The Max Brand Megapack (212 page)

“I’ve spoken quickly,” she went on at last. “It isn’t that I have feared you all the time—I haven’t been playing a part, John, on my word. Only—tonight I learned something new. Do you see?”

“Heaven be praised,” said John Mark, “that we all have the power of learning new things, now and again. I congratulate you. Am I to suppose that Caroline was your teacher?”

He turned from her and faced Caroline Smith, and, though he smiled on her, there was a quality in the smile that shriveled her very soul with fear. No matter what he might say or do this evening to establish himself in the better graces of the girl he was losing, his malice was not dead. That she knew.

“She was my teacher,” answered Ruth steadily, “because she showed me, John, what a marvelous thing it is to be free. You understand that all the years I have been with you I have never been free?”

“Not free?” he asked, the first touch of emotion showing in his voice. “Not free, my dear? Was there ever the least wish of yours since you were a child that I did not gratify? Not one, Ruth; not one, surely, of which I am conscious!”

“Because I had no wishes,” she answered slowly, “that were not suggested by something that you liked or disliked. You were the starting point of all that I desired. I was almost afraid to think until I became sure that you approved of my thinking.”

“That was long ago,” he said gravely. “Since those old days I see you have changed greatly.”

“Because of the education you gave me,” she answered.

“Yes, yes, that was the great mistake. I begin to see. Heaven, one might say, gave you to me. I felt that I must improve on the gift of Heaven before I accepted you. There was my fault. For that I must pay the great penalty. Kismet! And now, what is it you wish?”

“To leave at once.”

“A little harsh, but necessary, if you will it. There is the door, free to you. The change of identity of which I spoke to you is easily arranged. I have only to take you to the bank and that is settled. Is there anything else?”

“Only one thing—and that is not much.”

“Very good.”

“You have given so much,” she ran on eagerly, “that you will give one thing more—out of the goodness of that really big heart of yours, John, dear!”

He winced under that pleasantly tender word.

And she said: “I want to take Caroline with me—to freedom and the man she loves. That is really all!”

The lean fingers of John Mark drummed on the back of the chair, while he smiled down on her, an inexplicable expression on his face.

“Only that?” he asked. “My dear, how strange you women really are! After all these years of study I should have thought that you would, at least, have partially comprehended me. I see that is not to be. But try to understand that I divide with a nice distinction the affairs of sentiment and the affairs of business. There is only one element in my world of sentiment—that is you. Therefore, ask what you want and take it for yourself; but for Caroline, that is an entirely different matter. No, Ruth, you may take what you will for yourself, but for her, for any other living soul, not a penny, not a cent will I give. Can you comprehend it? Is it clear? As for giving her freedom, nothing under Heaven could persuade me to it!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The Ultimate Sacrifice

She stared at him, as the blow fell, and then her glance turned slowly to Caroline who had uttered a sharp cry and sunk into a chair.

“Help me, Ruth,” she implored pitifully. “No other person in the world can help me but you!”

“Do you see that,” asked Ruth quietly of John Mark, “and still it doesn’t move you?”

“Not a hairbreadth, my dear.”

“But isn’t it absurd? Suppose I have my freedom, and I tell the police that in this house a girl against her will—”

“Tush, my dear! You really do not know me at all. Do you think they can reach me? She may be a hundred miles away before you have spoken ten words to the authorities.”

“But I warn you that all your holds on her are broken. She knows that you have no holds over her brother. She knows that Ronicky Doone has broken them all—that Jerry is free of you!”

“Ronicky Doone,” said Mark, his face turning gray, “is a talented man. No doubt of it; his is a very peculiar and incisive talent, I admit. But, though he has broken all the old holds, there are ways of finding new ones. If you leave now, I can even promise you, my dear, that, before the next day dawns, the very soul of Caroline will be a pawn in my hands. Do you doubt it? Such an exquisitely tender, such a delicate soul as Caroline, can you doubt that I can form invisible bonds which will hold her even when she is a thousand miles away from me? Tush, my dear; think again, and you will think better of my ability.”

“Suppose,” Ruth said, “I were to offer to stay?”

He bowed. “You tempt me, with such overwhelming generosity, to become even more generous myself and set her free at once. But, alas, I am essentially a practical man. If you will stay with me, Ruth, if you marry me at once, why, then indeed this girl is as free as the wind. Otherwise I should be a fool. You see, my dear, I love you so that I must have you by fair means or foul, but I cannot put any chain upon you except your own word. I confess it, you see, even before this poor girl, if she is capable of understanding, which I doubt. But speak again—do you make the offer?”

She hesitated, and he went on: “Be careful. I have had you once, and I have lost you, it seems. If I have you again there is no power in you—no power between earth and heaven to take you from me a second time. Give yourself to me with a word, and I shall make you mine forever. Then Caroline shall go free—free as the wind—to her lover, my dear, who is waiting.”

He made no step toward her, and he kept his voice smooth and clear. Had he done otherwise he knew that she would have shrunk. She looked to him, she looked to Caroline Smith. The latter had suddenly raised her head and thrown out her hands, with an unutterable appeal in her eyes. At that mute appeal Ruth Tolliver surrendered.

“It’s enough,” she said. “I think there would be no place for me after all. What could I do in the world except what you’ve taught me to do? No, let Caroline go freely, and I give my—”

“Stop!”

He checked her with his raised hand, and his eyes blazed and glittered in the dead whiteness of his face. “Don’t give me your word, my dear. I don’t want that chain to bind you. There might come a time when some power arose strong enough to threaten to take you from me. Then I want to show you that I don’t need your promise. I can hold you for myself. Only come to me and tell me simply that you will be mine if you can. Will you do that?”

She crossed the room slowly and stood before him. “I will do that,” she said faintly, half closing her eyes. She had come so close that, if he willed, he could have taken her in his arms. She nerved herself against it; then she felt her hand taken, raised and touched lightly against trembling lips. When she stepped back she knew that the decisive moment of her life had been passed.

“You are free to go,” said John Mark to Caroline. “Therefore don’t wait. Go at once.”

“Ruth!” whispered the girl.

Ruth Tolliver turned away, and the movement brought Caroline beside her, with a cry of pain. “Is it what I think?” she asked. “Are you making the sacrifice all for me? You don’t really care for him, Ruth, and—”

“Caroline!” broke in John Mark.

She turned at the command of that familiar voice, as if she had been struck with a whip. He had raised the curtain of the front window beside the door and was pointing up and across the street.

“I see the window of Gregg’s room,” he said. “A light has just appeared in it. I suppose he is waiting. But, if you wish to go, your time is short—very short!”

An infinite threat was behind the calmness of the voice. She could only say to Ruth: “I’ll never forget.” Then she fled down the hall and through the door, and the two within heard the sharp patter of her heels, as she ran down to the street.

It was freedom for Caroline, and Ruth, lifting her eyes, looked into the face of the man she was to marry. She could have held out, she felt, had it not been for the sound of those departing footsteps, running so blithely toward a lifetime of happiness. Even as it was she made herself hold out. Then a vague astonishment came to clear her mind. There was no joy in the face of John Mark, only a deep and settled pain.

“You see,” he said, with a smile of anguish, “I have done it. I have bought the thing I love, and that, you know, is the last and deepest damnation. If another man had told me that I was capable of such a thing, I’d have killed him on the spot. But now I have done it!”

“I think I’ll go up to my room,” she answered, her eyes on the floor. She made herself raise them to his. “Unless you wish to talk to me longer?”

She saw him shudder.

“If you can help it,” he said, “don’t make me see the brand I have put on you. Don’t, for Heaven’s sake, cringe to me if you can help it.”

“Very well,” she said.

He struck his clenched hand against his face. “It’s the price,” he declared through his teeth, “and I accept it.” He spoke more to himself than to her, and then directly: “Will you let me walk up with you?”

“Yes.”

He took her passive arm. They went slowly, slowly up the stairs, for at each landing it seemed her strength gave out, and she had to pause for a brief rest; when she paused he spoke with difficulty, but with his heart in every word.

“You remember the old Greek fable, Ruth? The story about all the pains and torments which flew out of Pandora’s box, and how Hope came out last—that blessed Hope—and healed the wounds? Here, a moment after the blow has fallen, I am hoping again like a fool. I am hoping that I shall teach you to forget; or, if I cannot teach you to forget, than I shall even make you glad of what you have done tonight.”

The door closed on her, and she was alone. Raising her head she found she was looking straight across the street to the lighted windows of the rooms of Ronicky Doone and Bill Gregg. While she watched she saw the silhouette of a man and woman running to each other, saw them clasped in each other’s arms. Ruth dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Unhappy Freedom

Once out in the street Caroline had cast one glance of terror over her shoulder at the towering facade of the house of John Mark, then she fled, as fast as her feet would carry her, straight across the street and up the steps of the rooming house and frantically up the stairs, a panic behind her.

Presently she was tapping hurriedly and loudly on a door, while, with her head turned, she watched for the coming of some swift-avenging figure from behind. John Mark had given her up, but it was impossible for John Mark to give up anything. When would he strike? That was the only question.

Then the door opened. The very light that poured out into the dim hall was like the reach of a friendly hand, and there was Ronicky Doone laughing for pure joy—and there was Bill Gregg’s haggard face, as if he saw a ghost.

“I told you, Bill, and here she is!”

After that she forgot Ronicky Doone and the rest of the world except Gregg, as he took her in his arms and asked over and over: “How did it come about? How did it come about?”

And over and over she answered: “It was Ronicky, Bill. We owe everything to him and Ruth Tolliver.”

This brought from Ronicky a sudden question: “And what of her? What of Ruth Tolliver? She wouldn’t come?”

It pricked the bubble of Caroline’s happiness, that question. Staring at the frowning face of Ronicky Doone her heart for a moment misgave her. How could she tell the truth? How could she admit her cowardice which had accepted Ruth’s great sacrifice?

“No,” she said at last, “Ruth stayed.”

“Talk about that afterward, Ronicky,” pleaded Bill Gregg. “I got about a million things to say to Caroline.”

“I’m going to talk now,” said Ronicky gravely. “They’s something queer about the way Caroline said that. Will you let me ask you a few more questions?”

“Won’t you wait?” asked Caroline, in an agony of remorse and shame. “Won’t you wait till the morning?”

Ronicky Doone walked up and down the room for a moment. He had no wish to break in upon the long delayed happiness of these two. While he paced he heard Bill Gregg saying that they must start at once and put three thousand miles between them and that devil, John Mark; and he heard Caroline say that there was no longer anything to fear—the claws of the devil had been trimmed, and he would not reach after them—he had promised. At that Ronicky whirled sharply on them again.

“What made Mark change his mind about you?” he asked. “He isn’t the sort to change his mind without a pretty good reason. What bought him off? Nothing but a price would change him, I guess.”

And she had to admit: “It was Ruth.”

“She paid the price?” he asked harshly. “How, Caroline?”

“She promised to marry him, Ronicky.”

The bitter truth was coming now, and she cringed as she spoke it. The tall body of Ronicky Doone was trembling with excitement.

“She made that promise so that you could go free, Caroline?”

“No, no!” exclaimed Bill Gregg.

“It’s true,” said the girl. “We were about to leave together when John Mark stopped us.”

“Ruth was coming with you?” asked Ronicky.

“Yes.”

“And when Mark stopped you she offered herself in exchange for your freedom?”

“Y-yes!”

Both she and Bill Gregg looked apprehensively at the dark face of Ronicky Doone, where a storm was gathering.

But he restrained his anger with a mighty effort. “She was going to cut away from that life and start over—is that straight, Caroline?”

“Yes.”

“Get the police, Ronicky,” said Bill Gregg. “They sure can’t hold no woman agin’ her will in this country.”

“Don’t you see that it is her will?” asked Ronicky Doone darkly. “Ain’t she made a bargain? Don’t you think she’s ready and willing to live up to it? She sure is, son, and she’ll go the limit to do what she’s said she’ll do. You stay here—I’ll go out and tackle the job.”

“Then I go, too,” said Bill Gregg stoutly. “You been through enough for me. Here’s where I go as far as you go. I’m ready when you’re ready, Ronicky.”