FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121  
122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   >>   >|  
lunged down the cliff and was crushed to death a thousand feet below. CHAPTER XIII IN WHICH CAPTAIN ALVARADO IS FORSWORN AND WITH DONNA MERCEDES IN HIS ARMS BREAKS HIS PLIGHTED WORD "My God!" cried the young soldier hoarsely, straining her to his breast, while endeavoring to calm his nervous and excited horse. "What would you have done?" [Illustration] "Why didn't you let me go?" she asked, struggling feebly in his arms. "It would all have been over then." "I could not, I love you." The words were wrung from him in spite of himself by her deadly peril, by her desperate design which he had only frustrated by superhuman quickness and strength. He was pale, shaking, trembling, unnerved, for her. He scarce knew what he said or did, so little command had he over himself. As he spoke those words "I love you," so blissful for her to hear, she slipped her arm around his neck. It was not in mortal man to resist under such circumstances. He forgot everything--honor, duty, his word, everything he threw to the winds. Before the passion which sought death when denied him his own powers of resistance vanished. He strained her to his breast and bent his head to kiss her. Again and again he drank at the upturned fountain of affection, her lips. The shock had been too much for him. Greater for him than for her. He had seen her upon the verge of eternity. She thought nothing of that in her present joy. She only realized that she was in his arms again, that he had kissed her, and between the kisses he poured out words that were even greater caresses. The others were far behind. They were alone upon the mountain-side with the rocks behind and the great sapphire sea of the Caribbean before them. He held her close to his breast and they forgot everything but love as they gently pricked along the road. It was near noon now, and as the road a furlong farther debouched into an open plateau shaded by trees and watered by a running brook which purled down the mountain-side from some inaccessible cloud-swept height it was a fitting place to make camp, where the whole party, tired by a long morning's travel, could repose themselves until the breeze of afternoon tempered the heat of the day. Here he dismounted, lifted her from horse, and they stood together, side by side. "You have saved me," she whispered, "you have drawn me back from the death that I sought. God has given me to you. We shall never be parted." "I a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121  
122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

breast

 

mountain

 

sought

 
forgot
 
Caribbean
 

sapphire

 
pricked
 

gently

 

Greater

 

kisses


poured
 

parted

 

realized

 

kissed

 

greater

 
caresses
 

thought

 

eternity

 

present

 
fitting

height

 
inaccessible
 

whispered

 

lifted

 

travel

 

repose

 

morning

 
breeze
 

dismounted

 

plateau


shaded

 

furlong

 

farther

 

debouched

 

tempered

 

afternoon

 

purled

 

running

 

watered

 

Illustration


endeavoring

 

nervous

 

excited

 

deadly

 

desperate

 

design

 
frustrated
 

struggling

 

feebly

 

straining