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Bells of San Juan, The

<h3> CHAPTER XVIII </h3> <h4> DESIRE OUTWEIGHS DISCRETION </h4> Following Virginia's barely audible words there was a long silence. Her eyes, dark with the trouble in them, rested upon Norton's face and saw the frown go from his brows while slowly the red seeped into his bronzed cheeks. For the first time in her life she saw him staggered by the shock of surprise, held hesitant and uncertain. For a little there was never a movement of his rigid muscles; one hand rested upon the butt of his revolver, the other was closed upon the stack of gold pieces. When at last he found his tongue it was to accuse her. "You trapped me," he said bitterly. "With golden bait," she admitted, her voice oddly spiritless. "Yes." "Well," he challenged, "what are you going to do about it?" "Do? I don't know!" Again they grew silent, studying each other intently. Norton, his poise coming back to him as the unusual color receded from his face, smiled at her with an affectation of his old manner. Suddenly he stepped back to her table, noiselessly set down the coins, eased himself into a chair. "You wished to thresh things out? I am ready. And in case we should be interrupted, you know, I have called on you in your official capacity. We'll say that I am troubled by the old wound in the head; that will do as well as anything, won't it?" "It was you who robbed the bank at Pozo!" she cried softly, leaning toward him, the look in her eyes one of dread now. "And the mine superintendent at Las Palmas? And I don't know how many other people. It was you!" She had startled him in the beginning; she knew she would not draw another sign of surprise from him. He had himself under control, and long years of severe training made that control complete. He merely looked interested under her sweeping accusation. "You must have a reason for a charge like that," he remarked evenly. "Do you deny it?" "I deny nothing, I affirm nothing right now. I say that you must have a reason for what you state." "You put the incriminating evidence in del Rio's trunk," she ran on hurriedly. "The canvas bags of gold. Didn't you?" "Reason?" he insisted equably. "You took Caleb Patten's fountain pen! I saw you." He lifted his brows at her. Then he laughed softly. "In the first place," he replied thoughtfully, "I really believe that he is not Caleb at all but Charles Patten. We'll talk of that later, however. In the second place isn't it rather humorous to wind up by accusing a man with the theft of a fountain pen after your other charges?" "Answer one question," she urged earnestly. "Please. It is only a small matter. Give me your word of honor that you will answer it truthfully." He was very grave as he sat for a moment, head down, twirling his big hat in slow fingers. Then he smiled again as he looked up. "Either truthfully or not at all," he promised her. "My word of honor." She was plainly excited as she set him her question, seeming at once eager and afraid to have his response. "I saw you take Patten's fountain pen and a scrap of note-paper from the table by your bed when you were hurt--the first time I called to see how you were doing. I thought that perhaps there was something of importance written on the paper, that, if nothing else, you wanted a bit of Patten's handwriting to use in your proof that he was not the man he pretended to be. You slipped both pen and paper under your pillow. Tell me just this: Was that paper of any importance whatever, of any interest even, to you?" "No," he said steadily, without hesitation. "It was not. I did not so much as look at it." She leaned back in her chair with a long sigh, her eyes wide on his. And while he marvelled at it, he saw that now her look was one of pure pity. "Just what has that got to do with the robberies you mention?" "Everything!" she burst out. "Everything! Can't you see? Oh, my God!" She dropped her face into her hands and he saw her shoulders lift and slump. Glancing aside swiftly, he saw the five golden disks on the table, almost to be reached from where he sat. "No doubt," he said hastily, as her head was lifted again, "you think that you would like to send me to jail?" "Jail, no! A thousand times no! But you must, you must let me send you to a hospital!" He frowned at her while he gave over twirling his hat and grew very still. "You think I am crazy?" he asked sharply. "That it?" "No. You are as sane as I am. I don't think that at all. But . . . Oh, can't you understand?" "No, I can't. You accuse me of this and that, you give no reasons for your wild suspicions, you end up by suggesting medical treatment. What's the answer, Virginia Page?" "The answer, Roderick Norton, is a very simple one. But first I am going to ask you another question or so. You sought to commit a theft to-night, I saw you, so there is no use denying it to me, is there?" "Go ahead. What next?" "While you lay ill during a week or ten days you had time to think. You remember having told me that you had had time to think about everything in the world? It was at that time, wasn't it, that you came to the decision which you mentioned to me that a man to commit crime and play safe at the same time must keep in mind two essential matters: First, the lone hand; second, not to kill?" "I thought it out then; yes. In fact, I suppose I told you so." "The crimes committed recently have been characterized by these two essentials, haven't they? Nearly all of them?" He nodded, watching her keenly, holding back his answers for just a second or two each time. "I believe so." "Did you ever have an impulse to steal before you were knocked unconscious at the Casa Blanca?" "No." "And you have had that impulse almost all the time ever since? Answer me, tell me the truth! I am right, am I not?" Now again he laughed softly at her. "Virginia Page, the medico, speaks," he returned lightly. "She has a theory. A man may have such an accident, leaving such and such pressure on the brain, with the result that he becomes a thief or worse! Virginia . . ." "Theory! It is no theory. It is an established, undeniable, and undenied fact! It has occurred time and again, physicians have observed, have made cures! Can't you see now, Rod Norton? Won't you see?" She was upon her feet, her hands clasped before her, her eyes shining, her figure tense, her cheeks stained with the color of her excitement. "I don't care whether Patten is a physician or not," she ran on. "He is a bungler. It is a sheer wonder he did not let you die. You told me yourself that he attributed the second wound to your fall and that you knew that Moraga had struck you a terrible blow with his gun-barrel. Patten did not treat that wound; he cared for the lesser injury like a fool and allowed the major one to take care of itself. And the result . . . Oh, dear God! Think of what might have happened. If any one but me had learned what I have learned to-night." He rose with her, stood still, regarding her with eyes like drills. Then he shook his head. "You are wrong, Virginia, dead wrong," he told her with quiet emphasis. "You have called me a thief? Well, perhaps I am. You have given your explanation; let me give mine." He paused, shaping the matter in mind. His face was stern and very, very grave. Presently, his lowered voice guarded against any chance ears, he continued. "I lay on my bed a week, a long, utterly damnable week. I could do nothing but think. So I thought, as I told you, of everything. Most of all I thought of you, Virginia Page. Shall I tell you why? No; we'll let that go until we understand each other. I thought of myself, of my life, of my eternal striving with Jim Galloway. Some day I should get Galloway or he would get me. In either case, what good? Was not Galloway a wiser man than I? He took what he wanted; I merely wasted my time chasing after such bigger men as he. If he desired a thousand dollars or five, ten thousand, he went out for it like a man and took it. Why shouldn't he? Oh, I tell you I had the time to dwell upon the little meaningless words of honesty and dishonesty, honor and dishonor, and all of their progeny and forebears! They are empty; empty, I tell you, Virginia! When I stood on my feet again I was a free man. I knew it then, I know it now. Free, I tell you. Free, most of all from shackles of empty ideas. What I wanted I would take." She looked at him helplessly, his dominant vigor for the moment seeming a thing not to be restricted or tamed. "What you have done," she told him gently, "is to find argument to bolster up impulse. That is generally very easy to do, isn't it? If one wants a thing, it is not hard convincing himself that it is right that he should have it." "At least I have decided sanely what I wanted, there is no call for hospitals." "You sustained a fracture of the skull. That fracture had improper treatment. It is a wonder you did not die. The wound healed and there remains a pressure of a bit of bone upon the brain. Until that pressure is removed by an operation you are doomed to be a criminal. A kleptomaniac," she said steadily, "if not much worse." "I believe that you mean what you say. You are just mistaken, that is all. I'd know if there were anything physically wrong." She came closer, laid her hand upon his arm, and lifted her eyes pleadingly to his. "I have had the best of medical training," she said slowly. "I have specialized in brain disorders, interested in that branch of my work until I decided to bring Elmer out here. I know what I am saying. Will you at least promise to do as I ask? Have a thorough examination by a specialist? And have the operation if he advises it?" "Such an operation is a serious matter?" "Yes. It must be. But think . . ." "A man might die under the hands of the surgeon?" "Yes. There is always the danger, there is always the chance of death resulting from any but the most minor of operations. But you are not the man to be afraid, Rod Norton. I know that." "You say that you have specialized In this sort of thing." He was probing for her thoughts with keen, narrowed eyes. "Would you be willing to perform that operation for me?" She shrank back suddenly, her hand dropping from his arm. "No," she cried. "No, no." He smiled triumphantly. "Then we'll let it go for a while. If you wouldn't care to do it, afraid that I might die under your knife, I guess I don't want it done at all. I am quite content with things as they are. I see the way to gain the ends I desire; I am gaining them; if there is a brain pressure, well, I'm quite ready to thank God and Moraga for it! Which you may take as absolutely final, Dr. Page!" She was beaten then and she knew it. She went back to her chair in a sort of bewildered despair, her hands dropping idly to her lap. "It would be just as well," he said presently, "if I left before any one came in. Before I go, do you mind telling me what you mean to do? Shall you denounce me? Are you going to spread your suspicions abroad?" "What do you leave me to do? Have I the right to sit still and say nothing? You would go on as you have begun; you would commit fresh crimes. In spite of your 'two essentials' you would be led to kill a man sooner or later. Or you yourself would be killed. Have I the right to allow all of that to continue?" "Then you have decided to accuse me?" "It is so hard to decide anything. You make it so hard; can't you see that you do? . . . But, after all, my part is clear; if you will consent to an examination and an operation I will say nothing of what has happened. If you won't do that . . . you will drive me to tell what I know." "Our trails divide to-night, then? I had hoped for better than that, Virginia." Though her cheeks flushed, she held her eyes steadily upon his. "I, too, had hoped for better than that," she confessed, finding this no time for faltering. "I should continue to hope if you would just do your part." He came a swift step toward her. Then he stopped suddenly, his hands falling to his sides. But the light in his eyes did not diminish. "Denounce me to-morrow, if you wish," he said slowly, indifferently it seemed to her. "Accept my promise that I will attempt no theft of more gold to-night; give me this one last chance to talk with you. Before some one comes, come out with me. You are not afraid of me; you admit that I am sane. Then let us ride together. And let me talk with you freely. Will you, Virginia? Will you do that one favor for me?" The high desire was upon her to accede to his request; her calmer judgment forbade it. But to-night was to-night; to-morrow would be to-morrow. And, after all, in her talk with him, she might save the man to himself and to his truer manhood. But even that hope was less than her desire when she answered him. "Have my horse saddled," she said. "I'll let Struve think I have to make a call at Las Estrellas. I'll be out in five minutes." He thanked her with his eyes, opened the hall door, and went out. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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