The cadet heard it then, and whirled about. He took one glance.
And then he staggered back with a cry of consternation.
It was Bessie Stuart!
For one instant the two stood and stared at each other as if to make sure that their eyes did not deceive them. And then, with a cry of delight that came from his very soul, Clif sprang toward the girl.
Bessie Stuart looked as if she had been through some terrible ordeal, for her face was pale; the emotion of meeting Clif almost overcame her, and she burst into tears upon his shoulder.
Clif himself was so dazed that he hardly knew what to think. He caught the girl in his arms to keep her from falling.
"Bessie," he cried, "how on earth did you get here?"
The cadet's brain was in a whirl at that moment. He began to see what the Spaniard meant when he said it was for some other person's sake that he had rescued Clif. It was for her sake!
And it must have been by some terrible sacrifice that she had saved him from the torture.
"Bessie!" he cried. "Tell me—that officer. What——"