She can heap coals
of fire on your head without coming into your tent. Consider that you
sought to take her life--and she seeks to save yours! She is as anxious
to keep you alive as you are anxious to kill her."
He lay as in a reverie. His long white hair made his clear-cut, thin
face look more unearthly than ever, with the hectic flush of fever upon
it. At last he turned to me. "We each work for our own ends," he said,
in a weary way. "We pursue our own objects. It suits ME to get rid of
HER: it suits HER to keep ME alive. I am no good to her dead; living,
she expects to wring a confession out of me. But she shall not have
it. Tenacity of purpose is the one thing I admire in life. She has the
tenacity of purpose--and so have I. Cumberledge, don't you see it is a
mere duel of endurance between us?"
"And may the just side win," I answered, solemnly.
It was several days later before he spoke to me of it again. Hilda had
brought some food to the door of the tent and passed it in to me for our
patient. "How is he now?" she whispered.
Sebastian overheard her voice, and, cowering within himself, still
managed to answer: "Better, getting better.
Pages:
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376