"I only have aided the man I am engaged to marry to escape from death for a murder he did not commit."
"You have spoken," said the Blind Brigand. "Come forward to me."
Piloted by sackcloth men, while the two Morgans who loved her were restless and perturbed, she was made to kneel at the blind man's knees. The mestiza girl placed his hand on Leoncia's head. For a full and solemn minute silence obtained, while the steady fingers of the Blind One rested about her forehead and registered the pulse-beats of her temples. Then he removed his hand and leaned back to decision.
"Arise, Senorita," he pronounced. "Your heart is clean of evil. You go free. Who else appeals to the Cruel Justice?"
Francis immediately stepped forward.
"I likewise helped the man to escape from an undeserved death. The man and I are of the same name, and, distantly, of the same blood."
He, too, knelt, and felt the soft finger-lobes play delicately over his brows and temples and come to rest finally on the pulse of his wrist.
"It is not all clear to me," said the Blind One. "You are not at rest nor at peace with your soul. There is trouble within you that vexes you."
Suddenly the peon stepped forth and spoke unbidden, his voice evoking a thrill as of the shock of blasphemy from the sackcloth men.
"Oh, Just One, let this man go," said the peon passionately. "Twice was I weak and betrayed him to his enemy this day, and twice this day has he protected me from my enemy and saved me."