Stowell trembled, his lips became white.
"I beg you not to do that, Sir."
"I will! I take God to witness that I will. Now choose for yourself which it is to be—your course or mine?"
Stowell breathed hard for a moment and then smiled—but such a smile!
"Your Excellency," he said, "for your own sake I beg of you not to do it."
"My sake?" said the Governor, drawing up sharply—he had been striding about the room again.
"Yes, yours," said Stowell. "One of those two was my victim, the other was merely the subject of my will. I alone am guilty, and if I cannot meet my punishment without bringing such consequences on the innocent I must meet something else."
"What else?"
"Death. Then, in the eyes of heaven, the crime against the law will be your crime and I shall not live to witness it."
There was a breathless silence. The Governor was dumb-founded. Stowell stepped towards the door and said in a low voice,