“Is this what you feared?” said the Scotchman.
“Is this what you wanted protection against?
No; you’re in league together to torture me,
and all this time you’ve been laughing up your
sleeves at my expense!”
“At your expense?” growled Harrigan, rising
in turn. “Is it at your expense that I’ve
been sittin’ here breakin’ me heart with
singin’ love tunes for you an’ the girl?”
She sprang up in an agony of fear.
“Go! Go!” she begged of McTee.
“If you doubt me, go, and when you come back
calm, I will explain.”
He brushed her to one side and made a step toward
Harrigan.
“Love songs for me?” he repeated
incredulously.
“Aye, love songs for you. Ye black swine,
ye could not be happy till I was brought in to be
the piper while you an’ Kate danced!”
“While I and Kate danced?” thundered McTee.
“My God, man—”
He broke off short, and a cruel light of understanding
was in his eyes.
“Harrigan,” he said quietly, “did
Kate tell you she loved me?”
“Ye fool! Why else am I sittin’ here
singin’ for your sake? Would I not rather
be amusin’ myself by takin’ the hollow
of your throat under my thumbs—so?”
McTee laughed softly, and Kate could not meet his
eye.
“Well?” he said.
“Yes, I lied to you.”
She turned to Harrigan: “And to you.
Don’t you see? I found you on the verge
of a fight, and I knew that in it you would both be
killed. What else could I do? I hoped that
for my sake you would spare each other. Was it
wrong of me, Dan? Angus, will you forgive me?”
Harrigan raised his arms high above his head and stretched
like one from whose wrists the manacles have been
unlocked after a long imprisonment.
“McTee, are ye ready? There’s a weight
gone off my soul!”
“Harrigan, I’ve been a driver of men,
but this girl has put me under the whip. When
I’m through with you, I’m coming back to
her.”
“It’ll be your ghost that returns.”
Kate hesitated one instant as if to judge which was
the greatest force toward evil. Then she dropped
to her knees and caught the hands of McTee, those
strong, cruel hands.
“If you will not fight, I’ll—I’ll
be kind to you, I’ll be everything you ask of
me—”
“You’re pleading for him?”
“No, no! For him and for you; for your
two souls!”
“Bah! Mine was lost long ago, and I’ll
answer that there’s a claim on Harrigan filed
away in hell. He’s too strong to have lived
clean.”
“Angus, we’re all alone here—on
the rim of the world, you’ve said—and
in places like this the eye of God is on you.”
He laughed brutally: “If He sees me, He’ll
look the other way.”
“Have done with the chatter,” broke in
Harrigan. “Ah-h, McTee, I see where my
hands’ll fit on your throat.”
