SETTLING DAY
Jim Dennis rode towards Cudgegong, vengeance gnawing at his heart.
So Rodney Shaw was the man who had wronged him, and he, Jim Dennis, had
clasped his hand in friendship since then.
How he hated the man, this thief who had robbed him and dishonoured his
house. It was with a glow of exultation he thought the hour was at hand
when he could call him to account. He meant to settle with Rodney Shaw
before he got into the more tender clutches of the law. He would show
him no mercy, for he had a double score to pay off now, as there was the
insult to Sal to be wiped out.
He worked himself up to such a pitch of savage resentment that he was
scarcely answerable for his actions.
This was what he desired, to deaden all the better feelings in him so
that there was no possibility of his showing any mercy.
He had heard from Constable Doonan that he had hit Rodney Shaw as he
escaped from the fight at Barker's Creek, and the wound might have
proved dangerous. So much the better, his enemy could not escape him
then.
And Rodney Shaw, what of him?
When he made good his escape from the Creek he rode on to Cudgegong, and
arriving there in safety, had his wound dressed. The bullet struck him
between the shoulders and caused him intense pain.
He explained as well as he could to Benjamin Nix how it happened, and
accounted for his presence at the fight by saying the police had
surrounded the place while he was at Dalton's house.
'Doonan fired at me as I was escaping, and that is how I got the wound.
Do the best you can for me, Nix, I am in a bad way.'
'It serves you right,' thought Nix, and did his best to relieve him.
Rodney Shaw had something else to contend with in addition to his wound.
He had heard from Maud Dennis and discovered who she was, and that she
intended to let Jim Dennis know the name of the man who had wronged him.
This preyed upon his mind and made his wound worse. He tossed about
restlessly and was soon on the high road to a bad attack of fever.
'I will send for Dr Sheridan,' said Nix.
'It is useless; he will decline to come,' said Shaw.
'I have never known him do so in a serious case,' answered Nix. 'He has
even attended Abe Dalton and pulled him through a severe illness. If he
attended Dalton surely he will come to you.'
'I tell you it is useless,' persisted Shaw. 'There are matters you know
nothing of that will prevent his coming.'
Rodney Shaw, however, knew it would not be long before someone else
came, the man he dreaded most to see--Jim Dennis. He wished the shot he
had aimed at him had taken effect, then he would have been well rid of
him.
He knew when Jim Dennis heard the truth nothing would keep him from
Cudgegong. If it had not been for his wound he would have been well on
his way to Sydney, and might have escaped. He made an effort to rise,
but fell back exhausted. He felt it would be better to risk everything
rather than face this angry, wronged man. He called Nix and said,--
'If Jim Dennis calls tell him I am too ill to see him.'
'I will,' was the reply; but Nix thought to himself, 'If Jim Dennis
wishes to see you no one can stop him after what you have done.' He
meant the abduction of Sal; he did not know of Rodney Shaw's greater
sin.
When Jim Dennis arrived at Cudgegong he got off his horse and strode
into the house.
Benjamin Nix barred the way, and asked,--
'Do you wish to see Mr Shaw? If so, he is too ill; it would be dangerous
to disturb him.'
Jim Dennis laughed.
'I have no quarrel with you, Ben,' he said, 'but I must see him. If the
shock of my presence kills him, well, so much the better, it will save
me doing it.'
'You don't mean to harm him?' said Nix, alarmed.
'That's precisely what I do mean,' said Jim.
'Then you must be prevented from doing so,' said Nix.
Jim Dennis knew there were several people about the place, and he did
not wish to be hindered in his work, so he tried to propitiate Ben Nix.
'I shall not be long with him,' he said; 'and when I have done with him,
and you know all, you will side with me.'
'I always do that,' said Ben. 'You and I have never been bad friends.'
'But we shall fall out if I do not see him quietly,' said Jim. 'I mean
to do so, and you had better let me pass.'
Benjamin Nix saw he meant it, and stood on one side.
He argued that a disturbance would probably be as dangerous to Rodney
Shaw, or more so, as an interview with Dennis.
'Which room is he in?' asked Jim.
Ben pointed it out to him, and he went to the door.
He knocked, and Rodney Shaw said angrily,--
'Come in. There is no occasion for you to knock, Nix. I have not had a
wink of sleep for hours.'
'You will have plenty of sleep shortly,' said Jim Dennis, entering the
room.
Rodney Shaw lay on his bed and stared with glassy eyes at the speaker.
He felt as though his last hour was at hand, and he wished he could rise
and fight for his life. He could not move without causing intense pain,
and there he lay, helpless, at the mercy of his bitterest enemy.
Jim Dennis strode up to the bedside and shook him roughly.
'Get up and answer for your sins, you black-hearted scoundrel!' he said
in a voice of suppressed passion. 'No shamming sick with me, remember.
Stand up and fight for your life like a man--Heaven forgive me for
calling you one!'
Rodney Shaw groaned.
'I am wounded,' he said. 'I have been shot.'
'Where?' asked Jim Dennis. 'Show me the wound.'
'I cannot.'
'Show it me.'
'It is in my back, between my shoulders,' said Shaw.
Jim Dennis laughed savagely.
'In your back. A fitting place for it. Things such as you never face an
enemy, they are always wounded in the back.'
He pushed him over and saw there was blood on the bed.
'So you have not lied this time,' said Jim. 'I have come to have a
settling day with you. It is a long-standing account and a heavy one.
You are the scoundrel who stole my wife and robbed my child of its
mother. You are the man, and you have taken my hand in friendship
since.'
He raised his whip and was about to bring it down across Rodney Shaw's
body. He hesitated. He would not strike a wounded man with his whip.
'I meant to thrash you, but you cannot stand up and take it. That part
of your punishment I will count out, but you must pay the rest in full.'
'What do you mean to do?' asked Shaw.
'Kill you before I leave the house, anticipate death by a few hours. You
are bound to die anyway. I can see it in your face. Your miserable
victim is at my house, dying, and you are going fast, but I will not
give you that chance, for I mean to kill you, Rodney Shaw.'
'At your house?' gasped Shaw.
'Yes, she dragged herself there to die, a victim to your treachery and
cruelty. Even when you had stolen and dishonoured her you could not be
true to her. You are too vile a thing to live, therefore you must die.'
'One word, Dennis. I wronged you, but not knowingly. I did not know she
was your wife.'
'That makes no difference to me. You wronged her, that is sufficient.
Leave me and my wrongs out of the question. I have waited for this day
for years and have sworn you shall pay the penalty.'
Rodney Shaw was gasping for breath. The excitement and the moving of his
body had caused his wound to bleed profusely, and he soon became
exhausted, and fainted.
Jim Dennis watched him with a bitter smile on his face.
'I have been cheated at last. He cannot stand up and take the punishment
I would give him. I cannot shoot an insensible man, it would be murder.
Sal was right, it would be as cowardly with him as with her.'
He opened the door and called Benjamin Nix.
'He is insensible,' said Jim. 'His wound has opened again and he is
bleeding to death.'
'Then nothing can save him?' said Nix. 'I have sent for Dr Sheridan.'
'He is at Wanabeen by now,' said Jim.
'Who is ill there?'
'My wife, or the woman who was my wife.'
Benjamin Nix knew something of that story.
'Has she returned?' he added.
'Yes, to die in the home of the husband and child she had deserted for
that man,' said Jim, as he pointed to Rodney Shaw.
Benjamin Nix started back and said,--
'Can it be possible he is such a villain?'
Rodney Shaw opened his eyes and looked at them vacantly. A violent fit
of coughing seized him and the blood poured from his mouth. He commenced
to struggle, for the terrible flow choked him. They went to his
assistance and raised him, but it was too late, his head fell back and
he was dead. A higher power than Jim Dennis's had summoned him to answer
for his sins.
'Jim, I'm glad of it; I mean that I'm glad it happened this way, not
your way,' said Nix.
'It is better so,' said Jim. 'He will have a heavy settling day when he
is called before his last Judge.'
'Sometimes I have thought he was not Rodney Shaw,' said Ben Nix,'but
someone very like him.'
'Who knows?' said Jim. 'That's strange. I have thought the same thing.'
Jim Dennis rode back to Wanabeen.
During his absence Dr Tom had arrived and done all that lay in his power
to ease the dying woman and render her last moments free from pain.
The messenger sent to Barragong had missed Willie Dennis, who was on the
way home.
When Jim Dennis arrived at Wanabeen and entered his house he saw his son
standing by the bedside holding his mother's hand. To violently pull him
away was his first impulse, but Dr Tom stopped him by saying in a low
voice,--
'She is going fast, Jim. Be very quiet.'
Peacefully and quietly the woman who had wronged and been wronged
passed away, with Willie's hand in her own.
'Who was she, father?' asked Willie.
Those words spoke volumes to Jim Dennis.
He bent over and kissed the dead woman's forehead.
'An unfortunate woman I once knew well, Willie,' he said, and thought to
himself, 'She died without letting him know; it was brave of her. May
she be forgiven as freely as I forgive her.'
'Rodney Shaw is dead,' said Jim to the doctor.
Dr Tom looked at Jim and then at the dead woman. He fancied he had
solved the problem of Jim Dennis's life, and he was not wrong.