He flung up his right arm dramatically, and held it tense and trembling, as though it were poised to hurl a weapon.
“You were watched!” he cried hysterically. “I know that you met. And you tried to deceive me. Both of you. She will try, also——”
The moonlight disappeared before the eyes of Colonel Vega, and when again he opened them he was looking dizzily up at the swaying masts and yards. Roddy, with his hand at Vega’s throat, was forcing his shoulders back against the rail. His free hand, rigid and heavy as a hammer, swung above the Venezuelan’s face.
“Yesterday,” panted Roddy, “I saved your life. If you insult that girl with your dirty, Latin mind, so help me—I will take it!”
He flung the man from him, but Vega, choking with pain and mortification, staggered forward.
“It is you who insult her,” he shrieked. “It is I who protect her. Do you know why? Do you know what she is to me? She is my promised wife!”
For a moment the two men stood, swaying with the gentle roll of the ship, staring into each other’s eyes. Above the sound of the wind in the cordage and the whisper of the water against the ship’s side, Roddy could hear himself breathing in slow, heavy respirations. Not for an instant did he doubt that the man told the truth. Vega had spoken with a conviction that was only too genuine, and his statement, while it could not justify, seemed to explain his recent, sudden hostility. With a sharp effort, Roddy recovered himself. He saw that no matter how deeply the announcement might affect him, Vega must believe that to the American it was a matter of no possible consequence.
“You should have told me this at first,” he said quietly. “I thought your questions were merely impertinent.”
Roddy hesitated. The interview had become poignantly distasteful to him. He wished to get away; to be alone. He was conscious that a possibility had passed out of his life, the thought of which had been very dear to him. He wanted to think, to plan against this new condition. In discussing Inez with this man, in this way, he felt he was degrading her and his regard for her. But he felt also that for her immediate protection he must find out what Vega knew and what he suspected. With the purpose of goading him into making some disclosure, Roddy continued insolently:
“And I still think they are impertinent.”