"You seem to value the life of this Rivers," said he at length, after a long silence.
Katie lifted her face, and regarded him with eyes all red and swollen.
"His life!" she exclaimed, with a shudder--"his life! Ah, that is it! And I see in your face that there is--no--hope. Oh, Harry! oh, Harry, Harry!"
Her voice died away in a low shudder. Lopez himself was moved. He had not been in the least prepared for such an utter break-down as this. Ah! now he saw that Katie could love, and how she could love! At the force of that love all else pa.s.sed away--pride, shame, hate, all; everything was forgotten except that name, upon which her voice dwelt with such longing.
"Yes," he said, "he is a spy. He is now being tried, or rather, he has been tried--for I may as well tell it--and has been condemned. I need say no more about it; I have already said enough. You know the fate of a condemned spy. Before another hour all will be over."
At first Katie seemed about to faint, but the last sentence roused her.
She started up, and again seized his arm with her convulsive grasp. With white, tremulous lips she said, in a low voice which had sunk to a whisper,
"An hour! an hour! Did you say--another hour?"
Lopez bowed his head in silence.
"But _you_--_you_--_you_," said Katie, fiercely--"_you_ do not believe him guilty?"
"I have nothing to do with it," said Lopez, coldly.
"Nothing to do? Are you not commander here?"
"Yes."
"Can you do nothing?" she asked again.
"No. The trial is over. His fate has already been decided; in another hour all will be over."
The repet.i.tion of these words roused Katie to a fresh outburst of despairing grief.
"Oh!" said she; "in so short a time! so short!"
"It was because he was so near his doom," continued Lopez, "that the condemned prisoner requested to see you, and I thought I would mention it. Had it not been for this request he would have been shot without your knowing it."
Katie wrung her hands, in a blind pa.s.sion of despair.
"Oh!" she burst forth, "something must be done! He shall not die! He must not! Oh, heavens! how can I live, and think of it? Harry! Harry! was there no one to speak for you? A _spy_! It"s false! He was a simple traveller. Oh, Captain Lopez, there must be some way of saving him, or at least of deferring his doom. Can it not be put off--for one day?"
"That would be of no avail," said Lopez.
"One day!" pleaded Katie, in eager tones.
"It"s useless," said Lopez; "it"s impossible. The sentence of the court cannot be revoked."
"But time flies! Oh, Captain Lopez, can you not let him go?"
"Oh yes," said Lopez, "I can do that easily enough. I could let him out, so that he could escape."
At this Katie fell on her knees, and clasped the hands of Lopez.
"Oh, Captain Lopez, I kneel to you! I pray to you! On my knees I pray for his life! Let him fly! Oh, let him fly! Oh, I pray--I pray on my knees!"
Lopez drew a long breath. This scene was terrible to him in many ways; but, above all, it was terrible to see what love was thus lavished on this comparative stranger, when he would risk his life, and had risked his life, for a single smile.
"Think," said he, "what it is that you ask. The moment I let him go, that moment I myself am a criminal, I myself am condemned. I must fly--I must become a ruined man! Ruined? Worse: dishonored, disgraced in my native land; I who have had high ambitions, and have won no mean distinctions.
And yet do you ask this of me?"
Katie bowed her head down; she kissed his hands, and in tremulous tones said,
"Oh, I must--I must! I do!"
Lopez was trembling from head to foot. He himself could now scarcely speak from agitation.
"And may I," he said, in a low voice--"may I--ask--nothing from you--when I give up--honor, life, hope, all--for your sake?"
There was a suggestiveness in this question which flashed at once in all its fullest meaning into Katie"s mind. She dropped his hands; she sank upon the floor; she bowed her head tremblingly and despairingly. Lopez looked at her with an agitation equal to her own, and a despair only less. She loved another--she could never love him; she loved another--oh, how vehemently, how dearly she loved him! Yet she _must_ be his!
"One hour was allowed him," murmured Lopez--"one hour to prepare. Much of that hour has already pa.s.sed. Say, will you save his life? and shall I set him free? Say, shall I go to ruin? Say, will you give up as much for me as I am ready to give up for you? Quick--another minute, and it may be too late!"
Katie started up wildly.
"Go! go!" she said, in a hot, feverish whisper. "Haste--fly--save him!"
"You promise?" said Lopez.
"Oh, my G.o.d! yes!" cried Katie, and fell senseless to the floor.
"See to your mistress," said Lopez, in a faltering voice, as he went outside and met the attendant there.
Then Lopez went away, not to free Harry, for he was already free, but to a lonely room, where he flung himself on his face on the stony floor, and lay there long, weeping like a child.
For the agony of this man at winning Katie thus was equal to that of Katie over her act of self-sacrifice.
CHAPTER XLVII.
IN WHICH LOPEZ USES HIS ADVANTAGE TO THE UTTERMOST, AND KATIE SINKS INTO DEEPER DESPAIR.
And so Lopez had resolved to gratify both his love and his vengeance. He was determined at all hazards to force Katie to be his wife; and at the same time he would be able to take a sweet and most effective revenge on the hated Ashby. As for this new lover, Rivers, who had so unexpectedly started up, the decision was more difficult. He felt no hate toward him as he did toward Ashby. He had received no insults at his hands. There was in Harry"s manner none of that outrageous superciliousness which had made Ashby so detestable. The face of Rivers was of itself one which conciliated all, and his character was visible in his frank, free, and easy manners. With such a man it was almost impossible to quarrel; still, the jealousy of Lopez had been roused at the discovery of Katie"s love for Rivers, and for this he felt a resentment. He determined, therefore, to include that young man in his plans, and thought that the simplest and most effective mode of dealing with him would be to invite him also to the wedding. Thus both the lovers should see with their own eyes the end of this affair. Ashby should see it, Rivers also should see it. The prospect was a delightful one, and did much toward restoring Lopez to his equanimity.
"Aha!" he said to himself, as he reached this conclusion--"aha, my tender, cooing doves! how will you like that?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "He Flung Himself On His Face On The Stony Floor, And Lay There Long."]