Part 59 (2/2)

Lord Henry tells us that at this he ser he could no longer curb ”This is too much!” he cried ”Hitherto I have believed you sincere but uided and mistaken

But so deliberate a falsehood transcends all bounds What has coirl? Why, Lionel hialeasse Hied and then flung him into the sea for dead”

”Ah!” said Sir Oliver between his teeth ”I recognize Lionel there! He would be false to the end, of course I should have thought of that”

Rosaer leaned forward to face Lord Henry and the others ”He lied, the base, treacherous dog!” she cried

”Mada of one who is all but dead”

”And more than daht but your own stupidity when you accuse this gentle lady of falsehood”

”We have heard enough, sir,” Lord Henry interrupted

”Have you so, by God!” he roared, stung suddenly to anger ”You shall hear yet a little more The truth will prevail, you have said yourself; and prevail the truth shall since this sweet lady so desires it”

He was flushed, and his light eyes played over them like points of steel, and like points of steel they carried a certainand indifferent, resigned to hang and desiring the thing ht be over and ended as speedily as possible But all that was before he suspected that life could still have anything to offer him, whilst he conceived that Rosamund was definitely lost to him True, he had the ht aboard the galley, but he had deemed that tenderness to be no ot Almost he had deemed the same to be here the case until he had witnessed her fierceness and despair in fighting for his life, until he had heard and gauged the sincerity of her avowal that she loved him and desired to make some amends to him for all that he had suffered in the past That had spurred him, and had a further spur been needed, it was afforded him when they branded her words with falsehood, mocked her to her face hat they supposed to be her lies Anger had taken hiainst them and use the one weapon that remained him--that a merciful chance, a just God had placed within his power almost despite himself

”I little knew, sirs,” he said, ”that Sir John was guided by the hand of destiny itself when last night, in violation of the teraleasse That lish seao, and took the same road to escape from thraldom that I took myself under the like circumstances I was merciful in that I permitted him to do so, for he is the very skipper as suborned by Lionel to kidnap me and carry me into Barbary With ht hither, and question him”

In silence they all looked at him, but on more than one face he saw the reflection of amazement at his impudence, as they conceived it

It was Lord Henry who spoke at last ”Surely, sir, this is most oddly, most suspiciously apt,” he said, and there could be no doubt that he was faintly sneering ”The very man to be here aboard, and taken prisoner thus, alh very nearly He conceives that he has a grudge against Lionel, for it was through Lionel that ht when Lionel so rashly leapt aboard the galley, Jasper Leigh saw his opportunity to settle an old score and took it It was as a consequence of that that he was arrested”

”Even so, the chance is still miraculous”

”Miracles, my lord, must happen sometimes if the truth is to prevail,”

Sir Oliver replied with a tinge of his earlier ht of what has passed here It were a madness to suppose him primed for a situation which none could have foreseen Fetch him hither, then”

Steps sounded outside but went unheeded at the moment

”Surely,” said Sir John, ”we have been trifled with by liars long enough!”

The door was flung open, and the lean black figure of the surgeon ently, breaking without cere Lord Henry's scowl ”Master Tressilian has recovered consciousness He is asking for you and for his brother

Quick, sirs! He is sinking fast”

CHAPTER XXVI THE JUDGMENT

To that cabin below the whole coeon's wake, Sir Oliver couards They assembled about the couch where Lionel lay, leaden-hued of face, his breathing laboured, his eyes dull and glazing

Sir John ran to hi arently raised hiainst his breast

”Lionel!” he cried in stricken accents And then as if thoughts of vengeance were to soothe and co friend's last moments, he added: ”We have the villain fast”