‘Nothing!’ exclaimed Rodley, taking the light from her hand and examining the cavity. ‘Why!—Gracious powers! no more there is! There has been robbery! Some one has been here and has sacked the bank!’ His face was positively ghastly in the weird light as he said this, and under his breath he continued a fire of horrible execrations.
‘Well, Mr Rodley,’ said Bertha, smiling, ‘and the proof?’
Rodley did not answer, but moved as if to leave the cavern, when a woman’s figure confronted him at the entrance, and a ringing voice said: ‘Proof! No! He has no proof!’
Rodley staggered back with a cry of rage and surprise. ‘Patience! Why—how have you got here? I left you at Yarmouth!—Ha! I see it all now!’
‘Yes,’ cried the girl, ‘of course you do. I gave you fair warning, when I found out that you were beginning to forsake me for another; but not until after I had begged and entreated you, with tears in my eyes, to remember the solemn protestations of love you had made me, and the solemn troth which we had plighted together.’
‘Let me go!’ roared Rodley; ‘you’re mad!’
‘No, no—not so fast!’ cried the girl. She made a signal to some one without, and a man entered.
‘Jasper Rodley,’ continued Patience, ‘this constable has a warrant for your apprehension on the charge of having been concerned in the bank robbery four years ago.—Yes, you may look fiercely at me. I swore that the secret in my keeping should never be divulged. I loved you so much, that I was ready even to marry a thief. But as you have broken your faith with me, I consider myself free of all obligations.—Captain West, it was this man who planned the robbery, who had the coin conveyed to his boat, the Fancy Lass, and who alone was saved from the wreck.’
Rodley made a desperate rush for the cave entrance; but the constable held him fast, and took him off.
‘There, Miss West!’ cried the girl; ‘I have done my duty, and I have satisfied my revenge. My mission is accomplished. Good-bye, and all happiness be with you.’ And before Bertha could stop her, she had disappeared.