THE SURRENDER
How long she gazed into the convulsed face of the man who had squared himself before her, mattered little measured by the tick of the watch in her belt.Into the mental anguish endured a life's agony had been pressed.It could not have been more than twenty seconds, and yet it marked the birth of a new being within the soul of a woman.She had been searching only for her own happiness.The search had entangled another in the meshes of her life.Too much had been lived in the past two weeks to be undone by a word and forgotten in a day.She had attempted, coward-like, to run.
She saw now in the consuming flame of a great sorrow that the man before her had some rights which the purest woman must reckon with.He might be a burglar.At least it was her duty to try to save him from himself.Her surrender of the past weeks was a tie that would bind them through all eternity.There was no chemistry of earth or heaven or hell that could erase its memories.Her life was no longer her own--this man's was bound with hers.She must face the facts.She would make one honest, brave effort to save him.To do this she would give all without reservation--pride must be cast to the winds.
Her voice suddenly changed to tears."Oh, Jim, you do love me, don't you?"His body slowly relaxed, his eyes shifted, and he shrugged his square shoulders.
"What'ell did I marry you for?" "Tell me--do you?" she demanded.
"You know that I love you.What do you ask me such a fool question for? I love you with a love that can kill.Do you hear me? That's why you're not going anywhere without me."There was no mistaking the depth of his passion.She trembled to realize its power and yet it was the lever by which she must move him.
"Then you've got to give this life up.You're young and brave and strong.You can earn an honest living.You haven't been in this long--I feel it, I know it.Have you?""No!"
"How long?" "Eight months."
"Oh, Jim, dear, you must give it up now for my sake.I'll work with you and work for you.I'll teach, I'll sew, I'll scrub, I'll slave for you day and night--if you're only clean and honest."He turned on her fiercely.
"Cut it, Kid--cut it! I'm out for the stuff now.I'm going to get rich and I'm going to get rich QUICK--that's all that's the matter with me!""But, Jim," she broke in tenderly--"you did earn an honest living.Your workshop proves that.""I've used that to improve my tools and melt the swag the past year.The shop's all right.""But you did make a successful invention?""You bet I did," he answered savagely, "and that's why I quit the business.Three years ago I took down a big automobile and worked out an improvement in the transmission that settled the question of heavy draft machines.I took it to a lawyer in Wall Street and he took it to a man that had money.Between the two of 'em, they didn't do a thing to me! They were going to put my patent on the market and make me a millionaire.God, I was crazy----"He paused and squared his shoulders with a deep breath.
"They put it on the market all right and they made some millionaires-- but I wasn't one of 'em, Kiddo! They got me to sign a paper that skinned me out of every dollar as slick as you can pull an eel through your fingers.I hired another lawyer and gave him half he could get to beat 'em.He fought like a tiger and two days before I met you he got his verdict and they paid it--just ten thousand dollars.Think of it--ten thousand dollars! And each of them got a million cash.They sold it outright for two millions and a half.My lawyer got five thousand dollars, and I got fivethousand dollars.That's mine, anyhow.It's in that bag there.I'm working on a new set of tools now in my shop.I'm going to get that money back from the two thieves who stole it from me by law.I'll take it by force, the way they took it.If I can croak them both in the fight--well, there'll be two thieves less to rob honest men and women, that's all.""Oh, Jim!" Mary gasped, lifting a trembling hand to her throat as if to tear open her collar."You're mad.You don't know what you're saying----"
"Don't fool yourself, Kiddo," he interrupted fiercely."My eyes are open now, and I've got a level head back of 'em, too.I've doped it all out.You ought to 'a' heard that lawyer give me a few lessons in business when he'd skinned me and salted my hide.He was good-natured and confidential.He seemed to love me.`Business is war, sonny,' he piped, between the puffs of the big Havana cigar he was smoking--`war! war to the knife! We got you off your guard and put the knife into you at the right minute-- that's all.Don't take it so hard! Invent something else and keep your eyes peeled.You ought to love us for giving you an education in business early in life.You're young.You won't have to learn your lesson again.Go to work, sonny, in your shop, and turn out another new tool for the advancement of trade!'"He paused and smiled grimly.
"I've done it, too! I've just finished a little invention that'll crack any safe in New York in twenty minutes after I touch it."He broke into a dry laugh, sat down and deliberately lighted a fresh cigarette.
She studied his face with beating heart.Was he lost beyond all hope of reformation? Or was this the boyish bravado of an amateur criminal poisoned by the consciousness of wrong? She tried to think.She felt the red blood pounding through her heart and beating against her brain in suffocating waves of despair.
In vivid flashes the scene of her marriage but two weeks ago, came back in tormenting memories.The solemn words she had spoken kept ringing like the throb of a funeral bell far up in the star-lit heavens----"I, MARY ADAMS, TAKE THEE, JAMES ANTHONY, TO MY WEDDED HUSBAND, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD...FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH, AND TO OBEY, TILL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE; AND THERETO I GIVE THEE MY TROTH."The last solemn prayer kept ringing its deep-toned message over all----
