Page 400 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

‘Oh, nonsense, sir! But I want to speak to you about this
poor Dawes. I don’t think he meant any harm. It seems to
me now that he was rather going to ask for food or some-
thing, only I was so nervous. They won’t hang him, Maurice,
will they?’
‘No,’ said Maurice. ‘I spoke to your father this morning.
If the fellow is tried for his life, you may have to give evi-
dence, and so we came to the conclusion that Port Arthur
again, and heavy irons, will meet the case. We gave him an-
other life sentence this morning. That will make the third
he has had.’
‘What did he say?’
‘Nothing. I sent him down aboard the schooner at once.
He ought to be out of the river by this time.’ ‘Maurice, I have
a strange feeling about that man.’
‘Eh?’ said Maurice.
‘I seem to fear him, as if I knew some story about him,
and yet didn’t know it.’
‘That’s not very clear,’ said Maurice, forcing a laugh, ‘but
don’t let’s talk about him any more. We’ll soon be far from
Port Arthur and everybody in it.’
‘Maurice,’ said she, caressingly, ‘I love you, dear. You’ll
always protect me against these men, won’t you?’
Maurice kissed her. ‘You have not got over your fright,
Sylvia,’ he said. ‘I see I shall have to take a great deal of care
of my wife.’
‘Of course,’ replied Sylvia.
And then the pair began to make love, or, rather, Mau-
rice made it, and Sylvia suffered him.