Charles Rex Part 67

"_Sapristi!_ You go too far!" he bl.u.s.tered then. But Jake was already confronting the girl who had started up at his coming, and stood facing him white and shaken. He spoke, still quite quietly, even gently, but in the tone that no delinquent ever heard unmoved.

"Say," he said, "are you playing the game?"

She put up a hand to her throat. His sudden coming had unnerved her, and she had no words. But her quivering face and tragic eyes were more than sufficient answer for Jake. He had dealt with sudden emergencies before, and he treated this one with characteristic decision.

"You've no business here," he said, "and you know it. If you can't stick to the man you've married, come home with me to Maud!"

She made a sharp gesture toward him, as if on the verge of falling, and as sharply recovered herself. "Oh, I wish--how I wish I could!" she breathed.

Jake's hand, perfectly steady, full of sustaining strength, closed with authority upon her arm. "That's settled then," he said. "Come now!"

But at this point the Italian burst furiously in upon them with a flood of unintelligible language that made all further speech impossible.

Jake glanced momentarily over his shoulder as if disturbed by the buzzing of some insect, then with unruffled composure turned back to the girl.

His eyes looked straight into hers for perhaps ten seconds, then in the same purposeful fas.h.i.+on he set her free and deliberately turned upon the man who raged behind him.

As he did so, there came a shouting and banging of doors along the platform, and the train began to move. Jake's ma.s.sive shoulders braced themselves. Without words he seized the raving Italian in a grip there was no resisting, swept him, as a sudden gale sweeps a leaf, across the compartment, sent him with a neat twist buzzing forth upon the platform, and very calmly shut the door and came back.

Then there came a wild shriek of laughter from Toby, and she doubled up in her corner with hysterical mirth, gasping and gasping for breath, till he sat squarely down beside her and pulled her into the circle of his arm.

"Easy, my girl! Easy!" he said. "We're not going to have an exhibition at this stage. You keep a stiff upper lip till you feel better!"

But the stiff upper lip was rather painfully lacking on that occasion.

She very soon ceased to laugh, but for a long time thereafter she lay sobbing and shuddering like a little terrified animal against his breast while the train rushed on through the night.

He was very gentle with her. Jake's stock of patience was practically limitless, and he and Toby had always had a certain comrades.h.i.+p between them. But when she grew calmer at last he began to talk in the quiet, direct fas.h.i.+on habitual to him.

"Say now! You've had a bit of a facer over this. But you needn't be frightened. You're safe enough from that d.a.m.ned Italian anyway. And you'll find me a better refuge than he is--if that's what you're wanting."

She s.h.i.+vered and pressed closer. "You--don't know--what you're in for,"

she whispered piteously.

"That so?" said Jake, unmoved. "Well, maybe you'd like to enlighten me."

But Toby shook her head with a sob. "I couldn't! I just couldn't, Jake.

Do you mind?"

Jake considered the point with slightly drawn brows. "I guess there's no hurry," he decided at length. "We'll get home first anyway. That's the main point. You won't be sorry to get back to Maud, I take it?"

She answered him with a swift and pa.s.sionate fervour that spoke more clearly than any words of the anguish of her soul. "Oh, Jake, I wish I'd died--I wish I'd died--before I left her!"

Jake's brows contracted more decidedly, but he said nothing further on the subject. Only after a moment or two he patted her shoulder rea.s.suringly. "I'll take care of you," he said. "You go to sleep!"

CHAPTER VIII

THE TURNING-POINT

"You've brought her back!" said Bunny in amazement. "You've actually brought her back! Here, Jake? Not here?"

"It was the only thing to do." said Jake between puffs at his pipe. "I'm sorry on your account, but--well, you can keep out of her way."

Bunny's face was flushed. He stood on the hearth and stared down at Jake with a troubled countenance. "But you won't be able to keep her," he protested after a moment. "Charlie will come and get her away again--as soon as he knows. He's such a wily devil."

"He does know," said Jake.

"He knows? Who told him?"

"I told him," said Jake.

"You told him! What the devil for? I don't understand you, Jake." Bunny's tone had a touch of fierceness in it, almost of challenge.

Jake's eyes came up to him with absolute steadiness. "I told him," he said deliberately, "because he is the one person who has a right to know.

He is her husband."

"I don't believe it!" said Bunny violently. "He'd never marry her! It was a d.a.m.n trick if he pretended to."

"No," Jake said, "it was not a trick. He has married her, and it's up to him to make the next move."

"But what on earth for?" demanded Bunny. "What made him do such a thing?"

"G.o.d knows," said Jake, with a certain sombreness. "He did it. That's all I know."

Bunny stamped round in a sudden fury and began to pace the room. "I suppose he did it to defeat me! Did he actually think I should want her after--after--"

"Bunny!" Swift and sharp as a whip-lash Jake's voice cut across the words. "Stop that! Pull up and sit down!"

Bunny wheeled and came back in silence. His face was deadly pale, but he sat down on the edge of the table by Jake's side.

Jake reached out a leisurely hand and gripped him by the knee. "Between you and me, my son," he said, "I don't think you came into the reckoning at all. I can't tell you exactly what happened, because I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that Saltash married her from a somewhat stronger motive than just to put you out of the running. As you say, he could have done that without taking all that trouble. He's treated you d.a.m.n badly, I admit, but it's just possible he couldn't help himself, and anyway I don't think he's hurt you seriously--except in the place where you keep your pride."

"You think I didn't love her!" broke in Bunny, moving restlessly under his hand.

Jake's eyes had the glimmer of a smile as he met the boy's hot look. "I think you don't love her now anyway, Bunny," he said.

"You're quite right," said Bunny shortly. "I don't. I never want to see her again--now I know what she is."

"You don't know," said Jake. "She has always been an unknown quant.i.ty to you. That's why I've always felt doubtful about you. Guess you never loved her quite enough, boy. That was your trouble."

"Didn't love her!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bunny.

Jake nodded. "Or you'd have understood her better--stood by her better."

"I'd have loved her fast enough if she'd loved me," protested Bunny. "But that scoundrel always came first with her. I never had a chance."