"And why, Ruez?" she continued, gently parting the hair from his forehead.
"How can you ask such a question, sister? do you not know already?" he asked, turning his deep blue eyes full upon her.
"Perhaps not, brother," replied Isabella, struggling to suppress a sigh, while she turned her face away from her brother's searching glance.
"Do you not know, sister, that to-morrow Captain Bezan is sentenced to die?"
"True," said Isabella Gonzales, with an involuntary shudder, "I do know it, Ruez."
"And further, sister," continued the boy, sagely, "do you not know that we have been the indirect cause of this fearful sacrifice?"
"I do not see that, brother," said Isabella, quickly, as she turned her beautiful face fully upon her brother, inquiringly.
Ruez Gonzales looked like one actuated by some extraordinary inspiration; his eyes were wonderfully bright, his expression that of years beyond his actual age, and his beautiful sister, while she gazed thus upon him at that moment, felt the keen and searching glance that he bestowed upon her. She felt like one in the presence of a superior mind; she could not realize her own sensations. The boy seemed to read her very soul, as she stood thus before him. It was more than a minute before he spoke, and seemed to break the spell; but at last-and it seemed an age to Isabella Gonzales-he did so, and said:
"Sister?"
"Well, Ruez?"