第27章

"I've bin thinkin',"said Collinson,raising his eyes to his captor with a singularly new and shy admiration in them,"mebbee not so much of WOT you said,ez HOW you said it,and it's kinder bothered me,sittin'here,that I ain't bin actin'to you boys quite on the square.I've said to myself,'Collinson,thar ain't another house betwixt Bald Top and Skinner's whar them fellows kin get a bite or a drink to help themselves,and you ain't offered 'em neither.It ain't no matter who they are or how they came:whether they came crawling along the road from the valley,or dropped down upon you like them rocks from the grade;yere they are,and it's your duty,ez long ez you keep this yer house for your wife in trust,so to speak,for wanderers.'And I ain't forgettin'yer ginerel soft style and easy gait with me when you kem here.It ain't every man as could walk into another man's house arter the owner of it had grabbed a gun,ez soft-speakin',ez overlookin',and ez perlite ez you.I've acted mighty rough and low-down,and I know it.And Isent for you to say that you and your folks kin use this house and all that's in it ez long ez you're in trouble.I've told you why Icouldn't sell the house to ye,and why I couldn't leave it.But ye kin use it,and while ye're here,and when you go,Collinson don't tell nobody.I don't know what ye mean by 'binding myself'to keep your secret;when Collinson says a thing he sticks to it,and when he passes his word with a man,or a man passes his word with him,it don't need no bit of paper."There was no doubt of its truth.In the grave,upraised eyes of his prisoner,Chivers saw the certainty that he could trust him,even far more than he could trust any one within the house he had just quitted.But this very certainty,for all its assurance of safety to himself,filled him,not with remorse,which might have been an evanescent emotion,but with a sudden alarming and terrible consciousness of being in the presence of a hitherto unknown and immeasurable power!He had no pity for man who trusted him;he had no sense of shame in taking advantage of it;he even felt an intellectual superiority in this want of sagacity in his dupe;but he still felt in some way defeated,insulted,shocked,and frightened.At first,like all scoundrels,he had measured the man by himself;was suspicious and prepared for rivalry;but the grave truthfulness of Collinson's eyes left him helpless.He was terrified by this unknown factor.The right that contends and fights often stimulates its adversary;the right that yields leaves the victor vanquished.Chivers could even have killed Collinson in his vague discomfiture,but he had a terrible consciousness that there was something behind him that he could not make way with.

That was why this accomplished rascal felt his flaccid cheeks grow purple and his glib tongue trip before his captive.

But Collinson,more occupied with his own shortcomings,took no note of this,and Chivers quickly recovered his wits,if not his former artificiality."All right,"he said quickly,with a hurried glance at the door behind him."Now that you think better of it,I'll be frank with you,and tell you I'm your friend.You understand,--your friend.Don't talk much to those men--don't give yourself away to them;"he laughed this time in absolute natural embarrassment."Don't talk about your wife,and this house,but just say you've made the thing up with me,--with ME,you know,and I'll see you through."An idea,as yet vague,that he could turn Collinson's unexpected docility to his own purposes,possessed him even in his embarrassment,and he was still more strangely conscious of his inordinate vanity gathering a fearful joy from Collinson's evident admiration.It was heightened by his captive's next words.

"Ef I wasn't tied I'd shake hands with ye on that.You're the kind o'man,Mr.Chivers,that I cottoned to from the first.Ef this house wasn't HERS,I'd a'bin tempted to cotton to yer offer,too,and mebbee made yer one myself,for it seems to me your style and mine would sorter jibe together.But I see you sabe what's in my mind,and make allowance.WE don't want no bit o'paper to shake hands on that.Your secret and your folk's secret is mine,and Idon't blab that any more than I'd blab to them wot you've just told me."Under a sudden impulse,Chivers leaned forward,and,albeit with somewhat unsteady hands and an embarrassed will,untied the cords that held Collinson in his chair.As the freed man stretched himself to his full height,he looked gravely down into the bleared eyes of his captor,and held out his strong right hand.Chivers took it.Whether there was some occult power in Collinson's honest grasp,I know not;but there sprang up in Chivers's agile mind the idea that a good way to get rid of Mrs.Collinson was to put her in the way of her husband's finding her,and for an instant,in the contemplation of that idea,this supreme rascal absolutely felt an embarrassing glow of virtue.