"They are leaving, Karl," she said, and the courage in her eyes beat down the pain in her heart.
"In my coat, inside; bring them to me." As he could move only his right arm and that but painfully, he bade her open each paper and hold it so that he could read plainly. The scrawl of the Great Captain; a deed and t.i.tle; some dust dropping from the worn folds: how he strained his eyes upon them. He could not help the swift intake of air, and the stab which pierced his shoulder made him faint. She began to refold them. "No," he whispered. "Tear them up, tear them up!"
"Why, Karl."
"Tear them up, now, at once. I shall never look at them again. Do it.
What does it matter? I am only Herman Stuler. Now!"
With shaking fingers she tipped the tattered sheets, and the tears ran over and down her cheeks. It would not have hurt her more had she torn the man"s heart in twain. He watched her with fevered eyes till the last sc.r.a.p floated into her lap.
"Now, toss them into the grate and light a match."
And when he saw the reflected glare on the opposite wall, he sank deeper into the pillow. The woman was openly sobbing. She came back to his side, knelt, and laid her lips upon his hand. There was now only a dim white speck on the horizon, and with that strange sea-magic the hull suddenly dipped down, and naught but a trail of smoke remained. Then this too vanished. Breitmann withdrew his hand, but he laid it upon her head.
"I am a broken man, Hildegarde; and in my madness I have been something of a rascal. But for all that, I had big dreams, but thus they go, the one in flames and the other out to sea." He stroked her hair. "Will you take what is left? Will you share with me the outlaw, be the wife of a disappointed outcast? Will you?"
"Would I not follow you to any land? Would I not share with you any miseries? Have you ever doubted the strength of my love?"
"Knowing that there was another?"
"Knowing even that."
"It is I who am little and you who are great. Hildegarde, we"ll have our friend Ferraud seek a priest this afternoon and square accounts."
Her head dropped to the coverlet.
After that there was no sound except the crisp metallic rattle of the palms in the freshening breeze.
THE END