Rendered suspicious by this sudden change, Lottie was reserved, though the very thought caused her heart to leap for joy. Thus she calmly listened, without saying yea or nay.
At length Mabel turned and left the chamber. In the passage just without, a dark figure met her and clutched her wrist with a grasp of steel. It was Yellow Jack, and in that moment she knew that he had overheard all, and that her doom was sealed. For a moment she trembled; then her true Spanish courage came to her rescue, and she followed his lead without a word.
Entering their own chamber, Yellow Jack, with a terrible courtesy, led Mabel to a softly-cushioned chair, and waited until she was seated. Then he drew another chair forward, and seated himself before her. Pale and calm, she met his steady gaze with one as unflinching.
"Du you know what is in my mind now, Mabel?" he at length uttered.
"Yes—if, as I suppose, you were listening to what I said to—to her in there."
"I did hear—that you intended to prove traitor to me."
"Not to you—to the man who was about putting his wife from him in favor of a stranger."
"Well—we will not quarrel about trifles. You have known me long enough to guess what such attempts cost. Now I ask you a plain question: would you rather leave me and return to your people, or die here beside me?"
"This is the only choice left me?" Mabel asked, and for the first time her voice trembled.
"Is it not enough?" coldly came the reply.