FOURTH BOOK THE RETRIBUTION (continued 5)

The Governor flinched for a moment, then smote the top of his desk and said,

"I know nothing of the kind, Sir, and don't want to know. I believe you're mad—made mad by the ordeal you have lately gone through. Nothing will make me believe the contrary."

There was silence after that for several minutes. Then the Governor, who had thrown himself in his chair, said in a softer tone,

"Stowell, listen to me. I partly understand you. But even if you did this unbelievable thing, and are satisfied you did it from a good motive, why can't you hold your tongue about it?"

"I have thought of that, Sir," said Stowell, with a tremor in his voice. "I have fought it all out with myself. Believe me I would have given all I have in the world not to have had to come here on this errand. But the life of a Judge would be impossible to me with a lie like that for its foundation. My work cannot be a mockery, Sir. I cannot allow another to suffer for what I have done."

The Governor leapt up from his seat.

"You talk about others suffering for what you have done—have you forgotten how many others must suffer if I allow you to do what you want to do now? Think of your island—your native island—do you want to cover it with dishonour? Think of your profession—do you want to load it with disgrace? Think of your father, who loved you as no father ever loved a son. We put up his portrait in the court-house the other day—do you want to pull it down? And then think of me—I suppose I ran some risk when I recommended you for your position...."

Stowell was trying to speak, but again the Governor put up his hand..

"Oh, you needn't thank me. Perhaps I wasn't acting altogether unselfishly. I may have been wanting somebody to stand by me now that I'm growing old, somebody like your father—able to fight these rascals who are trying to ruin everything. And when you came along, you whom I had known since you were a boy, the son of my old friend, who was to be my son some day...."

The Governor, startled by the emotion that was coming over him, broke away and crossed the room, saying,

"But damn it all, why need I talk of myself? There's Fenella—have you forgotten Fenella?"

It was at this moment that Fenella entered the room. Neither of the men saw her. She stood noiselessly at the door.

"If I do what you want, order your arrest, what's the first question the Court will ask you—why did you help the prisoner to escape? Then the whole wretched story of your relations with the girl Collister will come out. And what will be the result? Fenella's name will become a byword. It will be the common talk of every slut in the island that she came second after your woman .... your offal."

Stowell flamed up with anger for a moment, and then choked with tears. After a short silence he said,

"I can never be sufficiently grateful to you, Sir, for what you've done for me. As for Fenella, I can hardly trust myself to speak. The thought of her suffering is the bitterest part of my own. I would live out the rest of my life on my knees if I could undo the wrong I have done her. But I cannot bring her down with me. I cannot take up again my life as a Judge after it has been so hideously disfigured and ask her to share it. Let me go to prison...."

Sobbing in his throat Stowell could go no further. Fenella, sobbing in her heart, crept noiselessly out of the room.

The Governor, in spite of himself, was visibly affected.

"Look here, my boy," he said. "I'll tell you what I'll do. It's going far, perhaps too far for the safety of the public service, but to prevent worse things happening I'll take the risk. I'll stop that warrant and hush up this miserable scandal on one condition—that you say nothing, take leave of absence on grounds of ill-health, go abroad and never come back again."

Stowell shook his head.

"Why not? Good gracious, why not? The guilty ones have gone. Your secret is safe. Except ourselves, nobody knows it. Why shouldn't you?"

"I dare not," said Stowell.

"Dare not?"

"I have committed a crime. If I do not pay for it in this life I must do so hereafter. Therefore I ask for my punishment now."

The Governor got the better of his emotion.

"So you wish to resign your office and ask me to order your arrest? Well, I won't do it. I am the only authority to whom you can resign and I decline to accept your resignation—I refuse to transmit it to the Home Authorities. What you wish to do would undermine the stability of law and the authority of Government. It would humiliate me and destroy my daughter's happiness. Therefore I not only refuse to receive your resignation. I forbid it."

Stowell hesitated for a moment and then said,

"In that case, your Excellency, you will force me to denounce myself."

"Denounce....? You mean in open Court?"

"Yes, it will be my duty, and I shall be compelled to do it."

The Governor's wrath became rage. With a ring of sarcasm in his voice he said,

"Very well! Very well! I cannot prevent you. Denounce yourself in open Court if you are so unwise, so insane. But understand—if you are compelled to do your duty, I shall be compelled to do mine also. After you have made your public confession and the Courts have dealt with you, I shall issue the warrant just the same. You say the fugitives have gone to a foreign country, but no foreign country will refuse to give up a condemned murderess. The woman shall be brought back and executed according to the sentence you pronounced upon her. More than that, your friend, your confederate, shall be brought back also, and dealt with according to his crime. Therefore your public confession will be of no avail. It will be an empty farce, ruining three lives that might otherwise have been saved."

Stowell trembled, his lips became white.

"I beg you not to do that, Sir."

"I will! I take God to witness that I will. Now choose for yourself which it is to be—your course or mine?"

Stowell breathed hard for a moment and then smiled—but such a smile!

"Your Excellency," he said, "for your own sake I beg of you not to do it."

"My sake?" said the Governor, drawing up sharply—he had been striding about the room again.

"Yes, yours," said Stowell. "One of those two was my victim, the other was merely the subject of my will. I alone am guilty, and if I cannot meet my punishment without bringing such consequences on the innocent I must meet something else."

"What else?"

"Death. Then, in the eyes of heaven, the crime against the law will be your crime and I shall not live to witness it."

There was a breathless silence. The Governor was dumb-founded. Stowell stepped towards the door and said in a low voice,

"God forgive you, Sir. You will never see me again."

At that moment the maid entered the room to announce the Attorney-General and the Chief Constable, who came in immediately behind her.

"Ah, Victor, how are you?" said the Attorney. "Your Excellency, we have brought the Warrant."

"And here," said the Chief Constable, with an obsequious bow to Stowell, "is the Deemster ready to issue it."

Nobody spoke, and the Chief Constable, taking a paper out of a long envelope, proceeded to read it:

"This is to command you to whom this Warrant is addressed forthwith to apprehend Alexander Gell...."

"That will do. Give it to me," said the Governor.

When the Warrant had been given to him he tore it up and threw it into the fire. The two men were aghast.

"Your Excellency, what .... what...."

"This damnable thing must go no further. Let me hear no more about it."

After saying this the Governor's strength seemed to leave him. He dropped into a chair before the fire and gazed at the blazing paper.

Stowell's trembling hand was on the handle of the door.

"I thank you for what you've done, Sir," he said, "and wish to God the matter could end there. But it cannot .... it cannot."

He went out. The two men looked into each other's faces. A flash of understanding passed between them, and, without a word more, they stepped out of the room.

Meantime, Stowell, going down the corridor, felt a hand that had been stretched out from the drawing-room, taking hold of his arm and drawing him in. It was Fenella's. Her face was utterly broken up. Flinging her arms about him she kissed him passionately.

"Victor," she said, "do as your heart bids you. Don't think of me any longer. I am with you in life or death. If you have to go to prison I will go with you, and if...."

Unable to say more she broke away from him and hurried into an inner room.

The front door rang as Stowell pulled it after him, and when he walked down the drive with a high step his head was up and his ravished face aglow.

END OF SIXTH BOOK