The Knave of Diamonds

by Ethel M. Dell

  CHAPTER XIII

  THE FINAL DEFEAT

  It was growing late that night when Lucas opened his eyes after aprolonged and fruitless attempt to sleep, and found Nap standing at thefoot of the bed watching him. A lamp was burning in the room, but it wasturned very low. For a few seconds he lay wondering if the motionlessfigure he saw had been conjured there by some trick of the shadows. Thenas he stirred he saw it move and at once he spoke.

  "Hullo, dear fellow! You! I never heard you come in."

  Nap stepped noiselessly to his side. "Don't talk!" he said. "Sleep!"

  "I can't sleep. It's no use. I was only pretending." Lucas stifled a sighof weariness. "Sit down," he said.

  But Nap stood over him and laid steady hands upon his wrists. His holdwas close and vital; it pressed upon the pulses as if to give them newlife. "You can sleep if you try," he said.

  Lucas shook his head with a smile. "I'm not a good subject, Boney. Thanksall the same!"

  "Try!" Nap said insistently.

  But the blue eyes remained wide. "No, old chap. It's too high a price topay--even for sleep."

  "What do you mean?" There was a fierce note in the query, low as it was;it was almost a challenge.

  Lucas answered it very quietly. "I mean that I'm afraid of you, Boney."

  "Skittles!" said Nap.

  "Yes, it may seem so to you; but, you see, I know what you aretrying to do."

  "What am I trying to do?" demanded Nap.

  Lucas paused for a moment; he was looking straight up into the harsh faceabove his own. Then, "I know you," he said. "I know that you'll get thewhip hand of me if you can, and you'll clap blinkers on me and drive meaccording to your own judgment. I never had much faith in your judgment,Boney. And it is not my intention to be driven by you."

  There was no resentment in the tired voice, only unflaggingdetermination.

  Nap's hold slowly relaxed. "You don't trust me then?"

  "It's your methods I don't trust, dear fellow, not your motives. I'dtrust them to perdition."

  "But not my--honour?" Nap's lips twisted over the word.

  Lucas hesitated. "I believe you would be faithful to your own code," hesaid at length.

  "But you don't consider that to trick a man who trusted me would beagainst that code?"

  Again Lucas hesitated, and in the silence Nap straightened himself andstood waiting, stern, implacable, hard as granite.

  "Don't do violence to yourself," he said cynically.

  On the instant Lucas spoke, in his voice a tremor that was almostpassionate. "Boney--Boney, old chap, have I wronged you? God knows I'vetried to be just. But are you straight? Are you honest? I'd give my soulto be able to trust you. Only--dear fellow, forgive me--I can't!"

  Nap's hands clenched. "Why not?" he said.

  "Because," very slowly and painfully Lucas made reply, "I know that youare trying to blind me. I know that you are sacrificing yourself--andanother--in order to deceive me. You are doing it to save me pain,but--before God, Boney--you are torturing me in the doing far more thanyou realise. I'd sooner die ten times over than endure it. I can bearmost things, but not this--not this!"

  Silence followed the words, a silence that was vital with many emotions.Nap stood upright against the lamplight. He scarcely seemed to breathe,and yet in his very stillness there was almost a hint of violence. He didnot attempt to utter a word.

  Lucas also lay awhile without speaking, as if exhausted. Then at lengthhe braced himself for further effort. "It seems to me there's only oneway out, Boney," he said gently. "It's no manner of use your trying todeceive me any longer. I happen to know what brought you back, and I'mthankful to know it. After all, her happiness comes first with both ofus, I guess. That's why I was so almighty pleased to see you in the firstplace. That's why it won't hurt me any to let her go to you."

  Nap made a sharp movement and came out of his silence. "Luke,you're mad!"

  "No, Boney, no! I'm saner than you are. When a fellow spends his life asI do, he has time to look all round things. He can't help knowing. AndI'm not a skunk. It never was my intention to stand between her andhappiness."

  "Happiness!" Harshly Nap echoed the word; he almost laughed over it."Don't you know that she only tolerates me for your sake? She wouldn'tstay within a hundred miles of me if it weren't for you."

  "Oh, shucks, Boney!" A faint smile touched the worn face on the pillow."I know you hurt her infernally. But she will forgive you that--women do,you know--though I guess she would have forgiven you easier if she hadn'tloved you."

  "Man, you're wrong!" Fiercely Nap flung the words. "I tell you there isno love between us. I killed her love long ago. And as for myself--"

  "Love doesn't die," broke in Lucas Errol quietly. "I know all about it,Boney. Guess I've always known. And if you tell me that your love forAnne Carfax is dead, I tell you that you lie!" Again he faintly smiled."But I don't like insulting you, old chap. It's poor sport anyway.Besides, I'm wanting you. That's why--"

  He stopped abruptly. A curious change had come over Nap, a change sounexpected, so foreign to the man's grim nature, that even he, who knewhim as did none other, was momentarily taken by surprise. For suddenly,inexplicably, Nap's hardness had gone from him. It was like the crumblingof a rock that had withstood the clash of many tempests and yielded atlast to the ripple of a summer tide.

  With a sudden fierce movement he dropped down upon his knees beside thebed, flinging his arms wide over his brother's body in such an agony ofdespair as Lucas had never before witnessed.

  "I wish I were dead!" he cried out passionately. "I wish to Heaven I hadnever lived!"

  It was a cry wrung from the very depths of the soul, a revelation ofsuffering of which Lucas had scarcely believed him capable. It opened hiseyes to much that he had before but vaguely suspected.

  He laid a hand instantly and very tenderly upon the bowed head. "Shucks,Boney!" he remonstrated gently. "Just when you are wanted most!"

  A great sob shook Nap. "Who wants me? I'm nothing but a blot on the faceof creation, an outrage, an abomination--a curse!"

  "You're just the biggest thing in that woman's life, dear fellow,"answered the tired voice. "You hang on to that. It'll hold you up, as Godalways meant it should."

  Nap made an inarticulate sound of dissent, but the quiet restraint of hisbrother's touch seemed to help him. He became still under it, as if somespell were upon him.

  After a time Lucas went on in the weary drawl that yet held such aninfinite amount of human kindness. "Did you think I'd cut you out, Boney?Mighty lot you seem to know of me! It's true that for a time I thoughtmyself necessary to her. Maybe, for a time I was. She hadn't much to livefor anyway. It's true that when you didn't turn up in Arizona I left offexpecting you to be faithful to yourself or to her. And so it seemed bestto take what she gave and to try to make her as happy as circumstanceswould allow. But I never imagined that I ruled supreme. I know too wellthat what a woman has given once she can never give again. I didn'texpect it of her. I never asked it. She gave me what she could, and I--Idid the same for her. But that bargain wouldn't satisfy either of us now.No--no! We'll play the game like men--like brothers. And you must do yourpart. Believe me, Boney, I desire nothing so earnestly as her happiness,and if when I come to die I have helped to make this one woman happy,then I shall not have lived in vain."

  Nap turned his head sharply. "Don't talk of dying! You couldn't die! Anddo you seriously imagine for a single instant that I could ever give herhappiness?"

  "I imagine so, dear fellow, since she loves you."

  "I tell you she wouldn't have me if I asked her."

  "You don't know. Anyway, she must have the chance. If she doesn't takeit, well, she isn't the woman I imagine her to be."

  "She's a saint," Nap said, with vehemence. "And you, Luke,--you'reanother. You were made for each other. She would be ten million timeshappier with you. Why do you want her to marry a blackguard?"

  A shadow touched Lucas Errol's face, but it was onl
y for an instant; thenext he smiled. "You are not a blackguard, Boney. I always said so. Andthe love of a good woman will be your salvation. No, you're wrong. Icouldn't give her real happiness. There is only one man in the world cangive her that. And I--am not that man." He paused; his eyelids had begunto droop, heavily. "Say, Nap, I believe I could sleep now," he said.

  "Yes, yes, old chap, you shall." Nap raised himself abruptly, banishinghis weakness in a breath; only a certain unwonted gentleness remained."You shall," he said again. "Guess you won't be afraid now you have gotyour own way. But just one thing more. You'll be wanting all yourstrength for yourself for the next few weeks. Will you--for my sake ifyou like--put all this by till you are winning out on the other side? Shewould say the same, if she knew."

  Lucas opened his eyes again, opened them wide, and fixed them steadily,searchingly, upon his brother's face.

  "You'll play the straight game with me, Boney?" he questioned. "You won'ttry to back out?" Then, in a different tone, "No, don't, answer! Forgiveme for asking! I know you."

  "I guess you do," Nap said, with the ghost of a smile, "better even thanI know myself. You know just how little I am to be trusted."

  "I trust you, Boney, absolutely, implicitly, from the bottom of my soul."

  The words left Lucas Errol's lips with something of the solemnity of anoath. He held out a quiet hand.

  "Now let me sleep," he said.

  Nap rose. He stood for a moment in silence, holding the friendly hand, asif he wished to speak, but could not. Then suddenly he bent.

  "Good-night, dear chap!" he said in a whisper, and with the words hestooped and kissed the lined forehead of the man who trusted him....

  Half an hour later the door of the adjoining room opened noiselessly andTawny Hudson peered in.

  One brother was sleeping, the quiet, refreshing sleep of a mind at rest.The other sat watching by his side with fixed inscrutable eyes.

  The latter did not stir, though in some indefinable way he made TawnyHudson know that he was aware of his presence, and did not desire hiscloser proximity. Obedient to the unspoken command, the man did not comebeyond the threshold; but he stood there for many seconds, glowering withthe eyes of a monstrous, malignant baboon.

  When at length he retired he left the door ajar, and a very curious smileflickered across Nap's face.

  But still he did not turn his head.