For some seconds Jerry Rook stood in the shadow without saying a word,
but thinking intensely.
His thoughts were black and bitter. The return of Pierre Robideau would
be nothing less than ruin to him, depriving him of the support upon
which for years he had been living. Once Buck, Brandon, and Co. should
ascertain that he they supposed dead was still living, not only would
the payment be stopped, but they might demand to be recouped the sums of
which he had so cunningly mulcted them.
He had not much fear of this last.
If they had not actually committed murder, they would still be
indictable for the attempt; and though, under the circumstances, they
might not fear any severe punishment, they would yet shrink from the
exposure.
It was not the old score that Jerry Rook was troubled about, but the
prospect now before him. No more black mail; no money from any source;
and Alf Brandon his creditor, now released from the bondage in which he
had hitherto been held, spited by the rejection of yesterday, would lose
no time in coming down upon him for the debt.
The quondam squatter saw before him only a feature of gloom and
darkness--ejection from his ill-gotten home and clearing--a return to
his lowly life--to toil and poverty--along with a dishonoured old age.
Mingling with these black thoughts, there was one blacker--a regret that
he had not pulled the trigger in time!
Had he shot Pierre Robideau inside the tree all would have been well.
No one would have known that he had killed him; and to his own daughter
he could have pleaded ignorance that there was any one inside. Much as
she might have lamented the act, she could scarcely have believed it
wilful, and would have said nothing about it.
It was too late now. To kill the young man as he stood, in the
darkness--it might still have been done--or even at a later time, would
be the same as to murder him under the eyes of his daughter. From what
she now knew the hand of the assassin could not be concealed.
These thoughts occupied Jerry Rook scarce any time. They came and
passed like lightning that flashes deadly through dark clouds.
This prolonged silence was due to other thoughts. He was reflecting on
what course he would take with the man, whose unexpected appearance had
placed him in such a dilemma.