"You are not going away."
He lifted his brows quickly at that.
"I go where I please," he reminded her. "When I please. I am my own man, Señorita Castelmar."
"Large words." She smiled at him curiously.
"You mean that my going would be interfered with?"
"I mean that you may make yourself free of the house; that you may walk in the gardens; that, if you sought to pass the outer wall, you would be detained. You remain my prisoner, Señor Kendric, until you become my trusted captain!"
"You're a devilish hospitable hostess," he remarked. She was watching him shrewdly, interested to see just how he would accept her ultimatum. He returned her look with clear, untroubled eyes.
"You will think of what I have told you," she said slowly. "My wealth is very great; the fertile lands which I have inherited and those which I have purchased, embrace hundreds of thousands of acres; the barren lands which are mine, desert and mountain, stretch mile after mile. There is no power like mine in all Mexico, though until now it has lain hidden, giving no sign. It is in my heart to make you a rich man and, what you like more, Jim Kendric, a man to play the biggest of all games and for the biggest of all stakes. And further—further——"
"Further?" He laughed. "What comes after all that, Queen Zoraida?"
"Look into my eyes," she said softly. "Look deep."