"Yes, Kate, it was," answered Colonel Ashley."You are his lawful wife.""And he only told me I wasn't, so as to shame me - to make me leave him, and render me desperate?""That, and for other reasons.But the fact remains that you are hiswife."
"And this other ceremony - this other woman?" "No legal wife at all.""I am sorry for her."
"Yes, she is but a girl.If I had known in time I might have stopped it.But it is too late now.Is he there, Jack?" he asked, as he joined the man in the panama hat.
"Yes, sitting outside with Mazi.Going to close in?""Might as well.Watch him carefully.He's desperate, and - " "I know - full of dope.Well I`m ready for him."And so the trio - the last of the procession, if we except Fate - went closer to the cottage whence so cheerfully gleamed the light.
"Who is there? What do you want?"
It was the snarling voice of Jean Forette, late chauffeur for the Carwells, challenging.
"Who is it?" he cried.
The three figures came on.
Suddenly there was a blinding flash, and the gleam from a powerful electric torch shone in the faces of Jack Young, Morocco Kate and Colonel Ashley.
There was a gasp of surprise and terror trom the man beside Mazi - the man who had thrust out the torch to see who it was advancing and closing in on him through the darkness.
"Ah!" sneered the Frenchman, recovering his self-possession."It is my friend the officer.Ah, I am glad to see you - but just now - not!" and he seemed to spit out the words.
"Maybe not.I can't always come when I'm expected, nor where I'm wanted," said Colonel Ashley coolly."Now, my friend - Jack!" he cried sharply.
"I've got him, Colonel," was the cool answer, and there was a cry of agony from the chauffeur as his wrist was turned, almost to the breaking point, while there dropped from his paralyzed hand a magazine pistol, thudding to the sand at his feet.
"Go on, Colonel," said Jack, who had slipped off to one side, out of thefocus of the glaring light, just in time to prevent Jean Forette from using the weapon he had quickly taken from a side pocket."Go on, close in.I've drawn his stinger.""Messieurs, what does this mean?" demanded the girl beside Jean."Who are you? What do you want? Ah, it is you - and you !" and she turned first to Colonel Ashley and then to Jack Young."You who have talked so kindly to me - who have asked me so much about - about my husband! It is you who come like thieves and assassins! Speak to them, Jean! Tell them to go!"The Frenchman was breathing heavily, for Jack had a merciless grip on him.
"Speak to them, Jean!" implored the girl, while her mother, standing in the door with her knitting, looked wonderingly on."Why do they come to take you like a traitor?""It - it's all a mistake !" panted the chauffeur.
"You've got me wrong, messieurs.I - I didn't do it.It was all an accident.He - I - Oh, my God! You!" and he started back as Morocco Kate stepped toward him, pulling from her face the veil that had covered it when the glaring light showed.Jack Young now held the electric torch.
"You!" he murmured hoarsely.
"Yes, I!" she cried."The woman you kicked out like a sick dog! I've found you at last, and now I'll make you suffer all I did and more - you - devil!""Softly, Kate, softly!" murmured the colonel.But she did not heed him.
"You - you spawn of hell !" she cried."It was you who sent me down where I am - where not a decent woman will look at me and a decent man won't speak to me.You did it - you left me to rot in my shame so you could find some one else - some one younger and prettier to fondle and kiss and -Oh, God!"She sank in a shuddering heap on the sand at the feet of the man who had broken her body and spirit, and lay there, sobbing out her anger.
"Let her stay there a little," said the colonel softly."She'll feel better after this outburst.""Jean! Jean! What is it all about?" begged the girl who still maintained her place beside him."Oh, speak to me! Tell me! Who is she?" and she pointed to the huddled figure on the sand.
"I'll tell you who she is," said Colonel Ashley."She is the legal wife of Jean Carnot, alias Jean Forette, and - "A scream from Mazi stopped him.
"Tell me it isn't true, Jean!Tell me it isn't true!" begged the girl.Jean Carnot did not speak.
"He knows it is true," said the colonel."And now, my French auto friend, I've come to take you into custody on a charge of - ""I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" cried the man."I swear I didn't do it.I was going to throw the glass away but he grabbed it from me, and - ""I arrest you on a charge of bigamy," went on the calm voice of Colonel Ashley.And then, as he saw Mazi stagger as though about to fall, he added:
"All right, Jack.I'll take care of her.You put the bracelets on him.And see that they're good and tight.We don't want him slipping out and getting married again.He doesn't have much regard for bonds of any sort, matrimonial or legal."And then he lifted poor, little Mazi up and carried her into the cottage, while Morocco Kate got slowly to her feet and sat down on the bench in the darkest shadows, sobbing.
