Page:Rideout--Beached keels.djvu/231

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WILD JUSTICE
217

have left me—and I want to think it all out."

"What's the matter?" complained the woman. "After you done all this for me— What d'ye mean?"

"For you?" he replied quietly. "It was n't for you."

"Not for me?" She gave an impatient and incredulous laugh. "Then who in the devil was it for?"

"A woman," he slowly answered,—"you never knew her, and I hope you never saw her. I can't name her name before—either of us. And yet I see now she's way above any harm you or him or I might say or do against her."

With a sharp intake of breath that was almost a snarl, the woman advanced on him, quick and hostile.

"Do you mean that?" she cried, shrill with anger. "Do you understand what I know—what I can do, you fool?—an' I will do it, too. I'm in a pretty fix now—when it was all for some other woman. Oh, you two liars, you an' him both—an' let me