“I’ll write out that check——” began Shea.
“You’re a coward!” said Mrs. Crump, savagely. She knew the words were fearfully unjust, but they rose within her and she said them. The thought that Mackintavers would deem her weak and silly enough to return that money maddened her. “You’re a coward!”
She leaned forward and struck him in the mouth. She struck a man’s blow, a full, hard-fisted, strong blow, a blow that might have felled another man than Thady Shea. Under it he reeled. Then he came upright and stood motionless, looking at her. He did not speak. Slowly he lifted his hand to his mouth, and his eyes shifted to the red smear upon his hand. Then his gaze went again to her face.
Under his look, Mrs. Crump shivered a little. The anger went out of her suddenly and utterly. Before his calm, hurt strength she recoiled. Her brittle, false hardness was broken and shattered. He did not speak, and his silence frightened her. She went to pieces.
“Thady!” The words came from her in a breath, a groan. Her burning blue eyes were gone dull and lifeless, dumb with misery, as she realized what she had just done. “Oh, Thady! I—Heaven forgive me, Thady, I didn’t mean to do it. I wanted you to have that money.”
“I wonder if you really think I’m a coward?” said Shea, curiously calm. “I am one, of course, but I don’t see how a desire for justice can be cowardly.”
“I don’t!” she burst forth impetuously, passionately. “Thady, I’m sorry—I never meant it; it didn’t come from the heart, Thady! I’m an old fool of a woman, that’s what I am. An old fool of a woman! Don’t look at me that way; I tell ye I can’t stand it—it’s awful! I’m sorry for it, bitter sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too,” said Shea, simply. “Listen to me, now. You’ve given me something real; a purpose. Maybe Ross was right. Maybe I had to wait till it came to me. Now I’m going to find Mackintavers and give him his money, make things right. I may be a coward in physical things, but——”
“Don’t talk that way!” she broke in, harshly. “Thady, I’m sorry. Come back to the mine with me; forget this foolishness. I’m a fool of an old woman, that’s all. I need ye at the mine, Thady.”
He smiled a little. “Do you really mean it, Mrs. Crump? May I come back—after I have seen Mackintavers?”