II

"Come in, Stowell. I'm glad you're early. I wanted a word with you

before the others arrived. Sit down."

The Governor too was violently agitated. He was striding about the

room. His grey hair, usually brushed down with military precision,

was loose and disordered, as if he had been running his hands through

it, and his pipe, still alight and as if forgotten, was smoking on

the arm of his chair.

"You came by train?"

"Yes."

"Then you saw the soldiers. I had to do it. I couldn't allow this

raggabash to take possession of the island. There may be casualties,

but the shortest way is the most merciful--that's my experience. Sit

down. Why don't you sit down?"

But the Governor went on walking and Stowell continued to stand.

"They say this rioting is the sequel to the escape from Castle

Rushen. Only an excuse, of course, but that makes no difference. If

we are to justify our administration of Justice in the eyes of the

authorities across the water we must re-capture those runaways. The

man--the guilty man in particular--must be locked up in prison. The

Attorney and the Colonel will be here presently. You'll be able to

help them to the personal description they want--nobody better--and

then issue the warrant."

Stowell, who had been clutching the back of a chair behind which he

was standing with a fixed stare, said in a quivering voice,

"I'm sorry, your Excellency. I cannot do that."

"Eh? Cannot do what?"

"I cannot issue the warrant for the arrest of Alick Gell for breaking

prison because...."

"Well?"

Stowell swallowed something in his throat and continued .... "because

_I_ did it."

The Governor drew up sharply and said,

"What's the matter with you? Are you ill?"

Stowell, who had recovered himself, answered,

"No, I am not ill, your Excellency."

"Then you must be mad--stark mad. It's impossible. You can never

have done such a thing."

"I am not mad either, Sir. What I tell you is the truth--it is God's

truth, Sir."

And then, excusing nothing, extenuating nothing, Stowell told the

Governor what he had done, and how he had done it.

"I used my official position to effect the escape of the prisoner,

and I arranged for her flight, with her companion, to a foreign

country."

The Governor listened without drawing breath.

"But why .... why did you .... was it because I refused to remit...."

"No, I did it because I came to see that the law which permitted you

to order the execution of that girl was a crime, and that a higher

law called upon me to undo it."

"A crime? Good Lord, what if it was? What had you to do with that?"

"I had tried and condemned her. And besides, I had my personal

reasons for wishing the prisoner to escape punishment."

"But damn it all, man, when you were doing all this for the girl,

didn't you see what you were doing for yourself?"

"Not then. But now I see that in preventing the law from committing

a crime I committed a crime against the law, and am no longer fit to

be a Judge. That's why I'm here now, Sir--not to issue that warrant,

but to resign my judgeship."

"Resign your judgeship?"

"Yes, but that's not all--to ask you to order my arrest and commit me

to prison."

The Governor, who had been half stupefied, took possession of himself

at last.

"Commit you to prison? Good heavens, what are you saying? A

Deemster in prison! Whoever heard of such a thing!"

"I am guilty of a crime against Justice...." began Stowell, but the

Governor bore him down.

"Tush! I don't care for the moment whether you are or are not.

Neither do I care whether the law which condemned the prisoner to

death, was or was not a crime. What I have to deal with is the

present situation. You say you want me to order your arrest--is that

it?"

"Yes, you said yourself the guilty man ought to be in prison."

"But heavens alive, man, can't you see the disgrace? Gell is a

private person, while you are a Judge, the Judge who tried and

condemned the prisoner. What is to happen to Justice in the island

if a Judge is condemned and imprisoned?"

Stowell tried to speak, but again the Governor bore him down.

"Oh, I know what you'll say--you'll talk about your conscience. But

what is your conscience to me against the honour of the public

service and the welfare of the whole community?"

"The honour of the public service cannot rest on a lie, Sir," said

Stowell. "It would be a living lie if I continued to be a Judge, and

the only way to save the island is to tell it the truth, no matter

what...."

"Don't talk damned nonsense."

Stowell drew himself up.

"Do you wish me, then, to issue that warrant against Alick Gell now

that you know that I am myself the guilty man?"

The Governor flinched for a moment, then smote the top of his desk

and said,

"I know nothing of the kind, Sir, and don't want to know. I believe

you're mad--made mad by the ordeal you have lately gone through.

Nothing will make me believe the contrary."

There was silence after that for several minutes. Then the Governor,

who had thrown himself in his chair, said in a softer tone,

"Stowell, listen to me. I partly understand you. But even if you

did this unbelievable thing, and are satisfied you did it from a good

motive, why can't you hold your tongue about it?"

"I have thought of that, Sir," said Stowell, with a tremor in his

voice. "I have fought it all out with myself. Believe me I would

have given all I have in the world not to have had to come here on

this errand. But the life of a Judge would be impossible to me with

a lie like that for its foundation. My work cannot be a mockery,

Sir. I cannot allow another to suffer for what I have done."

The Governor leapt up from his seat.

"You talk about others suffering for what you have done--have you

forgotten how many others must suffer if I allow you to do what you

want to do now? Think of your island--your native island--do you

want to cover it with dishonour? Think of your profession--do you

want to load it with disgrace? Think of your father, who loved you

as no father ever loved a son. We put up his portrait in the

court-house the other day--do you want to pull it down? And then

think of me--I suppose I ran some risk when I recommended you for

your position...."

Stowell was trying to speak, but again the Governor put up his hand..

"Oh, you needn't thank me. Perhaps I wasn't acting altogether

unselfishly. I may have been wanting somebody to stand by me now

that I'm growing old, somebody like your father--able to fight these

rascals who are trying to ruin everything. And when you came along,

you whom I had known since you were a boy, the son of my old friend,

who was to be my son some day...."

The Governor, startled by the emotion that was coming over him, broke

away and crossed the room, saying,

"But damn it all, why need I talk of myself? There's Fenella--have

you forgotten Fenella?"

It was at this moment that Fenella entered the room. Neither of the

men saw her. She stood noiselessly at the door.

"If I do what you want, order your arrest, what's the first question

the Court will ask you--why did you help the prisoner to escape?

Then the whole wretched story of your relations with the girl

Collister will come out. And what will be the result? Fenella's

name will become a byword. It will be the common talk of every slut

in the island that she came second after your woman .... your offal."

Stowell flamed up with anger for a moment, and then choked with

tears. After a short silence he said,

"I can never be sufficiently grateful to you, Sir, for what you've

done for me. As for Fenella, I can hardly trust myself to speak.

The thought of her suffering is the bitterest part of my own. I

would live out the rest of my life on my knees if I could undo the

wrong I have done her. But I cannot bring her down with me. I

cannot take up again my life as a Judge after it has been so

hideously disfigured and ask her to share it. Let me go to

prison...."

Sobbing in his throat Stowell could go no further. Fenella, sobbing

in her heart, crept noiselessly out of the room.

The Governor, in spite of himself, was visibly affected.

"Look here, my boy," he said. "I'll tell you what I'll do. It's

going far, perhaps too far for the safety of the public service, but

to prevent worse things happening I'll take the risk. I'll stop that

warrant and hush up this miserable scandal on one condition--that you

say nothing, take leave of absence on grounds of ill-health, go

abroad and never come back again."

Stowell shook his head.

"Why not? Good gracious, why not? The guilty ones have gone. Your

secret is safe. Except ourselves, nobody knows it. Why shouldn't

you?"

"I dare not," said Stowell.

"Dare not?"

"I have committed a crime. If I do not pay for it in this life I

must do so hereafter. Therefore I ask for my punishment now."

The Governor got the better of his emotion.

"So you wish to resign your office and ask me to order your arrest?

Well, I won't do it. I am the only authority to whom you can resign

and I decline to accept your resignation--I refuse to transmit it to

the Home Authorities. What you wish to do would undermine the

stability of law and the authority of Government. It would humiliate

me and destroy my daughter's happiness. Therefore I not only refuse

to receive your resignation. I forbid it."

Stowell hesitated for a moment and then said,

"In that case, your Excellency, you will force me to denounce myself."

"Denounce....? You mean in open Court?"

"Yes, it will be my duty, and I shall be compelled to do it."

The Governor's wrath became rage. With a ring of sarcasm in his

voice he said,

"Very well! Very well! I cannot prevent you. Denounce yourself in

open Court if you are so unwise, so insane. But understand--if you

are compelled to do your duty, _I_ shall be compelled to do mine

also. After you have made your public confession and the Courts have

dealt with you, I shall issue the warrant just the same. You say the

fugitives have gone to a foreign country, but no foreign country will

refuse to give up a condemned murderess. The woman shall be brought

back and executed according to the sentence you pronounced upon her.

More than that, your friend, your confederate, shall be brought back

also, and dealt with according to his crime. Therefore your public

confession will be of no avail. It will be an empty farce, ruining

three lives that might otherwise have been saved."

Stowell trembled, his lips became white.

"I beg you not to do that, Sir."

"I will! I take God to witness that I will. Now choose for yourself

which it is to be--your course or mine?"

Stowell breathed hard for a moment and then smiled--but such a smile!

"Your Excellency," he said, "for your own sake I beg of you not to do

it."

"My sake?" said the Governor, drawing up sharply--he had been

striding about the room again.

"Yes, yours," said Stowell. "One of those two was my victim, the

other was merely the subject of my will. I alone am guilty, and if I

cannot meet my punishment without bringing such consequences on the

innocent I must meet something else."

"What else?"

"Death. Then, in the eyes of heaven, the crime against the law will

be _your_ crime and I shall not live to witness it."

There was a breathless silence. The Governor was dumb-founded.

Stowell stepped towards the door and said in a low voice,

"God forgive you, Sir. You will never see me again."

At that moment the maid entered the room to announce the

Attorney-General and the Chief Constable, who came in immediately

behind her.

"Ah, Victor, how are you?" said the Attorney. "Your Excellency, we

have brought the Warrant."

"And here," said the Chief Constable, with an obsequious bow to

Stowell, "is the Deemster ready to issue it."

Nobody spoke, and the Chief Constable, taking a paper out of a long

envelope, proceeded to read it:

"_This is to command you to whom this Warrant is addressed forthwith

to apprehend Alexander Gell...._"

"That will do. Give it to me," said the Governor.

When the Warrant had been given to him he tore it up and threw it

into the fire. The two men were aghast.

"Your Excellency, what .... what...."

"This damnable thing must go no further. Let me hear no more about

it."

After saying this the Governor's strength seemed to leave him. He

dropped into a chair before the fire and gazed at the blazing paper.

Stowell's trembling hand was on the handle of the door.

"I thank you for what you've done, Sir," he said, "and wish to God

the matter could end there. But it cannot .... it cannot."

He went out. The two men looked into each other's faces. A flash of

understanding passed between them, and, without a word more, they

stepped out of the room.

Meantime, Stowell, going down the corridor, felt a hand that had been

stretched out from the drawing-room, taking hold of his arm and

drawing him in. It was Fenella's. Her face was utterly broken up.

Flinging her arms about him she kissed him passionately.

"Victor," she said, "do as your heart bids you. Don't think of me

any longer. I am with you in life or death. If you have to go to

prison I will go with you, and if...."

Unable to say more she broke away from him and hurried into an inner

room.

The front door rang as Stowell pulled it after him, and when he

walked down the drive with a high step his head was up and his

ravished face aglow.