“At those flames, some of you men! Help the wounded here! Get the women and children out of the smoke! Lieutenant, see that every hostile is run down—we want not one to escape! If we had been a minute later——”
Señorita Anita, busy with her prayers and her agony of mind, had not noticed these things. And now the caballero, with a glad cry, ran to her, lifted her bodily from the floor, and covered her face with kisses.
“The Governor, beloved!” he cried. “His excellency has come—in time! Oh, beloved—beloved!”
Once more the pounding on the door!
“Open, in the Governor’s name! We know you are there, Captain Fly-by-Night! There is no escape! Open!”
The caballero stood in the centre of the chapel with Anita nestling against his breast, and he spoke in whispers, giving no attention to the summons at the door.
“You are safe now, beloved,” he said. “The world has not come to an end, you see. It is pretty much as it was before this revolt. You can be again with your friends, with people of your rank. Is life not good—after all?”
“With you it is,” she whispered in reply.
“When all was dark you spoke of love to me,” he went on. “There was nothing in the future for you then. But now there is everything in the future. You can face the world again——”
“Stained by a relative’s act, caballero?”