orded him
in my own person yet another hostage as valuable at least as Colonel
Bishop. Yet he bade me depart; not from the fear of consequences, for
he is above fear, nor from any personal esteem for me whom he confessed
that he had come to find detestable; and this for the very reason that
made him concerned for my safety."

"I do not understand," she said, as he paused. "Is not that a
contradiction in itself?"

"It seems so only. The fact is, Arabella, this unfortunate man has
the... the temerity to love you."

She cried out at that, and clutched her breast whose calm was suddenly
disturbed. Her eyes dilated as she stared at him.

"I... I've startled you," said he, with concern. "I feared I should. But
it was necessary so that you may understand."

"Go on," she bade him.

"Well, then: he saw in me one who made it impossible that he should win
you--so he said. Therefore he could with satisfaction have killed me.
But because my death might cause you pain, because your happiness was
the thing that above all things he desired, he surrendered that part of
his guarantee of safety which my person afforded him. If his departure
should be hindered, and I should lose my life in what might follow,
there was the risk that... that you might mourn me. That risk he would
not take. Him you deemed a thief and a pirate, he said, and added
that--I am giving you his own words always--if in choosing between us
two, your choice, as he believed, would fall on me, then were you in his
opinion choosing wisely. Because of that he bade me leave his ship, and
had me put ashore."

She looked at him with eyes that were aswim with tears. He took a step
towards her, a catch in his breath, his hand held out.

"Was he right, Arabella? My life's happiness hangs upon your answer."

But she continued silently to regard him with those tear-laden eyes,
without speaking, and until she spoke he dared not advance farther.

A doubt, a tormenting doubt beset him. When presently she spoke, he saw
how true had been the instinct of which that doubt was born, for her
words revealed the fact that of all that he had said the only thing
that had touched her consciousness and absorbed it from all other
considerations was Blood's conduct as it regarded herself.

"He said that!" she cried. "He did that! Oh!" She turned away, and
through the slender, clustering trunks of the bordering orange-trees
she looked out across the glittering waters of the great harbo