Stafford started, and his face grew a trifle hard; and Sir Stephen saw
it and made a despairing, appealing gesture with his hand.
"For God's sake don't turn away from me, my boy; don't judge me
harshly. You can't judge me fairly from your standpoint; your life has
been a totally different one from mine, has been lived under different
circumstances. You have never known the temptations to which I have
been subjected. Your life has been an easy one surrounded by honour,
while mine has been spent half the time grubbing in the dust and the
mire for gold, and the rest fighting--sometimes with one hand tied
behind me!--against the men who would have robbed me of it. I have had
to fight them with their own weapons--sometimes they haven't been
clean--sometimes it has been necessary to do--to do things!--God!
Stafford, don't turn away from me! I would have kept this from you if I
could, but I am obliged to tell you now. Ralph Falconer knows all the
details of my past, he knows of things which--which, if they were known
to the world, would stain the name I have raised to honour, would make
it necessary for me to hide my head in a suicide's grave."
A low cry burst from Stafford's lips, and he sank into a chair, and
bowed his head upon his hands.
Sir Stephen stood a little way off and looked at him for a minute, then
he advanced slowly, half timidly and ashamedly, and laid a trembling
hand on Stafford's shoulder.
"Forgive me, Stafford!" he said, in a low, broken voice. "I was obliged
to tell you. I'd have kept it from you--you would never have known--but
Falconer has forced my hand; I was bound to show you how necessary it
was that we should have him as friend instead of foe. You are
not--ashamed of me, my boy; you won't go back on me?"
In the stress and strain of his emotion the old digger's slang came
readily to his lips.
Stafford took one hand from his face and held it out, and his father
grasped it, clinging to it as a drowning man clings to a rock.
"God bless you, my boy!" he said. "I might have known you wouldn't turn
your back upon me; I might have known that you'd remember that I wasn't
fighting for myself only, but for the son I'm so proud of."
"I know, I know, sir," said Stafford, almost inaudibly.
Sir Stephen hung his hand, released it, and paced up and down the room
again, fighting for composure, and facing the situation after the
manner of his kind. Like all successful adventurers, he was always
ready to look on the bright side. He came back to Stafford and patted
him gently on the shoulder.