the last ditch for his belief in Jimmy’s crookedness; but the events
of the last ten minutes had shaken him. He could not forget that it
was Jimmy who had extricated him from a very uncomfortable position.
He saw now that that position was not so bad as it had seemed at the
time, for the establishing of the innocence of Mr. Galer could have
been effected on the morrow by an exchange of telegrams between the
castle and Dodson’s Private Inquiry Agency; yet it had certainly
been bad enough. But for Jimmy, there would have been several hours
of acute embarrassment, if nothing worse. He felt something of a
reaction in Jimmy’s favor.
Still, it is hard to overcome a deep-rooted prejudice in an instant.
He stared doubtfully.
“See here, Mr. McEachern,” said Jimmy, “I wish you would listen
quietly to me for a minute or two. There’s really no reason on earth
why we should be at one another’s throats in this way. We might just
as well be friends. Let’s shake, and call the fight off. I guess you
know why I came in here to see you?”
McEachern did not speak.
“You know that your daughter has broken off her engagement to Lord
Dreever?”
“Then, he was right!” said McEachern, half to himself. “It is you?”
Jimmy nodded. McEachern drummed his fingers on the table, and gazed
thoughtfully at him.
“Is Molly–?” he said at length. “Does Molly–?”
“Yes,” said Jimmy.
McEachern continued his drumming. “Don’t think there’s been anything
underhand about this,” said Jimmy. “She absolutely refused to do
anything unless you gave your consent. She said you had been
partners all her life, and she was going to do the square thing by
you.”
“She did?” said McEachern, eagerly.
“I think you ought to do the square thing by her. I’m not much, but
she wants me. Do the square thing by her.”
He stretched out his hand, but he saw that the other did not notice
the movement. McEachern was staring straight in front of him. There
was a look in his eyes that Jimmy had never seen there before, a
frightened, hunted look. The rugged aggressiveness of his mouth and
chin showed up in strange contrast. The knuckles of his clenched
fists were white.
“It’s too late,” he burst out. “I’ll be square with her now, but
it’s too late. I won’t stand in her way when I can make her happy.
But I’ll lose her! Oh, my God, I’ll lose her!”
He gripped the edge of the table.
“Did you think I had never said to myself,” he went on, “the things
you said to me that day when we met here? Did you think I didn’t
know what I was? Who should know it better than myself? But she
didn’t. I’d kept it from her. I’d sweat for fear she would find out
some day. When I came over here, I thought I was safe. And, then,
you came, and I saw you together. I thought you were a crook. You
were with Mullins in New York. I told her you were a crook.”
“You told her that!”
“I said I knew it. I couldn’t tell her the truth–why I thought so.
I said I had made inquiries in New York, and found out about you.”
Jimmy saw now. The mystery was solved. So, that was why Molly had
allowed them to force her into the engagement with Dreever. For a
moment, a rush of anger filled him; but he looked at McEachern, and
it died away. He could not be vindictive now. It would be like
hitting a beaten man. He saw things suddenly from the other’s view-
point, and he pitied him.
“I see,” he said, slowly.
McEachern gripped the table in silence.
“I see,” said Jimmy again. “You mean, she’ll want an explanation.”
He thought for a moment.
“You must tell her,” he said, quickly. “For your own sake, you must
tell her. Go and do it now. Wake up, man!” He shook him by the
shoulder. “Go and do it now. She’ll forgive you. Don’t be afraid of
that. Go and look for her, and tell her now.”