"I am sorry for you, Felipe," declared Merry, in a tone that told of the utmost sincerity.
For a single moment it seemed that the boy on the cot doubted.
"Why should you for me be sorry?" he asked. "It was I who swore to kill you."
"Because you thought yourself injured and your passionate nature longed for revenge. To you it seemed that I refused to give you justice. You thought me powerful, and arrogant, and selfish, and you were aroused against me until your heart was filled with fire."
"It is true my heart within my bosom burned," admitted the boy. "Since the fire from which you dragged me I have thought much. You knew I hated you, you knew I claimed your mine, you knew I meant to make you trouble, you knew I might kill you—yet you beat out the flames, smothered them, lifted me, carried me from the burning building, saved my life. Why didn't you leave me to die and get me out of your way? I do not understand."
Merry sat down beside the cot.
"I will try to make you understand. I sought to look at the whole matter from your standpoint, and I fancied I knew how you felt about it. To you I was a villain and a wretch. Instead of hating you because you hated me, I longed to justify myself in your eyes. I longed for the opportunity to show you that I was not the scoundrel you thought me."
"To me it seemed you did not care. I thought at me you laughed and sneered."
"You see now that you were wrong, Felipe. It was not you I scorned; it was your companion and adviser, Bantry Hagan, a scheming rascal, every inch of him. Hagan is a fighter, and he does not acknowledge defeat. When the plot of Porfias del Norte failed and Del Norte was buried by the landslide in the Adirondacks, it seemed to Hagan that he had been defeated, and the taste was bitter to him. When chance led you across his path, he saw an opportunity to renew the battle against me, and he used you to do so. Behind you I saw Hagan all the while."
"But you—is it now true that you deny the justice of my claim, Señor Merriwell. It was to defy Señor Hagan that you denied it? Ah! I understand at last."