"In that case I may give you more than you ask."
"No, by G.o.d, for I shall take all you have."
But the other checked his retort. A sudden change came over him.
"I ask the senor"s pardon," he said, with grave earnestness, "for provoking him. You may not fight with me nor I with you. I speak the truth. I have made oath not to fight till I have killed one whom now I seek."
"Very well; I, too, spoke without reflection. You seek an enemy, then, senor?"
"My sister"s, who is therefore mine. An enemy truly. Listen, you shall judge. I am absent from my home a year, and when I return what do I find? My sister betrayed, deceived, flouted by a fellow, a n.o.body, whom she received a guest in her house, a fit return for kindness, for hospitality! Well, he answers to me for the dishonour."
"Wait. Stop!" interposed Felipe. "Your name, senor."
"Unzar Ytuerate, and my enemy is called Arillaga. Him I seek and----"
"Then you shall seek no farther!" shouted Felipe. "It is to Rubia Ytuerate, your sister, whom I owe all my unhappiness, all my suffering.
She has hurt not me only, but one--but----Mother of G.o.d, we waste words!" he cried. "Knife to knife, Unzar Ytuerate. I am Felipe Arillaga, and may G.o.d be thanked for the chance that brings this quarrel to my hand."
"You! You!" gasped Unzar. Fury choked him; his hands clutched and unclutched--now fists, now claws. His teeth grated sharply while a quivering sensation as of a chill crisped his flesh. "Then the sooner the better," he muttered between his set teeth, and the knives flashed in the hands of the two men so suddenly that the gleam of one seemed only the reflection of the other.
Unzar held out his left wrist.
"Are you willing?" he demanded, with a significant glance.
"And ready," returned the other, baring his forearm.
Catala, keeper of the inn, was called.
"Love of the Virgin, not here, senors. My house--the _alcalde_--"
"You have a strap there." Unzar pointed to a bridle hanging from a peg by the doorway. "No words; quick; do as you are told."
The two men held out their left arms till wrist touched wrist, and Catala, trembling and protesting, lashed them together with a strap.
"Tighter," commanded Felipe; "put all your strength to it."
The strap was drawn up to another hole.
"Now, Catala, stand back," commanded Unzar, "and count three slowly. At the word "three," Senor Arillaga, we begin. You understand."
"I understand."
"Ready.... Count."
"One."
Felipe and Unzar each put his right hand grasping the knife behind his back as etiquette demanded.
"Two."
They strained back from each other, the full length of their left arms, till the nails grew bloodless.
"_Three!_" called Lopez Catala in a shaking voice.
III. RUBIA
When Felipe regained consciousness he found that he lay in an upper chamber of Catala"s inn upon a bed. His shoulder, the right one, was bandaged, and so was his head. He felt no pain, only a little weak, but there was a comfortable sense of brandy at his lips, an arm supported his head, and the voice of Rubia Ytuerate spoke his name. He sat up on a sudden.
"Rubia, _you_!" he cried. "What is it? What happened? Oh, I remember, Unzar--we fought. Oh, my G.o.d, how we fought! But you----What brought you here?"
"Thank Heaven," she murmured, "you are better. You are not so badly wounded. As he fell he must have dragged you with him, and your head struck the threshold of the doorway."
"Is he badly hurt? Will he recover?"
"I hope so. But you are safe."
"But what brought you here?"
"Love," she cried; "my love for you. What I suffered after you had gone!
Felipe, I have fought, too. Pride was strong at first, and it was pride that made me send Unzar after you. I told him what had happened. I hounded him to hunt you down. Then when he had gone my battle began. Ah, dearest, dearest, it all came back, our days together, the life we led, knowing no other word but love, thinking no thoughts that were not of each other. And love conquered. Unzar was not a week gone before I followed him--to call him back, to shield you, to save you from his fury. I came all but too late, and found you both half dead. My brother and my lover, your body across his, your blood mingling with his own.
But not too late to love you back to life again. Your life is mine now, Felipe. I love you, I love you." She clasped her hands together and pressed them to her cheek. "Ah, if you knew," she cried; "if you could only look into my heart. Pride is nothing; good name is nothing; friends are nothing. Oh, it is a glory to give them all for love, to give up everything; to surrender, to submit, to cry to one"s heart: "Take me; I am as wax. Take me; conquer me; lead me wherever you will. All is well lost so only that love remains." And I have heard all that has happened--this other one, the Senorita Buelna, how that she for bade you her lands. Let her go; she is not worthy of your love, cold, selfish----"
"Stop!" cried Felipe, "you shall say no more evil of her. It is enough."
"Felipe, you love her yet?"
"And always, always will."
"She who has cast you off; she who disdains you, who will not suffer you on her lands? And have you come to be so low, so base and mean as that?"
"I have sunk no lower than a woman who could follow after a lover who had grown manifestly cold."
"Ah," she answered sadly, "if I could so forget my pride as to follow you, do not think your reproaches can touch me now." Then suddenly she sank at the bedside and clasped his hand in both of hers. Her beautiful hair, unbound, tumbled about her shoulders; her eyes, swimming with tears, were turned up to his; her lips trembled with the intensity of her pa.s.sion. In a voice low, husky, sweet as a dove"s, she addressed him. "Oh, dearest, come back to me; come back to me. Let me love you again. Don"t you see my heart is breaking? There is only you in all the world for me. I was a proud woman once. See now what I have brought myself to. Don"t let it all be in vain. If you fail me now, think how it will be for me afterward--to know that I--I, Rubia Ytuerate, have begged the love of a man and begged in vain. Do you think I could live knowing that?" Abruptly she lost control of herself. She caught him about the neck with both her arms. Almost incoherently her words rushed from her tight-shut teeth.
"Ah, I can _make_ you love me. I can make you love me," she cried. "You shall come back to me. You are mine, and you cannot help but come back."
"_Por Dios_, Rubia," he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "remember yourself. You are out of your head."
"Come back to me; love me."
"No, no."
"Come back to me."
"No."
"You cannot push me from you," she cried, for, one hand upon her shoulder, he had sought to disengage himself. "No, I shall not let you go. You shall not push me from you! Thrust me off and I will embrace you all the closer. Yes, _strike_ me if you will, and I will kiss you."