Page:Restless Earth.djvu/208

“Surely this woman is the foulest thing that walks the earth! She is without shame, without a vestige of honour! While I kneel here beside you, she waits in our home—in the place she has polluted—so sure is she that she holds me, body and soul! She is the snake which fouled our Eden, Grace, as she has fouled the Edens of others! And I? Am I so spineless that I will allow her to crawl over me to make fools of other men and women, to foul other Edens?”

He made no extravagant gesture. He spoke softly and his hands remained still, lying spread upon the earth.

“I have known Hell here, Grace; and, if I am to know Hell hereafter, I shall not be alone. Patricia Weybourn shall burn as I burn!”

He remained silent for some minutes then. His eyes, dry and burning between their twitching lids, seemed to memorise every particle of clay and rock which formed the mound before him.

At last he sat back upon his heels, folded the telegram and returned it to his pocket, entirely forgetful of the other two which remained unopened.

He rose, dusting his knees.

“Good-bye, Grace. Good-bye, Joan,” he said simply, and turned away.

He left the hill without a backward glance, moving with swinging, determined gait. His eyes gazed straight before him, looking neither to the right nor to the left.

He was going back to New Plymouth to kill.

Doubtless he was not wholly sane at this time.

The car was swinging down the winding hill to the small town of Waitotara when James Harley broke the silence which he had maintained ever since