As he laid her down, she opened her eyes and smiled wanly. Then she whispered so faintly that they had to bend close to hear the feeble accents.
“They cannot open the door I closed, for hours. You have time to escape. Destroy the stairs at the top and you are safe.”
Her military trained mind was still planning, even although the life-blood was nearly drained from her heart. Another long pause, and then she opened her lips and her eyes for the last time.
“Cocoeni, you are only a man, after all, for you are weeping just as ours do when they are hurt. Kiss me, as you did two nights ago in the garden, for which I rebuked you then, but I am now as weak and foolish as you are.”
Cocoeni pressed his warm lips to her cold ones. When he removed them her lips remained apart. She was dead.
Chapter Thirty Four.
The Return.
“It is a wonderful story, boys. With those stones and bric-à-brac to support it, I am the last man in the world to cast doubts upon its veracity. I wish, however, that you had brought with you that quarter cohort of young amazons; we could do with them now in Rhodesia. However, go on and finish your yarn. What did you do with this poor girl?”