"
"Yes, I have had visions ... outward facts!... Do you know the inner,
northern ocean, where sleep all the wrecks?"
"As I have watched you since you were a boy, it is improbable that I
should not have some divining power. In Inverness, too, while you were
fevered, you talked and talked.... You have walked with Tragedy, felt
her net and her strong whip." Strickland lifted his eyes from the
bowl, pushed back his chair a little, and looked full at the laird of
Glenfernie. "What then? Rise, Glenfernie, and leave her behind! And if
you do not now, it will soon be hard for you to do so! Remember, too,
that I watched your father--"
"After I find Ian Rullock in Holland or Lisbon or America--"
Strickland made a movement of deep concern. "You have met and fought
this man. Do you mean so to nourish vengeance--"
"I mean so to aid and vindicate distressed Justice."
"Is it the way?"
"I think that it is the way."
Strickland was silent, seeing the uselessness. Glenfernie was one to
whom conviction must come from within. A stillness held in the room,
broken by the laird in the voice that was growing like his father's.
"Nothing lacks now but strength, and I am gaining that--will gain it
the faster now! Travel--travel!... All my travel was preparatory to
this."
"Do you mean," asked Strickland, "to kill him when you find him?"
"I like your directness.
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