Page 478 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

suddenly raise his hands above his head with a motion that
terrified her. She felt for an instant a great shock of pitiful
recollection. Staring at the group, she strove to recall when
and how Rufus Dawes, the wretch from whose clutches her
husband had saved her, had ever merited her pity, but her
clouded memory could not complete the picture, and as the
wagons swept round a curve, and the group disappeared,
she awoke from her reverie with a sigh.
‘Maurice,’ she whispered, ‘how is it that the sight of that
man always makes me sad?’
Her husband frowned, and then, caressing her, bade her
forget the man and the place and her fears. ‘I was wrong
to have insisted on your coming,’ he said. They stood on
the deck of the Sydney-bound vessel the next morning, and
watched the ‘Natural Penitentiary’ grow dim in the dis-
tance. ‘You were not strong enough.’
* * * * * *
‘Dawes,’ said John Rex, ‘you love that girl! Now that you’ve
seen her another man’s wife, and have been harnessed like
a beast to drag him along the road, while he held her in
his arms!—now that you’ve seen and suffered that, perhaps
you’ll join us.’
Rufus Dawes made a movement of agonized impatience.
‘You’d better. You’ll never get out of this place any other
way. Come, be a man; join us!’
‘No!’
‘It is your only chance. Why refuse it? Do you want to live
here all your life?’
‘I want no sympathy from you or any other. I will not