"What!" from both her lips and mine. "What!"
"Your father," he said, "had his chance"--and again that forefinger was pointed at her--"this poor fool, my servant, went to set him free; the horse was waiting for him--only, instead, it has borne you to safety"--and now he glanced at me--"also there was his sword for him--that by your side."
"My God! My God!" I heard Juana whisper on my breast.
"Only he--this buccaneer--would not accept it, not take it. He, stained deep with crime as he was, his name an accursed one through all the Indies--men spit upon the ground there, they say, with loathing when they hear it mentioned, even now--could bear all things but one. Shall I tell you what that one thing is?" and he glanced again at Juana, a very hell of hate in his look.
But she could only moan upon my bosom and murmur: "My father! Oh, my father!"
"He could not bear," Morales went on, "that his child should be what he knew she had become by now--my friend----"
"Liar!" I cried. "I will kill you for this."
"Could not bear that she should bring deeper disgrace than even he had done upon your tainted names. Therefore he refused to come; therefore he preferred the flames to which he has gone"--a wild, piercing scream broke from Juana as he said those words--"and--so--so--that there should be nothing rise up to prevent him from going to his death, so that he should put away from himself all chance of salvation from that death and earn his oblivion from disgrace, he persuaded this fool that a mistake had been made--that 'twas you, not he, who was to be saved, allowed to escape."
"You lie," I said again. "You lie. Some part of this story is true, some false, Gramont never believed that she would give herself to you; knew that she meant to slay herself the instant she was assured of his safety. Spanish dog, you lie, and I will have your life for it."
"It is true," he said hoarsely, "as true as that an hour after you left Lugo he was led out and burnt at the braséro--the braséro that was prepared for you. Now," and once more he addressed Juana, "you have your lover back again--be happy in the possession; in the knowledge that his life is saved by the loss of your father's. Be happy in that."