I went up to Alec's room, closed the door behind me, and fell on his bosom. He beat me on the back and gurgled wordlessly. I beat him on the back and sputtered idiotically. It was a grand reunion.
"I'll get her." He dashed out and brought her back. When she came into the room, lighting it up like a sunburst in a cavern, I took her in my arms and kissed her long and well.
"Marion, will you marry a poor devil who loves you in a humble but most passionate manner?"
"After one kiss?" asked Alec blankly. "Just _one_ kiss?"
"Certainly," she said. "That can be remedied."
"Oh, Lord, not immediately," groaned Alec, as we began to do so. "Let him tell us where in hell he's been for seventeen years. Let him relieve my mind."
I ended the second kiss with a splutter. "Good God! I can't ask you to marry me, dearest. I--come and sit down--I'm a murderer."
"You can't call it murder, son, to chop an inhuman monster," said Alec.
"But I'm wanted by every policeman in the Kingdom. You see, I'm the Manchester Slasher."
I don't know what reaction I expected of Marion ... the pale cheek, the indrawn gasp, the expression of loathing and fear ... as a matter of fact, she clapped her hands and laughed.
"You owe Geoff ten bob, Alec!" she cried.
"Geoff bet Alec ten shillings that you were the Mad Ghoul. He said--" she became serious--"he said that one just couldn't give a man the power to see such nightmares as you've been seeing, and expect him to keep a cool head and not strike at them. He said he had wild bursts of fury himself when he thought of _them_, and knew if he could see them, he'd start a reign of terror."
"I thought you'd draw back with abhorrence," I said.
She threw her arms around me. "Oh, Will, poor old Will! My Uncle Geordie was a big game hunter, and I think he was a much more reprehensible character than you. After all, darling, the beasts you're stalking are far worse than any innocent old family-man of a lion."
"Say," put in Alec, "something's been puzzling me. Why haven't the coppers spotted the license of your Jaguar? It's famous, you know--on the wireless every hour these days."
"Oh, my dear chap! I stole a set of plates off a big Daimler before I ever left London. You're dealin' with a hardened crook." I told them how I had rescued her from the hands of the enemy in Birmingham. "It was the serial numbers on her innards that worried me. Except for them, though, she couldn't be traced to me." I kissed my girl again. Her lips were like a drug, that drew me back again and again for larger doses.