He said nothing, but reaching out he clasped Douglas by the hand. Then with head erect and a new light in his eyes, he turned and made his way slowly toward the road.

CHAPTER XIX

WARMER THAN HE EXPECTED

Joe had gone but a short distance up the road when Ben Stubbles met him in his car, and enveloped him in a cloud of dust. Ben was alone and he scowled as the old man stepped aside to let him pa.s.s. Douglas, who was watching, felt thankful that Joe was ignorant of the driver's part in Jean's ruin.

Seeing Douglas standing under the tree, Ben drew up his car and asked him what he was doing there.

"Attending to my own affairs," was the cool reply.

"Amusing the old man, eh? You must have a d.a.m.n lot of work to do if you can afford to waste your time that way."

"That, too, is my own affair, and not yours. Have you anything more to say?"

"Sure I have. I want to know what you are doing here."

"Why shouldn't I be here?"

"But you received orders to leave."

"Who gave them?"

"Dad, of course."

"What right had he to order me away?"

"Oh, he rules here."

"Well, he doesn't rule me, and I shall leave when I get ready, and not before."

"You'll change your tune before long, though."

"I will, eh?"

"Sure. You'll find this place so d.a.m.n hot for you that you'll be glad to get out."

"H'm," and Douglas gave a sarcastic laugh. "You have tried to make it hot for me already, so I believe. How did you succeed?"

"What do you mean?" Ben demanded.

"You know as well as I do. You set two men upon me the other night, as you were too much of a coward to face me yourself. Now you understand my meaning. If you want to make things hot for me, step right out here. Now is your chance."

"I wouldn't foul my hands fighting a thing like you," Ben snarled.

"No, simply because you know what would happen to you. You are too cowardly to face a man, but you have no hesitation about ruining an innocent girl, and leaving her to a miserable fate."

At these words Ben clutched the door of his car, threw it open and stepped quickly out upon the road. His face was livid with rage, and his body was trembling.

"Explain yourself!" he shouted. "How dare you make such a charge?"

Douglas at once stepped across to where Ben was standing, and looked him full in the eyes.

"Is it necessary for me to explain?" he asked. "Surely you have not forgotten what you did at Long Wharf in the city?"

"Do! What did I do?" Ben gasped, while his face turned a sickly hue.

"You pushed Jean Benton over the wharf into the harbour and left her to drown; that is what you did."

Douglas spoke slowly and impressively, and each word fell like a deadly blow upon the man before him. His face, pale a minute before, was now like death. He tried to speak but the words rattled in his throat. He grasped the side of the car for support, and then made an effort to recover his composure. The perspiration stood in great beads on his forehead, and his staring eyes never left the face of his accuser.

"I wish you could see yourself," the latter quietly remarked. "You'd certainly make a great picture. When you threatened to make this place too hot for me, you didn't expect to feel very uncomfortable that way yourself in such a short time, did you?"

"W-who in the devil's name are you?" Ben gasped.

"Oh, I don't pretend to be as intimate with the devil as you are, and appealing to me in his name doesn't do any good. It makes no difference who I am. You know that what I just said is true, and you can't deny it."

"But suppose I do deny it, what then?"

"H'm, you are talking nonsense now. It's no use for you to do any bluffing. The victim of your deviltry is lying sick unto death at Mrs.

Dempster's. You had better go to her at once and make what amends you can before it is too late."

"Ah, I know," Ben replied, regaining somewhat his former composure.

"Jean has been stuffing you with lies. She's a little vixen, and wants to get me into trouble."

"Look here," and Douglas' voice was stern as he spoke. "Don't you begin anything like that. I have never spoken a word to Jean Benton, and as far as I know she has never said anything about your cowardly deed to her. She is as true as steel in her love for you, and my advice is for you to act like a man, go to her, be true to her, and marry her as you promised you would that night you hurled her into the harbour."

"You are lying," Ben bl.u.s.tered. "If Jean didn't tell you this c.o.c.k-and-bull yarn, how would you know anything about it?"

"I am not lying, Ben Stubbles. There were eyes watching your every action that night on Long Wharf; there were ears listening to what you said, and but for these hands of mine Jean Benton would be dead, and you would now be arrested for murdering her."

"You! You heard, and saw, and saved her!" Ben gasped, shrinking back from before the steady gaze of his pitiless accuser.

"I did," was the quiet reply.

"Were you alone?"

"Do you think I could have lifted her wet body from the water myself?

No, I had help. But never mind that now. You go to Jean and make love to no one else."

The strain through which he had just pa.s.sed was telling severely upon Ben. He mopped his face and forehead with his handkerchief. His sense of fear was pa.s.sing and anger was taking its place. It annoyed him to think that he should be thus cornered and affected by Jake Jukes' hired man. Then his opponent's closing words roused the fire in his soul, and he turned angrily upon him.

"Ah, I see through your little game now," he cried. "You are jealous of me."

"Jealous of you! In what way?"