“You mean I’m not strong? My aunt said that, too,” she pondered sorrowfully.
“And if you were strong? Adams was strong, and he lost his life. If you play for big stakes over here, sometime you’ve got to lose.”
Julie sat very still. At last she drew a letter from her dress, and held it before her in the dim light.
“This is such a strange letter,” she murmured. “And it’s so odd that it came just at the time Adams was killed. It’s from that beautiful woman whom I told you they call the Empress of the East—and who, when I left Manila of my own free will, said I was mad to throw away my life. She is the only one I met there who has written to me. One individual counts for so little there—you understand. Well, I did not completely drop out of her mind, anyway! Listen to what she says:
“‘Dear Atlas: The Green God has told me to write to you. I don’t know why—since he never gives reasons, nor answers questions. What has happened to you? Has the earth begun to tremble and slip from those white young shoulders? Or why does the Green God fear for the Shining Apostle to the East, and direct me to recall myself to you and cause you to bear in mind that there is always—Isabel?’”
Calmiden snatched the letter agitatedly. “Who is this Eastern Witch? What on earth does she mean? What has her horrible God to do with you? Promise me that you will never answer that letter, or go near her again!”
“Indeed, I shall probably never see her again, since my destiny lies down in jungles, and hers in the beautiful places of the world.”
Calmiden dropped the letter, and regarded Julie with emotion. “And so this was your choice? Indomitable little being, with the luminous faith! Do you know that this island which I hated so with my whole soul—where the days were but blank heat waves and the nights a horrible hush—has become paradise since you walked into it?”
His tone took on a poignant wistfulness. “But your eyes seem to take you always out of my reach.... Ah, do you, after all, belong to the Green God?—you who say you have thrown in your lot with the East!”
Before Julie could reply, Brentwood came up the steps, and announced that the Major wanted Calmiden at once. Calmiden went away with him, throwing back of him a long glance.