The Pirate of Panama Part 46

"A knowledge of the difference between the love of a true man and that of a false one," she answered quietly.

"A true man! Oh, call him a fool and be done with it."

"Perhaps, but I could love such folly."

He seemed to strangle his irritation in his throat.

"A lot of good it will do! You belong to me. That is written in the book of your life, and what is to be will be. And I'll get the treasure, too."

"Never! You call them fools, but they have outwitted you from start to finish."

"They've pulled the chestnuts out of the fire for me, if that is what you mean."

"And as for me, I'm only a girl, but I swear before Heaven I'd rather sink a knife into my heart than give myself to you."

He clapped his hands ironically with a deep laugh like the bay of a wolf.

"Bravo! Well done! You'd make a fortune in tragedy, Evie. But dramatics apart, you may make up your mind to it. I'm your master, and before twenty-four hours shall be your mate. Why else have I brought this broken wretch of a priest along, but to tie the knot in legal fashion?

I'm a reasonable man. Since you have a taste for the conventional and decorum you shall have them. But priest or no priest, w.i.l.l.y nilly, mine you are and shall be."

"You think everybody is a fool but yourself. Can't I see why you want the marriage? It's not to please me, but through me to give you a legal claim on the treasure."

"Why do you always stir up the devil in me? I love you. I want to please you. I'll treat you right if you'll let me."

"Then send me back to the yacht, Boris. I'll give my word to divide the treasure with you. My friends will do as I say. You don't want to break my heart, do you? Think of all the dreadful murder that has been done by you."

"Not by me, but by you and your friends. I offered to compromise and you would not. Now it is too late. No, by G.o.d! I'll play the game out to a fighting finish."

She gave a sobbing little cry.

"Have you no heart?"

His voice fell a note. He moved close to her.

"_Cherie_, you have stolen it and hold it fast in this little palm I kiss!"

By the sounds from within she must have struggled in vain. I told myself:

"Not yet, not yet!"

"In such fashion my ancestor Bothwell wooed Mary Queen of Scots. Fain she would, but dare not. She knew he was a man and a lover out of ten thousand, and though her heart beat fast for him she was afraid. She fled, and he followed. For he was a lover not to be denied, though a king must die to clear the road. So it is with Boris, my queen."

"You mean----?"

The catch in her voice told me she breathed fast.

He laughed, with that soft boisterousness that marked his merriment.

"Your mad Irishman is no king, but he has crossed my path enough. Next time he dies."

"Because he has tried to serve me!"

"Because he is in my way. Reason enough for me."

The door k.n.o.b was in my hand. All I had to do was to open it and shoot the man dead. But what after that? His men would swarm down and murder me before the eyes of my love. And she would be left alone with a pack of wolves which had already tasted blood.

It was the hardest ordeal of my life to keep quiet while the fellow pressed his hateful suit, pushed it with the pa.s.sionate ardor of the Slav, regardless of her tears, her despair, and her helplessness.

For an hour--to make a guess at the time--she fought with all the weapons a woman has at command, fending him off as best she could with tears and sighs and entreaties.

Then I heard a man stumbling down the ladder and moved aside. If he should turn my way I was a dead man, for he must come plump against me.

He knocked on the door of the cabin.

Bothwell opened and whispered with him a moment, then excused himself to his cousin, locked the door, and followed the sailor up to the deck.

I unlocked the door softly and walked into the cabin. By the dim light of a hanging lantern I made out a rough room furnished only with two bunks, one above the other, a deal table, and two cheap chairs.

Evelyn had not heard me enter. She was standing with her back to me, leaning against the woodwork of the bed, her face buried in one arm.

Despair and weariness showed in every line of the slight, drooping figure.

She must have heard me as I moved. She turned, the deep shadowy eyes gleaming with fear. Never have I seen the soul's terror more vividly flung to the surface.

I suppose that for a moment she could not believe that it was I, and not Bothwell. Perhaps she thought the ghost of me had come to say farewell to her.

She stared at me out of a face from which the color was gone, the great eyes dilating as the truth came home to her. From her throat broke a startled, stifled little cry.

"You!"

I took her in my arms and her tired body came to me. The sensitive mouth trembled, the eyes closed, a shiver of relief pa.s.sed through her. She clung to me as a frightened child does to its mother, burying her soft cheeks on my shoulder.

Then came sobs. The figure of my love rocked. The horror of what she had been through engulfed her as she told me her story in broken words, in convulsive shivers, in silence so poignant that they stabbed my heart like a needle.

It was such a tale as no girl should have to tell, least of all to the man she loves. But I had come in time--I had come in time. The knowledge of that warmed me like champagne.

I whispered love to her as I kissed in a pa.s.sion of tenderness the golden hair, the convolutions of the pink ears, the shadows beneath the sad, tired eyes.

"Tell me, how did you come?" she begged.

I told her, in the fewest possible words, for it might be that our time was brief. Briefly I outlined a plan for her rescue.

I would send Alderson and Smith back for aid and would hide somewhere in the vessel during their absence, to be ready in case she needed help.

When Blythe arrived I would join her and barricade the cabin to protect her until our friends had won the ship.

"But if he should find you before----"

I said then what any man with the red blood of youth still running strong in his veins would say to the woman he loves when she is in peril. Let it cost me what it would I was going to free her from these wolves.

Her deep eyes, soft with love, aglow with an adorable trust, met mine for a long instant.