“Why—why—that check!” blurted Shea. He drew back from the check book which she was extending to him. His eyes were wide, fixed. “I never meant it—that way! I never dreamed you’d do anything with it. I left it there with the other paper to show you what Dorales had been up to.”
“Oh, then I gave ye too much credit? Never mind, Thady——”
“You don’t understand!” In his voice was a harsh note, a note of pain. “Don’t you realize what you’ve done? That money—why, it’s stolen! It’ll have to go back to Mackintavers! It isn’t ours.”
For the first time in many years Mehitabel Crump was shocked into immobile silence. She was absolutely petrified. She could not believe the words she heard.
“You didn’t look at it that way, of course,” added Shea hastily. Earnestness grew upon him, and deep conviction. “But it’s true. If it were ten cents or ten dollars, it might not matter. But—ten thousand dollars! It must go back.”
The blue eyes of Mrs. Crump hardened like agates. Her mouth clenched grimly. Her wrinkled features tightened into fighting lines. She was dumbly amazed that the magnitude of the sum did not appeal to Thady Shea’s cupidity; but she was vigorously and fiercely determined that the money was to be his. It was not for herself that she wanted it.
When she made answer, it was with a virile insistence that drove home every word like a blow.
“You got no call to insult me, Thady Shea, by callin’ me a thief; mind that! Are you crazy or just plain fool? Mackintavers an’ Dorales comes along thinking to trim us right and proper, like they done by other poor folks, thinking to rob a lone widder woman, thinking to fool you into robbing me. That there check for ten thousand was the jackpot. Mackintavers signed it as such, knowin’ it to be such, stakin’ it agin’ Number Sixteen to win or lose. You didn’t know that the prop’ty was recorded in your name—but he knew!
“He lost, and you can bet he ain’t said nothing about losing them table stakes! What call you got to beef about winning that bet? It’s plumb legal, cashed at a bank, sanctified by Sandy hisself over the phone. You’d be a fool not to take money after you’d won it in a game like that! If ye want——”
For the second time Mrs. Crump came to a decided and bewildered halt.