"These others are just men, and my friends," said Haganè gravely. "The young madman yonder is protected by my word. We must think, too, of Nippon."
Old Onda's breathing rasped the silence.
"Monsieur Le Beau," said Haganè again, "you are fully determined to retain the body—and give her name to public defamation?"
"What else is there for me, devil?"
"That you have been her lover,—that you have so deeply injured me,—is that not enough to gloat over?"
For an instant Pierre stared. The meaning of the words came to him with a relish. Haganè really believed this thing; then of course he suffered! Very good! A look of malignant triumph grew in Pierre's face. Haganè drank the bitterness with his eyes. Here, at last, thought Pierre, was the undipped heel, the pervious crown. Yuki's body sagged an inch. Pierre stooped to it. Again she was in his arms, and he devoured, with despairing looks, the small, dead face.
Haganè, by a fierce gesture, commanded Onda to be still. Todd felt his heart stop, then rise slowly to his throat, and Ronsard, shivering, gripped the American's arm. The moon sailed full into a cloudless sky. Beneath it the great tragedy lay bare.
The trend of Pierre's thoughts at this moment he could never afterward recall. His flesh felt as though it melted from him. His brain stirred and pulled at possibilities before unfelt. Voices not of earth said strange things which he almost understood. Yuki's dead smile changed. He saw her lips quiver. Her white face grew to one still prayer. Something like a cooling fluid went into his hot and empty veins. He felt strong again and noble. He regarded Yuki's accuser with a new look.
"You lie in saying that thing, Haganè. Is it not enough that you have used, and then slain her, that you now traduce her name? No, you dare not resent my words, coward, liar, slanderer! What is the theft of a paper compared to this? For Yuki's sake, I tell you that no flower hidden in green leaves, no girl-child at its mother's breast, no flake of snow, new-fallen, is purer than this woman. Yes, grin now and tremble!"
He went swiftly to the stricken man, and dealt him a blow upon the lips.