Jones eyed him for a moment, and then turned away impatiently and said, I dont know what youre talking about. Dont worry me. Im sick and half crazy. Get away, will ye!
This to me! to me! exclaimed the other, stepping back, his eyes flashing fire; you forget yourself.
Jones rose up, his red hair hanging like ropes about his face, and his bloodshot eyes and disfigured features giving him the look rather of a wild beast than of a man. Shaking his finger at Grosket, he said, Keep away from me to day, I say. Theres an evil spell over me. Come to-morrow, but dont push me to-day, or God knows what you may drive me to do. There, therego.
Still Grosket stirred not, but with a curling lip and an eye as bright as his own, and voice so fearfully quiet and yet stern that at another time it might have quelled even the strong spirit of the robber, he said Enoch Grosket never goes until his object is attained.
Then you wont go? demanded Jones.
No!
Jones made a hasty step toward him, with his teeth set and his eyes burning like coals of fire; but whatever may have been his purpose, and from the expression of his face, there was little doubt but that it was a hostile one, he was diverted from it by hearing a hand on the latch of the door and a voice from without demanding admittance.
It is Rust, exclaimed Grosket, in a sharp whisper. He touched the burglar on the shoulder and said in the same tone, Im going in there. He pointed to a closet in a dark part of the room, nearly concealed by the wainscotting. Let him in, and betray me if you dare!
You seem to know our holes well, muttered Jones. Youve been here afore. Grosket made no reply, but hurried across the room and secreted himself in the closet, which evidently had been constructed as a place of concealment, either for the tenants of the room themselves, or for whatever else it might not suit their fancy to have too closely examined.
Jones stared after him, apparently forgetting the applicant for admission, until a renewed and very violent knocking recalled his attention to it. He then went to the door, drew back the bolt, and walked to his seat, without even glancing to see who came in, or whom the person was who followed so closely at his heels. Nor did he look around until he felt his arm roughly grasped, and a sharp stern voice hissing in his ear:
So, so! a fine nights work youve made of it. Tim Craig is dead and the whole city is already ringing with the news; and you, youre a murderer!
Jones started from his seat with the sudden spasmodic bound of one who has received a mortal thrust. He stared wildly at the sharp thin face which had almost touched his, and then sat down and said:
Dont talk to me so, Mr. Rust; I cant bear it.
Ho, ho! your conscience is tender, is it? It has a raw spot that wont bear handling, has it? Well see to that. But to business, said he, his face becoming white with rage; his black eyes blazing, and his voice losing its smoothness and quivering as he spoke.
Ive come here to fulfil my agreement; you were to get that child for me to-day; Ive come for her; where is she?
Jones looked at him with an expression of impatience mingled with contempt, but made him no answer.
Tim Craig was to have gone to that house; he was to have carried her off; he was to have her here, here, HERE! said he, in the same fierce tone. Why hasnt he done it?
Because hes dead, said Jones savagely.
Im glad of it! Im glad of it! exclaimed Rust. He deserved it. The coward! Let him die.
Tim Craig was no coward, replied Jones, in a tone which, had Rust been less excited, would have warned him to desist.
Ha! exclaimed Rust, scanning him from head to foot, as if surprised at his daring to contradict him, Would you gainsay me?
Jones returned his look without flinching, his teeth firmly set and grating together. At last he said:
I do gainsay you; and I do say, whoever calls Tim Craig a coward lies!
This, and from you! exclaimed Rust, shaking his thin finger in his very face; this from you; you, a house-breaker, a thief, and last night the murderer of your comrade. Ho! ho! it makes me laugh! Fool! How many lives have you? One word of mine could hang you.
Youll never hang me, replied Jones, in the same low, savage tone. I wish you had, before that cursed job of yours made me put a bullet in poor Tim. I wish you had; but it is too late. You wont now.
Words cannot describe the fury of Michael Rust at seeing himself thus bearded by one whom he had been used to see truckle to him, whom he considered the mere tool of Craig, and whom he had never thought it worth while even to consult in their previous interviews.
Wont I? wont I? Look to yourself, muttered he, shaking his finger at him with a slow, cautioning gesture, Look to yourself.
Youre right, I will; I say I will, exclaimed Jones, leaping up and confronting him. I say I will; and now I do! He grasped him by the throat and shook him as if he had been a child.
I might as well kill him at once, muttered he, without heeding the struggles of Rust. Its him or me; yes, yes, Ill do it.
Coming to this fatal conclusion, he flung Rust back on the floor and leaped upon him. At this moment, however, the door of the closet was thrown open, and Grosket, whom he had entirely forgotten, sprang suddenly out:
Come, come, this wont do! said he; no murder!
Jones made no effort to resist the jerk at his arm with which Grosket accompanied his words, but quietly rose, and said:
Well, he drove me to it. He may thank you for his life, not me.
Relieved from his antagonist, Rust recovered his feet, and turning to Grosket said, in a sneering tone:
Michael Rust thanks Enoch for having used his influence with his friend, to prevent the commission of a crime which might have made both Enoch and his crony familiar with a gallows. A select circle of acquaintance friend Enoch has.
Grosket, quietly, pointed to the closet and said:
You forget that I have been there ever since you came in the room; and have overheard every thing that passed between you and my friend.
Rust bit his lip.
Dont let it annoy you, continued he, for the most of what I heard I knew before. I have had my eye on you from the time we parted. With all your benevolent schemes respecting myself I am perfectly familiar. The debt which you bought up to arrest me on; your attempt to have me indicted on a false charge of felony; the quiet hint dropped in another quarter, that if I should be found with my throat cut, or a bullet in my head, you wouldnt break your heart; I knew them all; but I did not avail myself of the law. Shall I tell you why, Michael Rust? Because I had a revenge sweeter than the law could give.
Friend Enoch is welcome to it when he gets it, replied Rust, in a soft tone. But the day when it will come is far off.
The day is at hand, replied Grosket. It is here: it is now. Not for a mine of gold would I forego what I now know; not for any thing that is dear in the worlds eyes, would I spare you one pang that I can now inflict.