“That’s a challenge. You shall answer it now,” I cried, putting my arm as far round her much-swathed waist as it would reach.
“You are developing a very masterful manner, Mr. Jew.”
“It is necessary with a rebellious market woman. Answer it now.”
“Which question?” she mocked, mimicking my indifferent tone.
“Do—you—love——”
She put her hand to my lips, and silenced me, and then lifting her eyes to mine she threw her arms round my neck and whispered: “With all my heart, Ralph, and for all my life.”
And again we sealed the compact with the all appropriate formalities.
The next morning M. Volheno sent for me and I was glad to find him anxious to hush up the whole matter of the Abduction Plot. In pursuance of this policy, two conditions were attached to Miralda’s pardon—absolute silence about everything and a year’s expatriation for her, her mother and the visconte. Vasco was to be transferred to a regiment in Portuguese Africa.
I told him of Barosa’s death, and that he was really Luis Beriardos, Dom Miguel’s trusted agent, and he was genuinely relieved. Barosa’s fate was never publicly known and he was buried under a different name as the result of a concocted identification.
The fate of his associates on the Rampallo I never learned. The yacht and the prisoners on her were handed over to the men whom Volheno sent out in the Stella with secret instructions; and when they returned neither the skipper nor Burroughs knew anything.