t there are other things than
love. Nature constituted me a leader, and he who climbs high must climb
alone. I offered Chapultepec as a shrine for your beauty. I offered to
share Mexico with you, and I told you that I would not be content with
less than all of you. Well I meant it. Otherwise--I would take you
now." His voice throbbed with a sudden fierce desire, and his long,
lean hands closed convulsively. "You must realize that I have the
courage and the power to defy the world, eh?" He seemed to challenge
denial of this statement, but, receiving none, he went on, fixing his
brilliant, feverish eyes once more upon Alaire. "As a man of sentiment
I am unique; I am different from any you have ever known. I would not
possess a flower without its fragrance. You did not believe me when I
told you that, but I am going to prove it. All your life you are going
to think of me as heroic. Perhaps no patriot in history ever made a
more splendid sacrifice for his country than I make now. Some day the
world will wonder how I had the strength to put aside love and follow
the path of duty."

Alaire trusted herself to ask, "Then we are free to go?"

The general's face was swept by a grimace intended for a smile. "I have
ordered your horses to be saddled."

Dave, who had with difficulty restrained his anger at the fellow's
bombast, was upon the point of speaking when Father O'Malley took the
words out of his mouth:

"Would you send this woman out of her own house into a country
like--like this? Remember the fortune in cattle you have already
taken--"

Longorio broke in with a snarl: "Is it my fault that the country is in
arms? Military necessity compels me to remain here. I consider myself
magnanimous. I--" His voice cracked, and he made a despairing, violent
gesture. "Go, before I change my mind."

Dave signaled to the others, and Alaire slipped away to make herself
ready. During the uncomfortable silence which succeeded her departure,
Longorio paced the room, keeping his eyes resolutely turned away from
Law.

"Do you mean that I, too, may go?" O'Malley inquired.

"What good are you to me?" snapped the general.

"You will give us safe conduct?"

"Be still, priest!" Longorio glared at the speaker, clasping and
unclasping his fists behind his back.

With the sound of hoofs outside, Alaire and Dolores appeared, and the
Mexican straightened himself with an effort.

"Adios, senora!" he said, with a stiff bow. "We have had a