"GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, GOD THE HOLY GHOST,BLESS, PRESERVE, AND KEEP YOU; THE LORD MERCIFULLY WITH HIS FAVOR LOOK UPON YOU, AND FILL YOU WITH ALL SPIRITUAL BENEDICTION AND GRACE; THAT YE MAY SO LIVE TOGETHER IN THIS LIFE, THAT IN THE WORLD TO COME YE MAY HAVE LIFE EVERLASTING.AMEN."In a sudden rush of desperate pity for herself and the man to whom she was bound, she dropped on her knees by his side, slipped her arms about his neck and clung to him, sobbing.
"Oh, Jim, Jim, man," she whispered hoarsely."I can't see you sink into hell like this! Have you no real love in your heart for the woman who has given all? Have mercy on me! Have mercy! You can't mean the hideous things you've just said! You've been crazed by your losses.You're just a boy yet.Life is all before you.You're only twenty-four.I'm just twenty-four.We can both begin anew.I've never lived until these past weeks--neither have you.You couldn't drag me down into a life of crime----"Her head sank and her voice choked into silence.He made no movement of his hand to soothe her.His voice was not persuasive.It was hard and cold.
"I'm not asking you to help me on any of my jobs," he said."I'm the financier of the family.You can say the prayers and keep house.""Knowing that you are a criminal? That your hands are stained with human blood?""Why not?" he snapped, the blue blaze flashing again in his eyes.
"Suppose you were the wife of the gentlemanly lawyer-thief who robbed me, using the law instead of a jimmy--would you bother your little head about my business? Does his wife ask him where he got it? Does anybody know or care? He lives on Fifth Avenue now.He bought a palace up there the day after he got my money.We passed it on the way to the Park the day I met you.A line of carriages was standing in front and finely dressed women were running up the red carpet that led down the stoop and under the canopy to the curb.Did any of the gay dames who smiled and smirked at that thief's wife ask how he got the money to buy the house? Not much.Would they have cared if they had known? They'd have called him a shrewd lawyer--that's all! Do you reckon his wife worries about such tricks of trade? Why should mine worry?"She gripped his hand with desperate pleading.
"Oh, Jim, dear, you can't be a criminal at heart! I wouldn't have loved you if it had been true.I can't believe it! I won't believe it.You're posing.You don't mean this.You can't mean it.You're going to return every dishonest dollar that you've taken.""You don't know what you're talking about!"He closed his jaw with a snap and leaned close in eager, tense excitement.
"Do you know how much junk I've piled into a little box in my shop the past three months?""I don't care--I don't want to know!"
"You've got to care--you've got to know now! It's worth a hundred thousand dollars, do you hear? A hundred thousand dollars! It would take me a life-time to earn that on a salary.In two weeks after we get back to New York with my new invention that lawyer advised me to make, I'll go through his house--I'll open his safe, I'll take every diamond, every pearl and every scrap of stolen jewelry his wife's wearing.And I won't leave a fingerprint on the window sill.I've got two of his servants working for me.
"In six months I'll be worth half a million.In a year I'll pull off the big haul I'm planning and I'll be a millionaire.We'll retire from businessthen-- just like they did.We'll build our marble palace down at Bay Ridge and our yacht will nod in the harbor.We'll spend our summers in Europe when we like and every snob and fool in New York will fall over himself to meet me.And every woman will envy my wife.I'm young, Kiddo, but I've cut my eye teeth.You've just been born.I'm running the business end of this thing.You think you can reform me.You can-- AFTER I'VE MADE OUR PILE.I'll join the church then and sing louder than that lawyer.But if you think you're going to stop my business career at this stage of the game--forget it, forget it!"He sprang up with a quick movement of his tense body and threw her off.She rose and watched his restless steps as he paced the floor.Her mind was numb as if from a mortal blow.She brushed the tangled ringlets of brown hair back from her forehead, drew the handkerchief from her belt and wiped the perspiration from her brow.
Before she could gather the strength to speak, he wheeled suddenly and confronted her:
"I've known from the first, Kiddo, that you're not the kind to help in this business.I don't expect it.I don't ask it.I need a ranch like this down here for storage.I'm going to take the old woman into partnership with me."She started back in an instinctive recoil of horror."Your MOTHER?"He nodded."Yep!"
She drew a step nearer and peered into his set face.
"YOU WILL MAKE YOUR OWN MOTHER A CRIMINAL?""Sure!" he growled."That's what I came down here for." "She won't do it!""She won't, eh?" he sneered."Look at this hog pen!"He swept the bare, wretched cabin with a gesture of contempt and shrugged his shoulders.
"Look at the rags she's wearing," he went on savagely."When we talk it over tonight with that five thousand dollars in gold shining in hereyes--I'm going to show her a lot o' things she never saw before, Kiddo-- take it from me!"She answered in slow, even tones: "I can't live with you, Jim."The blue flames beneath the drooping eyelids were leaping now in the yellow glare of the candle's rays.The muscles of his body were knotted.His voice came from his throat a low growl.
"Do you know who you're fooling with?"
