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Updated: June 15, 2025
For night and day he was at hand, sleeping when and how he could, always alert at the briefest notice, always ready with unfailing nerve and steady hand. And Capper suffered him without the smallest remonstrance. He seemed to take it for granted that Nap's powers were illimitable. "That young man will kill himself," Dr. Randal said once. "He is living at perpetual high pressure."
Later, by the open grave, Anne saw that Bertie was leaning on Nap's shoulder, while his mother stood apart with her face to the sky; and she knew that the feud between them had been laid at last and for ever by the man who had ruled supreme in the hearts of all who knew him.
A curious change had come over Nap, a change so unexpected, so foreign to the man's grim nature, that even he, who knew him as did none other, was momentarily taken by surprise. For suddenly, inexplicably, Nap's hardness had gone from him. It was like the crumbling of a rock that had withstood the clash of many tempests and yielded at last to the ripple of a summer tide.
Nap's jaw slowly hardened. "I'm not very likely to disappoint you," he observed, "more especially as I have no intention of removing to Arizona at present." "No?" "No." "Not if I make a point of it?" Lucas spoke heavily, as if the effort of speech were great. His hand had clenched upon Anne's letter.
I'd give my soul to be able to trust you. Only dear fellow, forgive me I can't!" Nap's hands clenched. "Why not?" he said. "Because," very slowly and painfully Lucas made reply, "I know that you are trying to blind me. I know that you are sacrificing yourself and another in order to deceive me.
Like an echo I answer, Where? 'You're in a melancholy mood to-day, Yevgeny. 'Really? The sun must have softened my brain, I suppose, and I can't stand so many raspberries either. 'In that case, a nap's not a bad thing, observed Arkady. 'Certainly; only don't look at me; every man's face is stupid when he's asleep. 'But isn't it all the same to you what people think of you?
The last thing she desired was to take up the cudgels on Nap's behalf, nevertheless she prepared herself to do so as in duty bound. For Nap was a friend, and Dot's loyalty to her friends was very stanch. "I mean it," she said, sitting up and facing him. "I don't think it's right of you, and it certainly isn't kind. He doesn't deserve to be treated as an outcast. He isn't such a bad sort after all.
"I am looking for the Divine Spark," Lucas answered quietly. "And if you found it?" Nap's words came through smiling lips, and yet they sounded savage. "If I found it," very steadily came the answer, "I would blow it to a flame, Boney, for your sake and hers." "For hers?" Something fierce showed in Nap's eyes. It was as if a goaded animal suddenly looked out of them.
But, after all, Capper was scarcely more than a stranger, and it seemed to her, upon mature reflection, that he had been inclined to exaggerate the whole matter. She did not believe that Lucas's welfare depended upon Nap's absence. Indeed, there were times when it actually seemed to her that he relied upon Nap for support that none other could give.
"It's your methods I don't trust, dear fellow, not your motives. I'd trust them to perdition." "But not my honour?" Nap's lips twisted over the word. Lucas hesitated. "I believe you would be faithful to your own code," he said at length. "But you don't consider that to trick a man who trusted me would be against that code?"
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