Dane was puzzled by something in Bonita's manner as she rose to meet him. She showed little pleasure, but rather suppressed anxiety, and looked past him toward the beach as though expecting somebody. Even Dom Pedro seemed shaken out of his usual serenity, the señora's eyes were open wide, and there was a silence after the opening courtesies.
"It is with the great satisfaction we see you safe," said Dom Pedro, though satisfaction was not what his voice most clearly expressed. "But you bring us news? Two of you go up yonder, and there is a third who follow. One only he comes back."
Dane guessed that the speaker's anxiety chiefly concerned the third who followed, and the implied question was the least difficult to answer.
"I have news," he said. "The man who followed us was no friend of yours, señorita?"
Bonita Castro's lips curled scornfully.
"No. I have little cause to be a friend of him."
"He will harass you no longer. He is dead," said Dane.
There was no pity, but rather pride and a still strained anxiety in the girl's eyes.
"It is as I told you, padre. The dog has failed in his treachery and the Señor Maxwell has kill him."
"No. He was drowned at sea."