“At his red, red lips the merrymaid sips
     For the kiss that his sweetheart stole, my lads—­
        Sing ho! for the bell shall toll!

“I’m afraid no bell will toll for you, Mr. Trenoweth; not yet awhile at any rate.  Not till your sweetheart is weary of waiting—­

    “And the devil has got his due, my lads—­
        Sing ho! but he waits for you!

“Both waiting for you, Mr. Trenoweth, your sweetheart and the devil—­ which shall have you?  ‘Ladies first,’ you would say.  Aha!  I am not so sure.  By the way, might I give a guess at your sweetheart’s name?  Might it begin with a C?  Might she be a famous actress?  Claire perhaps she calls herself?  Aha!  Claire’s pretty eyes will go red with watching before she sets them on you again.  Fie on you to keep so sweet a maiden waiting!  And where will you be all the time, Mr. Jasper Trenoweth?”

He stopped at last, mastered by his ferocity and almost panting.  But I, for the sound of Claire’s name had maddened me, broke out in fury—­

“Dog and devil!  I shall be lying with all the other victims of your accursed life; dead as my father whom you foully murdered within sight of his home; dead as those other poor creatures you slew upon the Belle Fortune; dead as my mother whose pure mind fled at sight of your infernal face, whose very life fled at sight of your handiwork; dead as John Railton whom you stabbed to death upon—­”

“Hush, Mr. Trenoweth!  As for your ravings, I love to hear them, and could listen by the hour, did not time press.  But I cannot have you talking so loudly, you understand;” and he toyed gently with his knife; “also remember I must be at Dead Man’s Rock by half-past eleven to-night.”

“Fiend!” I continued, “you can kill me if you like, but I will count your crimes with my last breath.  Take my life as you took my friend Tom Loveday’s life—­Tom whom you knifed in the dark, mistaking him for me.  Take it as you took Claire’s, if ever man—­”

“Claire—­Claire dead!” He staggered back a step, and almost at the same moment I thought I caught a sound on the other side of the partition at my back.  I listened for a moment, then concluding that my ears had played me some trick, went on again—­

“Yes, dead—­she killed herself to-night at the theatre—­stabbed herself—­oh, God!  Do you think I care for your knife now?  Why, I was going to kill myself, to drown myself, at the very moment when I heard your voice and came on board.  I came to kill you.  Make the most of it—­show me no mercy, for as there is a God in heaven I would have shown you none!”

What was that sound again on the other side of the partition?  Whatever it was, Colliver had not heard, for he was musing darkly and looking fixedly at me.