After the drum had beaten, and midday prayers had been said in the chapel, Father José took a cup of coffee to fortify him, then donned cloak and hat and climbed up to the little railway station at the top of the crumbling dirt-cliffs. There he asked on the telephone for the office of the sheriff of the county, and when the sheriff spoke at the other end of the wire, Father José asked him to hasten to Los Morales to arrest one Anastacio Galvez, for killing a deer out of season.
When the sheriff came, Anastacio, swaggering cheerfully, again sought Paloma. “Ninita,” he began, “I come for a farewell word. I am sorry now that Miguel is dead, since it makes you so unhappy. But do not forget that love urged me to do away with him.”
“Then murder again!” retorted Paloma, enraged; “—my mother, the dear father, the guinea-pigs which Mamita has just given me—all! So you will have my heart alone—perhaps.” And she laughed harshly.
There was a suspicion of merriment in his eyes, but he pulled a long face. “I am going to prison for the sake of my love,” he protested. “I must go to prison, for I have not a cent with which to pay the fine.”
Now Paloma almost shrieked in her triumph. “Good!” she cried. “And perish in prison. I am pleased! I am pleased! And because you have been in prison I shall never marry you. The killing of Miguel was very much. But a prison is much more. I could never marry a man who had been in prison. My pride would not let me.”
“Then all is over between us?” questioned Anastacio, meekly.
“All! All! I tell you I would not marry you now if you were covered thick with gold and silver and jewels from your head to your ugly feet—no, not even if you had thousands of pearls as big as this one.” And she flashed the ring before his dark eyes.
“In that case,” he went on, “I think it but honest that you should give back this pearl.” And he watched her keenly.
“The pearl!” she cried. She was walking to and fro, her head high “The pearl will pay me for the loss of Miguel. Yesterday I said, ‘I shall give Anastacio back the ring, for I hate the sight of it. And, besides, the pearl is doubtless only glass, after all, and I can easily get a better.’ But now—I shall keep it.” (This with an imperious glance of her eyes.)