They two stood and regarded him without comment. Halsey kept his eye on Rawn's hand, expecting some sudden movement for a weapon. He was incredulous that any man could sustain Rawn's attitude toward him. War, and nothing but war, seemed inevitable between himself and Rawn, the man whom he had wronged, the man who had wronged him. "I suppose--I see--" began Rawn clumsily, after a while. "Of course, you have probably been here all the time, Charley. I came back as soon as I could. I've been having all kinds of trouble in St. Louis and New York. Everything's all gone to pieces." They did not answer him, and he shuffled. "Have you anything to say?" he demanded of his wife; "Has Mr. Halsey--Charley--agreed?--Have you persuaded him to--" "You wish to know, whether I have done what I was told to do--is that it?" she demanded of him coldly. "Yes; have you?" "I have. Here is Mr. Halsey. I have kept my word. You have seen. I told you I could bring him in, bound hand and foot. Kiss me, Charley," she cried. "Oh! kiss me!" And he did kiss her. Cold, white, hand in hand, dead, they then faced him again. VII "Is it true?" began Rawn. His eyes lighted up suddenly. "He has agreed?" Halsey broke in now. "It is true, Mr. Rawn," said he. "I love her. I love your wife; I can't help it. I have told her so. You see." "You love her!" John Rawn burst out into a great, croaking-laugh. "You _love_ her? I say, that's good! That's good news to tell me, isn't it? Why--I sent her--I used her, to _make_ you love her! You see reason now at last, do you?--every man does at last--every man has his price. You'll go back to work to-morrow? There's a lot to do, but we can save it all yet. We can whip them, I tell you--we'll get everything back in our own hands before to-morrow night!" "--But, Mr. Rawn! Listen! You do not know! Surely you do not understand--" "Understand? What is there left to understand? Didn't I see you both just now? Didn't you--right now--haven't you _got_ to come across now? Hasn't she done what I told her to do; what she said she'd do? I told her to bring you back to us again, and she's done it, hasn't she? "But come on, now," he resumed, as though reluctantly--"I suppose we've got to go up there--Grace--? Too bad.... But I wanted to see Jennie first." "My God!" whispered Virginia Rawn, shuddering. "Oh, my God!" VIII "Rawn," said Halsey directly, abandoning even any pretense at courtesy; "the end of the world has come for you, for us all. My wife is dead--she's lucky! My child is dead, too, and that's lucky. It had no life to live, crippled as it was. She killed herself and the baby. I don't seem to care as I ought to care. And now your wife has told me that she loves me. It's true! She doesn't love _you_; she never has. She has not taken me a prisoner any more than I have her. We're both in this to-night. We're both to blame. But, at the bottom, you are to blame--for _all_ of this."