Strangely enough, when he stumbled upon the guilty pair and found that he had been observed, although too late for escape or concealment, he held himself well in hand. Like a voice by telephone his father’s words vibrated on his brain—“Bridle your tongue and temper!” Until that moment he had given them no second thought; reaching him now by that mysterious wireless that baffles explanation they served to bring him to his senses and to push Nancy’s need into the forefront of his thoughts.
Polly had released herself from Inman’s arms and stood by, half-tearful, half-defiant, looking on Jagger whose stern eyes had never once been turned to her face. Inman, with an uneasy sneer upon his lips, had thrust his hands deep into his pockets and was putting on a front of dare-devilry and scorn.
“I’m seeking you, Inman,” Jagger began. He had walked hotly and was a little out of breath, but the words came steadily enough.
“Your baby’s come, and Nancy’s dying—maybe dead. Get away down, as straight as you can go, and I’ll see Polly safe.”
The girl gave a startled gasp, and shrunk farther back into the deeper shadows of the rock that overhung them. Inman’s face lost its look of disdain and for once the man found himself at a loss for words.
“Do you hear me?” continued Jagger, speaking in a low passionless voice that ought to have warned the other of danger. “Why don’t you go? Haven’t I told you your wife’s dying? For her sake—at any rate until t’ sod covers her,—I’ll say naught about what I’ve seen. Get you gone!”
“All in good time!” replied Inman in a cold voice as he recovered himself. “You’ve delivered your message, and there’s no need for you to stop any longer. I’ll go down when it suits me, but not at your bidding.”
The look of a madman was in Jagger’s eyes, and a madman’s unreasoning anger was in his heart. His father’s warning slipped into the background, yet his voice remained low as he said:
“So you’ll stop up here, you dirty blackguard with your light o’ love, while the wife you stole lies dying! If I served you as you deserve I’d kick you every step o’ t’ way home; but I’d be doing her a better turn to lay you out here on t’ hillside, and leave t’ crows to pick your stinking bones.”
He paid the penalty of his violence the next moment, and though anger now blazed in Inman’s eyes it was not he, but Polly, who turned the tables upon him. Her white face quivered with passion as she left Inman’s side and confronted Jagger.