human
Was that according to the Criminal Code? Was it, Kent?
gpt
Not exactly. But, coming from the S.O.D., it was law.
human
And I obeyed it, grunted the staff-sergeant.
gpt
And if you could have seen McTrigger! When I told him he was free, and unlocked his cell, he came out of it gropingly, like a blind man. And he would go no farther than the Inspector's office. He said he would wait there for him.
human
And Kedsty?
gpt
Followed the girl, he exploded.
human
He couldn't have done anything else. He lied to me about Cardigan. There wouldn't be anything mysterious about it if he wasn't sixty and she less than twenty. She was pretty enough! But it wasn't her beauty that made him turn white there in the path. Not on your life it wasn't! I tell you he aged ten years in as many seconds. There was something in that girl's eyes more terrifying to him than a leveled gun, and after he'd looked into them, his first thought was of McTrigger, the man you're saving from the hangman. It's queer, Kent. The whole business is queer. And the queerest of it all is your confession.
gpt
Yes, it's all very funny, agreed Kent.
human
That's what I've been telling myself right along, old man. You see, a little thing like a bullet changed it all. For if the bullet hadn't got me, I assure you I wouldn't have given Kedsty that confession, and an innocent man would have been hanged. As it is, Kedsty is shocked, demoralized. I'm the first man to soil the honor of the finest Service on the face of the earth, and I'm in Kedsty's division. Quite natural that he should be upset. And as for the girl--
gpt
Perhaps she came in this morning with one of the up-river scows and was merely taking a little constitutional, he suggested.
human
Didn't you ever notice, O'Connor, that in a certain light under poplar trees one's face is sometimes ghastly?
gpt
Yes, I've noticed it, when the trees are in full leaf, but not when they're just opening, Jimmy. It was the girl. Her eyes shattered every nerve in him. And his first words were an order for me to free McTrigger, coupled with the lie that he was coming back to see Cardigan. And if you could have seen her eyes when she turned them on me! They were blue--blue as violets--but shooting fire. I could imagine black eyes like that, but not blue ones. Kedsty simply wilted in their blaze. And there was a reason--I know it--a reason that sent his mind like lightning to the man in the cell!
human
Now, that you leave me out of it, the thing begins to get interesting, said Kent.
gpt
It's a matter of the relationship of this blonde girl and--
human
She isn't blonde--and I'm not leaving you out of it, interrupted O'Connor.
gpt
I never saw anything so black in my life as her hair. It was magnificent. If you saw that girl once, you would never forget her again as long as you lived. She has never been in Athabasca Landing before, or anywhere near here. If she had, we surely would have heard about her. She came for a purpose, and I believe that purpose was accomplished when Kedsty gave me the order to free McTrigger.
human
That's possible, and probable, agreed Kent.
gpt
I always said you were the best clue-analyst in the force, Bucky. But I don't see where I come in.
human
You don't? Well, I may be both blind and a fool, and perhaps a little excited. But it seemed to me that from the moment Inspector Kedsty laid his eyes on that girl he was a little too anxious to let McTrigger go and hang you in his place. A little too anxious, Kent.
gpt
I'll try one of these on top of the pipe, he said, nipping off the end of the cigar with his teeth.
human
And you forget that I'm not going to hang, Bucky. Cardigan has given me until tomorrow night. Perhaps until the next day. Did you see Rossand's fleet leaving for up north? It made me think of three years ago!