Chapter FORTY-FOUR: "god Gave Him Dominion"

Three times during breakfast that morning Fenella had seen somebody coming up the drive. The first to come was the Major from Castletown, riding at a fast trot. On being shown into the breakfast-room, with spurs clanking, he told the Governor that a mob had gathered about Government Office and were very threatening.

"Tell the Mayor to read the Riot Act, and then do what is necessary for the protection of life and property," said the Governor.

The second to come was the Chief Constable, driving rapidly in a hackney carriage. On entering the room with his heavy step, he said the steamer from England was in sight and the soldiers would be landed at the pier within half an hour.

"If the thoroughfares are still thronged with riotous mobs at that time," said the Governor, "tell the cavalry to ride through them."

The last to come up the drive was a solitary man afoot, walking slowly and pausing at intervals as if his strength had failed him.

Fenella knew who it was, and rising hastily from the table she went into the drawing-room.

When Stowell was brought in to her she was shocked at the change in his appearance. He looked ten years older. His dark hair had become white about the temples and his eyes were full of a strange light.

"How he must have suffered," she thought, and an almost overpowering desire took possession of her to put her arms about him and comfort him.

He looked at her and the same thought and the same impulse came to him. But they were afraid of each other, and with the surging ocean of their love between them they stood apart, but trembling. At length, trying not to look into each other's faces, they began to speak.

"Fenella!"

"Victor!"

"You know why I have been sent for?"

"Yes, and that is why I want to speak to you before you see my father. There are things you ought to know."

"Yes?"

"Mr. Vondy, the jailer from Castle Rushen, was here two days ago, to be examined by the Governor, the Attorney-General and the Chief Constable."

"Did he say anything?"

"Not to them."

"To you, perhaps?"

"Yes. I brought him in here. He told me what occurred after I left the Castle."

"Then you know?"

She dropped her head and answered "Yes."

"I had to do it, Fenella--I thought I had to."

A moment passed.

"He asked me to tell you that he would keep his word to you, whatever happened."

"Did he say that?"

"Yes."

A spasm in Stowell's throat seemed to be stifling him.

"I did wrong, Fenella, terribly wrong, but there is one thing I will ask of you."

"What is it, Victor?"

"Not to judge me until you know what I've come to do to-day."

Fenella, deeply affected, thought she caught a glimpse of his meaning.

"Do you intend to resign, Victor?"

"Yes, but that is not all."

"What is, Victor?" She was thinking of his exile, his possible banishment.

"Perhaps I am speaking to you for the last time, Fenella. That's why I am glad you have given me this opportunity of seeing you."

She trembled, thinking he meant suicide, and said in a choking voice,

"You don't mean that you intend to take your .... No, no, that is impossible. Think of your father."

Stowell did not speak for a moment. Then he said,

"I saw him last night, Fenella."

"Who?"

"My father. I was thinking of that as a way out of all this miserable wrong-doing, when he came to warn me."

"How he must have suffered," thought Fenella.

"But perhaps you think it was only a delusion?"

"Indeed no! If the spirits of our dear ones may not come back to speak to us in our times of temptation...."

"But my father was not the only one who spoke to me last night, Fenella."

"Who else did, Victor?"

"You. I heard you as plainly as I hear you now."

Fenella's bosom was heaving. "When was that?" she asked.

"In the middle of the night. But perhaps you were in bed and asleep at that time."

"No .... no, I did not sleep until after daybreak. In the middle of the night I was" .... (she was breathing audibly) "I was praying."

He looked up at her with his heavy eyes.

"Were you praying for me, Fenella?"

She cast down her eyes and answered "Yes."

Another moment passed, and then in a husky voice he said,

"Fenella, what did you pray for for me?"

"That you might have strength to do what was right, whatever it might cost you."

He reached forward and grasped her hands.

"Did you know what that meant, Fenella--whatever it might cost me?"

"Yes," she said, raising her eyes, "and at length an answer came to me."

"What answer?"

"That if you did, and made atonement, however low you might fall in the eyes of men you would look upon the face of God."

Stowell gasped, dropped her hands and for a while was speechless. Then he said,

"And do you think I will?"

"I am sure you will, Victor. I had a sign from God."

"Do you, after all, believe in God, Fenella?"

"Indeed yes. And you--don't you??"

"My father did. He used to kneel by his bed like a little child every night and every morning."

She saw that he did not speak for himself, and a great wave of love and compassion for the sin-laden man stormed her heart.

"Victor," she said, tears springing to her eyes, "you must try to forgive me. I've not been what I ought to have been to you--I see that now. Whatever you have done I should have clung to you, not driven you away from me, and let you go on from sin to sin, doubting God's mercy and forgiveness. Let me do so now. We belong to each other, Victor. There can never be anybody else for either of us as long as we live. Let us go together."

She had seized his hands. The hands of both were trembling.

"Would to God you could, Fenella. But it is too late for that now. I have gone too far for you to follow me. Where I go now I must go alone."

"Don't say that."

"Wait until I have seen your father."

At that moment the maid came into the room to tell the Deemster that the Governor, having heard that he was in the house, wished to see him immediately.

Stowell was turning to go, when Fenella put a trembling hand on his shoulder and said in a whisper,

"Victor, whatever happens with my father, promise me that you will never do that."

"But if the Governor...."

"Never mind about the Governor now, promise me."

There was a moment of silence and then he said, "I promise," and with head down passed out of the room.

Being alone, Fenella tried in vain to compose herself. The fear that Stowell might kill himself (as a result of the public exposure and humiliation which the Governor would impose upon him) threw her into violent agitation.

Unable to support the strain of her anxiety she could not resist the temptation to listen at the door of her father's room. She heard the two voices within--Stowell's in tones of pitiful supplication, her father's in accents of fierce expostulation. At length she heard her own name mentioned and then she could contain herself no longer.

Opening the door noiselessly she entered the room. The two men were face to face, looking at each other with flaming eyes.

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.

END OF SIXTH BOOK

SEVENTH BOOK

THE RESURRECTION