Part 25 (1/2)
Slowly she arose, crus.h.i.+ng the letter in her hand. In a low, stunned voice she cried: ”You lied to me.”
Jack buried his face in his hands. ”Yes,” he confessed. ”He came the night we were married. I met him in the garden. He paid that money he had borrowed from me when he went away.”
Horror-struck, Echo turned to him. ”He was there that night?” she gasped. ”Oh, Jack. You knew, and you never told me. I had given my word to marry him--you, knowing that, have done this thing to me?” Her deep emotion showed itself in her voice. The more Jack told her the worse became her plight.
”I loved you.” Jack was defending himself now, fighting for his love.
”Did d.i.c.k believe I knew he was living?” continued the girl mercilessly.
”He must have done so.”
”Jack! Jack!” sobbed Echo, tears streaming down her face.
”What could I do? I was almost mad with fear of losing you. I was tempted to kill him then and there. I left your father to guard the door--to keep him out until after the ceremony.”
Jack could scarcely control his voice. The sight of Echo's suffering unmanned him.
”My father, too,” wailed Echo.
”He thought only of your happiness,” Jack claimed.
”What of my promise--my promise to marry d.i.c.k? Where is he?” moaned the girl.
”He's gone back to the desert.”
Over her swept the memory of the terrible dream. d.i.c.k dying of thirst in the desert, calling for her; crushed to the earth by Jack after battling the awful silence. She moved to the middle of the room, as if following the summons.
”The desert, my dream,” she whispered, in awe.
”He is gone out of our lives forever,” cried Jack, facing her with arms outstretched.
”And you let him go away in the belief that I knew him to be living?”
accused the wife.
”What will not a man do to keep the woman he loves? d.i.c.k Lane has gone from our lives, he will never return,” argued Jack.
”He must,” screamed Echo. ”There is a crime charged against you--he must return to prove your story as to the money--He must know through your own lips the lie that separated us.”
”You love him--you love him.” Jack kept repeating the words, aghast at the knowledge that Echo seemed to be forcing upon him.
”Bring him back to me.” Firmly she spoke.
Jack gazed at her in fear. Chokingly he cried again: ”You love him!”
”I don't know. All I know is that he has suffered, is suffering now, through your treachery; bring him back to me, that I may stand face to face with him, and say: 'I have not lied to you, I have not betrayed your trust.'”
”You love him,” he repeated.
”Find him--bring him back.”