lived nearest, and the time was short.
“You are Roger Craighill. What you say of this matter will be believed. But when the doctors ask how it happened, wouldn’t it be as well to remember that I was in the house—and that I have no reputation to lose?”
The peace of the dead man at their feet hung upon the room. Colonel Craighill lifted his head, but he did not face his son.
“I don’t understand you,” he gasped.
“Yes,” said Wayne, “I think you do understand,” and he spoke the words slowly, with a sharp precision, but he smiled slightly. He forgot himself, his own life and its better aims; the new aspirations that had visited him during his long self-communing in the hills; the thought of his own honour; the precious faith in life and love that Jean Morley had roused, in him—all went down before this undreamed of, this exquisite vengeance. He had offered to assume responsibility for the death of this old man who lay stiffening there on the floor, and Roger Craighill—his father—would suffer it, would accept the sacrifice and connive at its fulfilment!
Wayne’s eyes were not good to see as he watched his father for some sign. A long silence followed in which neither moved, and when Colonel Craighill turned toward his son it was with a guarded, furtive glance, as though he had hoped to find him gone.
“The doctors are on the way, all of them,” said Mrs. Craighill at the door. “What else is there to do?”
“Nothing,” said Wayne, “but this: when they come, if there’s any question of a blow having been struck, I did it—I did it. And,” he deliberated, “you’d better call Tom Walsh at the Allequippa Club and tell him to come up. He’s a good hand with the newspapers and the police. Good night.”