"You do not know the man," said she. "I will tell you what he did say. I can almost hear him saying it."
"What?"
"'Miss Stuart,' he said, 'you have said you do not love me. And I think you love some one else—I do not know whom; but I will not make you unhappy by urging you any more. I might take advantage of your present position to get you to promise to marry me. But I will not. If you will be ready to-night I will help you to escape, and prove what I said about dying for you.'"
The girl stopped and sat silent, too much moved to speak. And Clif was too astonished.
That was indeed the act of a noble nature. The cadet saw it all then, why the man had freed them and why he and the girl were both so quiet and sad. Lieutenant Hernandez had given his life for hers.
It was fully a minute before anything more was said. Then Bessie Stuart began again, in a low voice:
"About you," she said. "It was the lieutenant who told me, quite by accident. He said there were five Americans captured, one a cadet, and that he was to be killed. When I asked the name and he told me, I fainted dead away. And I think that hurt the lieutenant more than anything."
"Why?"
"I told him the story, how you had twice rescued me from the Spaniards. And he asked—he asked if you were his rival."
The girl stepped abruptly.