If fair
ones failed, foul ones were resorted to, and his conscience troubled him
not at all. If, without hindrance to himself, he could return some
service for one rendered, he did so, and with a certain class of men and
women won for himself a name for generosity. To withstand him, however,
no matter in how small a thing, to baulk his aims and desires, directly
or indirectly, was to turn him into an implacable enemy, the more
dangerous because no scruple of honour would weigh with him or direct
his actions. At the present moment he knew three persons were opposed to
him--Gilbert Crosby; the fiddler, Martin Fairley; and Barbara Lanison.
Had the first two been in his hands he would have destroyed them. If, to
accomplish this, false witnesses had to be found, he would have found
them, and would have slept not one whit the less at night. He hated them
both, and was still scheming for their downfall. Had circumstances so
chanced that these two were powerless to be of further danger to him, he
would still have hated them, would still have crushed them at the first
opportunity. He was not a man to forgive an injury.
Truly, they were almost powerless to baulk him now, he argued, as he
drained his glass again.
Pages:
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316