The Short Cut Part 11

"I hate him," he muttered, "G.o.d knows I hate him. But is that the reason I am striking at him? I should be wrong if for purely personal motives I sought to wreck vengeance upon him. But he is guilty, as guilty as h.e.l.l! It would not be vengeance, it would be retribution. I should but be taking into my hands the work which G.o.d had set at my fingers' ends."

His problem instead of clarifying became complicated with involved motives. He told himself grimly that the thing which he had begun was just, merely just. If the courts of law did what he was doing and stopped with it men's voices would cry out against a retribution gone blind and decrepit, maudlin with mercy.

He went once to his safe in the corner, took out a doc.u.ment and stood looking at it thoughtfully for a long time. Finally he replaced it.

"I can ruin him, I can break him utterly," he said slowly. "I can wrest from him the thing which he took brutally with b.l.o.o.d.y hands.

Because I am to profit where he loses must I hold back? The law may never reach him. Is it right then that he should go unpunished? The fortune which one day I shall leave to Wanda will be either swelled or diminished as I decide. Have I the right to draw back now?"

The day dragged on, the conflict within the man's soul continued.

Until noon he was in his study. At the dinner table he was silent, morose, and ate little. He made no comment upon Wanda's absence; perhaps he did not notice it. Mrs. Leland, understanding readily that Wayne Shandon's return had its bearing upon her husband's heavy mood, found little to say. She could only hope wistfully that for a little Wayne would come to the house seldom, that Martin would grow used to having him in the neighbourhood, and that in the end he would content himself with ignoring the man whom she knew he disliked, distrusted and suspected. She thought that she understood fully what she grasped only in part.

In the afternoon again, Leland withdrew to his private room, again the battle between motives and desires raged hotly. It so happened that Wayne Shandon, appearing at a critical moment, brought about a decision.

Leland was standing before his window, his smouldering eyes frowning at the meadow down which Spring had come, scattering b.u.t.tercups to mark her pa.s.sing. He had not noticed the glossy chalices br.i.m.m.i.n.g with sunlight; the springtime had had no softening effect upon his absorbed and troubled mood. But presently the sight of two figures riding side by side down through the pasture whipped a new look into his eyes.

He watched them sharply as they rode toward the house. Their gay voices came to him lifted into soft laughter; their light merriment, so in tune with the springtime, fell jarringly on Leland's ears.

"The fellow has the insolence of Satan," he muttered angrily.

For a moment he lost sight of them as they pa.s.sed behind the stable.

Then, walking, Wanda's face lifted in rosy happiness, Wayne's like a boy's, eager and glad, they came on to the house. Leland stood stone still at the window; Wanda, catching sight of him, threw him a kiss.

Wayne, with a brief word to Wanda left her under the cedars in the yard and came swiftly to the study, the light buoyancy of his step bespeaking the exhilaration that danced through his blood. He swept off his hat, put out his hand eagerly as he came into the room, his eyes filled with the brightness of a supreme happiness.

"I am glad that I found you in," he began impetuously. "I don't know how I could have waited . . . What's the matter, Mr. Leland?"

For Martin Leland, directing at him a piercing glance whose meaning was unmistakable, did not unclasp the hands behind his back.

"You had something to say to me," Leland reminded him briefly. "What is it?"

Shandon met his stare with silent surprise. Then, forcing himself to speak quietly, as though the insult of Leland's att.i.tude had been unnoticed, he said:

"I wanted to tell you that I love Wanda, that some day I hope to make her my wife."

"What!" shouted Leland incredulously. "You--_you_ want to marry my daughter! _You_!"

"Yes," said Wayne steadily. "I."

Martin's scornful laugh, forced and hard, drove the happiness from Shandon's eyes and a quick hot flush into his cheeks.

"I knew that you didn't like me," he said sharply. "But I didn't know--"

"That I have no feeling but utter loathing for you," Leland cut in coldly. "That I'd kill you like a dog before I'd allow you to disgrace my name, to wreck my daughter's life. Are you crazy or drunk?"

"I don't understand you," replied Shandon bluntly.

"Then I'll explain so that you will have no difficulty in understanding." Leland's voice, lifted a little, was hard and bitter.

"I don't desire the continuance of your acquaintance. I don't want ever to see you again if it can be helped. I don't want you to come to my home, to speak to my wife or my daughter. I don't want your presence sullying the air they breathe. I don't want to have any dealings whatever with you. Have I explained?" he concluded with cutting sharpness.

"Everything and nothing!" Shandon returned, the flush seeping out of his face, leaving it grey. "What has happened? Why do you say such things to me? Good G.o.d, man, what have I done?"

For a moment Martin Leland made no reply; nor did his steady gaze waver from the eyes now as stern as his own which looked straight back at him.

"I don't care to discuss the thing with you, Shandon. You know as well as I do why I say them. When you pretend not to know you are at once a liar and a hypocrite."

"I am not a trouble seeker, Mr. Leland." Shandon's voice had grown husky as he strove with the anger within him. "But I think you know that you are the first man who has talked to me like that and got away with it. If I did not know that you are a fair minded man, and that there has been some hideous mistake somewhere, I'd not listen to those words even from you. Tell me what you mean."

A contemptuous smile broke the rigid line of Leland's set lips.

"Your theatrical ranting won't get you anywhere with me, Shandon. It is the thing to be expected. I am the master of my own house and it is quite enough when I say that your presence is not wanted here. If you want more you can supply it yourself. Idler, spendthrift, gambler, brawler, I have until now tolerated you. But there are some things that no man can tolerate. You have said that I am fair minded; the more reason I should wish to be rid of you."

"But," cried Shandon hotly, "the man accused has a right to know--"

"I am not accusing you," interrupted Martin coldly. "I do nothing but tell you that you are not the kind of man I want my womenfolk to a.s.sociate with, not the kind I want to a.s.sociate with, and that I want this to be the last time you set foot on my property. If you are not absolutely without pride of any sort you will not make it necessary for me to have you put off the ranch!"

"And you won't tell me--"

"So far as I am concerned the conversation is closed. And," drily, "the door is open."

The anger in Wayne Shandon's heart, unchecked at last, blazed in his eyes.

"I'll go now," he said shortly. "I have no wish to enter a man's house where I am not welcome. But what I have said I have meant. I shall see Wanda when I can, and when she will come to me as she will some day, I shall marry her."

"You are a fool as well as a scoundrel," shouted Leland as he saw the other turn toward the door. "Wanda, when she marries, will marry a gentleman, and not a cur and a coward!"

"Those are hard names, Mr. Leland!"

"Not so hard as another which belongs to you," came the vibrant rejoinder. "If you dare speak to her again--"

"As I most certainly shall," coolly.

"By G.o.d!" cried the old man, his clenched fist raised. "You leave my girl alone or--"

Caught in a sudden gust of rage such as had not half a dozen times in his lifetime touched his blood, he strode to his table, s.n.a.t.c.hed open the drawer and whipped out a revolver.

"Go!" he shouted, his face a fiery red. "Go now, without another word, or I'll shoot you."

Wayne Shandon's head was flung up with the old gesture, his eyes grew steely and steady, and his answer was a cool contemptuous laugh.

"You have called me a coward," he said. "You called me a liar." He came back into the room and sat down upon the edge of the table, not three feet from Martin Leland. "Now, prove me the coward--or yourself the liar!"

It was a challenge of sheer reckless impudence, the tempting of a man whose reason was blind drunk with rage. He looked coolly into Leland's eyes ignoring the deadly weapon in Leland's hand.

"I am going to roll a cigarette," he said quietly. "I'll stay just that long."

The fingers which brought out tobacco and papers were unhurried. He opened the muslin bag, poured the tobacco into the trough of his paper, and his hands were steady. His eyes left Leland's a moment to make sure that he was not spilling any of the brown particles; he lifted them again as he sealed his finished cigarette with the tip of his tongue. He swept a match along his thigh; then he went out, closing the door softly, leaving a thin wisp of smoke trailing behind him.

Leland, alone in the study, put his hand to his forehead. It came away wet with sweat.

"A game of bluff and the gambler wins!" he muttered fiercely. "And now--G.o.d curse me if I spare him!"