“Wife?” exclaimed Spike, starting to his feet, his eyes suddenly radiant, “d’ye mean you’ll marry her?”
“If she will honour me so far, Spike.”
“Marry her! You’ll marry her!” Spike repeated.
“As soon as she’ll let me!”
“Geoff—oh, Geoff,” exclaimed the boy, and choking, turned away.
“Won’t you congratulate me?”
“I can’t yet,” gasped Spike; “I can’t till I’ve told ye what a mean guy I’ve been.”
“What about?”
“About you—and Hermy. Bud said you meant t’ make her go the way—little Maggie Finlay went, an’—oh, Geoff, I—I kind of believed him.”
“Did you, Spike—that foul beast? But you don’t believe it any longer, and M’Ginnis is—only M’Ginnis, after all.”
“But I—I’ve got to tell you more,” said the lad miserably, as meeting Ravenslee’s eye with an effort, he went on feverishly. “The other night after—after Bud slipped me the—the stuff an’ I’d had a—a drink or two, he began askin’ all about you. At first I blocked and side-stepped all his questions, but he kep’ on at me, an’ at last I—I give you away, Geoff—” Here Spike paused breathlessly and cast an apprehensive glance toward his hearer, but finding him silent and serene as ever he repeated:
“I—gave you away, Geoff!”
“Did you, Spike?”
“Yes, I—I told him who you really are!”
“Did you, Spike?”
“Yes! Yes! Oh, Geoff, don’t you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Well, why don’t ye say something? Why don’t ye tell me what I am? Say I’m a dirty sneak—call me a yeller cur—anything!”
“No, you were drunk, that’s all; and when the drink is in, honour, and all that makes a man, is out—you were only drunk.”
“Oh, but I wasn’t s’ drunk as all that,” gasped Spike, cowering in his chair, “but he kep’ on comin’ at me with his questions, an’ at last—when I told him how I met up with you—he kind o’ give a jump—an’ his face—” Spike clenched his fists and, slowly raising them, pressed them upon his eyes. “I’ll never forget th’ look on—his face! So now you know as I’ve blown th’ game on ye—given ye away—you as was my friend!” With the word Spike sobbed and fell grovelling on his knees. “Curse me, Geoff!” he cried. “Oh, curse me, an’ tell me what I am!”
“You are Hermione’s brother!”
“My God!” wailed the boy. “If she knew, she’d hate me.”
“I—almost think she would, Spike.”
“You won’t tell her, Geoff, you won’t never let her know?”
“I—don’t get drunk, Spike.”
“But you won’t tell her?” he pleaded, reaching out desperate hands, “you won’t?”
“Not a word, Spike!”
“Oh, I know I’m—rotten!” sobbed the lad. “I know you ain’t got no use for me any more, but I’m sorry, Geoff, I’m real sorry. I know a guy can’t forgive a guy as gives a guy away if that guy’s a guy’s friend. I know as you can’t forgive me. I know as you’ll cut me out for good after this. But I want ye t’ know as I’m sorry, Geoff—awful sorry— I—I ain’t fit t’ be anybody’s friend, I guess.”
“I think you need a friend more than ever, Spike!”
“Geoff!” cried the boy breathlessly. “Say—what d’ you mean?”
“I mean the time has come for you to choose between M’Ginnis and me. If I am to be your friend, M’Ginnis must be your enemy from now on—wait! If you want my friendship, no more secrets; tell me just how M’Ginnis got you into his power—how he got you to break into my house.”
Spike glanced up through his tears, glanced down, choked upon a sob, and burst into breathless narrative.
“There was me an’ Bud an’ a guy they call Heine—we’d been to a rube boxin’ match up th’ river. An’ as we come along, Heine says: ‘If I was in th’ second-story-lay there’s millionaire Ravenslee’s wigwam waitin’ t’ be cracked,’ an’ he pointed out your swell place among th’ trees in th’ moonlight. Then Bud says: ‘You ain’t got th’ nerve, Heine. Why, th’ Kid’s got more nerve than you,’ he says, pattin’ my shoulder. An’ Heine laughs an’ says I’m only a kid. An’ Geoff, I’d got two or three drinks into me an’ th’ end was I agreed t’ just show ‘em as I had nerve enough t’ get in through a winder an’ cop something—anything I could get. So Bud hands me his ‘lectric torch, an’ we skin over th’ fence an’ up to th’ house—an’ Heine has th’ winder open in a jiffy, an’ me—bein’ half-soused an’ foolish—hikes inter th’ room, an’ you cops me on th’ jump an’—an’ that’s all!”
“And M’Ginnis has threatened to send you up for it now and then, eh?”
“Only for a joke. Bud ain’t like me; he’d never split on a pal—Bud wouldn’t gimme away—”
“Anyway, Spike, it’s him or me. Which will you have for a friend?”
“Oh, Geoff, I—I guess I’d follow you t’ Kingdom Come if you’d let me. I do want t’ live straight an’ clean— honest t’ God I do, Geoff, an’ if you’ll only forgive—”
