"
"That would be strange, wouldn't it, in this immense continent!" Dyck
remarked cynically.
"She knew I was here before she came?"
"Aye, she knew. She had seen your name in the papers--English and
Jamaican. She knew you had regained your life and place, and was a man
of mark here."
"A marked man, you mean, Michael--a man whom the king has had to pardon
of a crime because of an act done that served the State. I am forbidden
to return to the British Isles or to the land of my birth, forbidden free
traffic as a citizen, hammered out of recognition by the strokes of
enmity. A man of mark, indeed! Aye, with the broad arrow on me, with
the shame of prison and mutiny on my name!"
"But if she don't believe?"
"If she don't believe! Well, she must be told the truth at last. I
wonder her mother let her come here. Her mother knew part of the truth.
She hid it all from the girl--and now they are here! I must see it
through, but it's a wretched fate, Michael."
"Perhaps her mother didn't know you were here, sir."
Dyck laughed grimly. "Michael, you've a lawyer's mind. Perhaps you're
right.
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