et home first anyway. That's the
main point. You won't be sorry to get back to Maud, I take it?"

She answered him with a swift and passionate fervour that spoke more
clearly than any words of the anguish of her soul. "Oh, Jake, I wish I'd
died--I wish I'd died--before I left her!"

Jake's brows contracted more decidedly, but he said nothing further on
the subject. Only after a moment or two he patted her shoulder
reassuringly. "I'll take care of you," he said. "You go to sleep!"

CHAPTER VIII

THE TURNING-POINT

"You've brought her back!" said Bunny in amazement. "You've actually
brought her back! Here, Jake? Not here?"

"It was the only thing to do." said Jake between puffs at his pipe. "I'm
sorry on your account, but--well, you can keep out of her way."

Bunny's face was flushed. He stood on the hearth and stared down at Jake
with a troubled countenance. "But you won't be able to keep her," he
protested after a moment. "Charlie will come and get her away again--as
soon as he knows. He's such a wily devil."

"He does know," said Jake.

"He knows? Who told him?"

"I told him," said Jake.

"You told him! What the devil for? I don't understand you, Jake." Bunny's
tone had a touch of fierceness in it, almost of challenge.

Jake's eyes came up to him with absolute steadiness. "I told him," he
said deliberately, "because he is the one person who has a right to know.
He is her husband."

"I don't believe it!" said Bunny violently. "He'd never marry her! It was
a damn trick if he pretended to."

"No," Jake said, "it was not a trick. He has married her, and it's up to
him to make the next move."

"But what on earth for?" demanded Bunny. "What made him do such a thing?"

"God knows," said Jake, with a certain sombreness. "He did it. That's all
I know."

Bunny stamped round in a sudden fury and began to pace the room. "I
suppose he did it to defeat me! Did he actually think I should want her
after--after--"

"Bunny!" Swift and sharp as a whip-lash Jake's voice cut across the
words. "Stop that! Pull up and sit down!"

Bunny wheeled and came back in silence. His face was deadly pale, but he
sat down on the edge of the table by Jake's side.

Jake reached out a leisurely hand and gripped him by the knee. "Between
you and me, my son," he said, "I don't think you came into the reckoning
at all. I can't tell you exactly what happened, because I don't know, but
I'm pretty sure that Saltash married her