He was not a blackmailer, he had no personal wrongs to avenge, he had not sprung the bolt of secrecy for evil ends; and when he saw the possible results of his disclosure, he was unnerved.

His mind had seen one thing only, the rights of "Our Man," the wrong that had been done him and his mother; but now he saw how the sword of justice, which he had kept by his hand these many years, would cut both ways.
His mind was troubled, too, that he had spoken while yet Luke Claridge lived, and so broken his word to Mercy Claridge.

If he had but waited till the old man died--but one brief half-hour--his pledge would have been kept.

Nothing had worked out wholly as he expected.

The heavens had not fallen.