Lady Evelyn — page 199: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

rete Seat RE Mate pee sy Hf cea sa Oe SUS ot bye af efi cs ors seers ae aS Se meee Ree ae bo Ae ie aa iia Be ee RS ie ‘The Last tes te the Red Ques ae io eas ae a er to that’ title while you Wwe Why ee t zi _ you gone, years ago, and torn the coronet from that Pos | _jured murderer’s head ?” _” “Easy, Mike, easy! Some one will hear you. My good fellow, you know I could not. The charge under which Ra tay; when you saved my life and took me from Ireland, _ stands unrefuted still. I ama felon. I can claim no civil “ghts. 4 “You can claim them, and you are no felon. And if you’ re the man I take you to be, you'll give up everything De yeni here among the rest, though it’s a larky life, I «atlow—and you ll go back to the old country, and you ‘Il _ vindicate your honor and claim your lost birthright.” * *asier said than done. Twenty years ago they found me guilty, through the perjury of two scoundrels, ‘of high _ felony, and the charge was as easily disproved then as now. If I went back to-morrow, would they take my ; "word for it I did not murder Kathleen O’Neal? Oh, no, Mike! Death from a bullet I don’t so much mind—we risk that every day—but death at the hands of Jack _ Ketch is quite a different matter. Not that I would be - the first Desmond of Clontarf who reached that lofty ; ae he added, with a half laugh. _ Nor the last, I hope,’ Mike ground between his teeth. Tg ever man was born for the gallows; Gerald Desmond’s _ that man! Go back to England, Lord Rory, and tear the _coronet and title he holds” from him. Show him to the - world as he is—a liar, a coward, a perjurer, and a mur- _ derer !” The calm eyes of Cofonel Drummond flashed with some oor Mike’s own fiery passion. But his voice, when he spoke held its habitual quiet. | “You talk at random, my good fellow. Do you think I Ywould remain a felon and an exile in a foreign land, if 2 the power were mine to do as you say? I know Gerald _ Desmond to be a perjurer and a would-be murderer, but a have no power to prove it. If I had, no dread of de- k “tection for myself ag hold me back. opi: = _ “The way is easy,’ the sick man said, vehemeeiie rates oy “Only find that devil’s fi Moree: He knows Pane A a - thing, and will confess.” ial oe OAC eee el ean aa Bho ! rill he?’ -doubtfully 7. 1am not so St omic ks. com eo t Ps al yi it he iat, 4 Yaga ae * es ni d ev i 4 F i‘ AT ST ST an MOULTON ay Coyne AN EIN | SE? oe he pe as Sen aa 7 5 oe