"Please! You won't do that? Angus, you know how proud he is! He will be
furious if he finds out that I've spoken to you about--about--our love.
Won't you wait until he tells you of his own accord?"
He ground his teeth in an ugly fury.
"You understand? If I find you've been playing with me, it'll mean
death for Harrigan, and worse than that for you?"
She made her glance sad and gentle.
"Will you never trust me, Angus?"
He answered, with a sort of wonder at himself: "Since I was a child,
you are the first person in the world who has had the right to call me
by my first name."
"Not a single woman?" and she shivered.
"Not one."
She pondered: "No love, no friendship, not even pity to bring you close
to a single human being all your life?"
"No child has ever come near me, for I've never had room for pity. No
man has been my friend, for I've spent my time fighting them and
breaking them. And I've despised women too much to love them."
The tears rose to her eyes as she spoke: "I pity you from the bottom of
my soul!"
"Pity? Me? By God, Kate, you'll teach me to hate you!"
"I can't help it. Why, if you have never loved, you have never lived!"
"You talk like a girl in a Sunday school! Ha, have I never lived? Men
were made strong so that a stronger man should be their master; and
women--"
"And women, Angus?"
"All women are fools; one woman is divine!"
The yearning of his eyes gave a bitter meaning to his words, and she
was shaken like a leaf blown here and there by contrary winds.
Unheeded, the sudden tropic night swooped upon them like the shadow of
a giant bird, and as the dark increased, they saw the glimmering of the
fire upon the hill. She rose, and he followed her until they reached
the upward slope.
Then he said: "You will want to be alone with him for a time. Can you
find the rest of the way?"
"Yes. You'll come soon?"
"I'll come soon, but I have to be by myself for a while. I may hate you
for it afterward, but now I'm weak and soft inside--like a child--and I
only wish for your happiness."
"God bless you, Angus!"
"God help me," he answered harshly, and stepped into the blank night of
the shadow of the trees.
Harrigan shook his head in wonder when he saw her coming alone. He had
built up the fire and heaped fresh fuel in towering piles nearby. The
flames shot up twenty and thirty feet, making a wide signal across the
sea.
"He's gone off by himself again?" questioned the Irishman.
She complained: "I can't understand him. Will he be always like this?
What shall I do, Dan?"
He met her appeal with a smile, but the blue eyes went cold at once and
he sighed. It would never do to have the two sitting silent beside that
fire. The brooding of McTee would excite no suspicions in the mind of
Harrigan, but the quiet of the Irishman would be sure to excite the
suspicions of the other.
"Will you do something for me, Dan?"
He looked up with a whimsical yearning.
"Teach McTee manners? Aye, with all me heart!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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