y and without shame; one must be false in
the hands of false fiends like all of you. Weakness is nothing to you;
helplessness is nothing; you must be met with your own weapons, and so I
lied in my sore extremity to gain the one miserable advantage within my
reach. He says you found me out by making friends with Mr. Cole. He
says that Mr. Cole has been dining with you in this very room, this
very night. You still tell the truth sometimes; has that man--that
demon--told it for once?"

"It is perfectly true," said Rattray in a low voice.

"And poor Mr. Cole told you that he knew nothing of your villany?"

"I found out that he knew absolutely nothing--after first thinking
otherwise."

"Suppose he had known? What would you have done?"

Rattray said nothing. Santos shrugged as he lit a fresh cigarette. The
captain went on with his supper.

"Ashamed to say!" cried Eva Denison. "So you have some shame left still!
Well, I will tell you. You would have murdered him, as you murdered all
the rest; you would have killed him in cold blood, as I wish and pray
that you would kill me!"

The young fellow faced her, white to the lips. "You have no right to
say that, Miss Denison!" he cried. "I may be bad, but, as I am ready to
answer for my sins, the crime of murder is not among them."

Well, it is still some satisfaction to remember that my love never
punished me with such a look as was the young squire's reward for this
protestation. The curl of the pink nostrils, the parting of the proud
lips, the gleam of the sound white teeth, before a word was spoken,
were more than I, for one, could have borne. For I did not see the grief
underlying the scorn, but actually found it in my heart to pity this
poor devil of a Rattray: so humbly fell those fine eyes of his, so like
a dog did he stand, waiting to be whipped.

"Yes; you are very innocent!" she began at last, so softly that I could
scarcely hear. "You have not committed murder, so you say; let it stand
to your credit by all means. You have no blood upon your hands; you say
so; that is enough. No! you are comparatively innocent, I admit. All
you have done is to make murder easy for others; to get others to do the
dirty work, and then shelter them and share the gain; all you need have
on your conscience is every life that was lost with the Lady Jermyn, and
every soul that lost itself in losing them. You call that innocence?
Then give me honest guilt! Give me the man who set fire to