"No! I'll risk it," she cried. "You must go into the city. Tell them so and say that I will protect you with my own life and honor."
Fever made him submissive; her eyes gave him confidence; her voice soothed his fears, if he possessed them. Leaning from the window, he called his men together. Beverly looked on in wonder as these strange men bade farewell to their leader. Many of them were weeping, and most of them kissed his hand. There were broken sentences, tear-choked promises, anxious inquiries, and the parting was over.
"Where are they going?" Beverly whispered, as they moved away in the dusk.
"Back into the mountains to starve, poor fellows. God be kind to them, God be good to them," he half sobbed, his chin dropping to his breast. He was trembling like a leaf.
"Starve?" she whispered. "Have they no money?"
"We are penniless," came in muffled tones from the stricken leader.
Beverly leaned from the window and called to the departing ones. Ravone and one other reluctantly approached. Without a word she opened a small traveling bag and drew forth a heavy purse. This she pressed into the hand of the student. It was filled with Graustark gavvos, for which she had exchanged American gold in Russia.
"God be with you," she fervently cried. He kissed her hand, and the two stood aside to let the coach roll on into the dusky shadows that separated them from the gates of Ganlook, old Franz still driving—the only one of the company left to serve his leader to the very end.
"Well, we have left them," muttered Baldos, as though to himself. "I may never see them again—never see them again. God, how true they have been!"
"I shall send for them the moment I get to Ganlook and I'll promise pardons for them all," she cried rashly, in her compassion.