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.
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