“Yes,” I said. “This is my last train. I must wish you au revoir, in the hope that we may meet again at a date not far distant.”
“Aren’t you going to exchange tokens of friendship?” Luis suggested, laughing in his careless, good-humoured way. “Give my future brother-in-law your flower, Doroteita.”
She laughed and blushed, then taking the crimson blossom from her hair, handed it to me. I was about to inhale its fragrance when the strange, fixed look in her eyes fascinated me, and as I placed it in the lapel of my coat with a murmured word of thanks, I confess I was startled by the sudden transformation of her countenance.
“Good-bye,” I said, taking her hand.
It was cold, limp, and trembling.
“Adieu,” she answered huskily.
I turned to shake hands with her brother, but before I could do so, he had pounced upon me from behind, holding my arms powerless, crying—
“No, no, my friend, you will not escape so easily!”
“What—what do you mean?” I gasped in abject amazement.
“I mean that you do not leave this place alive,” he hissed in my ear. Though I could not see him, I could feel his hot breath upon my cheek, and struggled violently to free myself, but in his iron grip I seemed powerless as a child.