A Young Man's Heart (20 page)

He turned, quivering in every nerve, to find Mariquita at his feet. At the far end of the room stood the general, in a tableau of unreality, a plume of pale smoke still licking the metal cylinder clasped in his hand.

“Ask him now to bring you back to life.”

She opened her eyes and looked at Blair.

“My dream of you is now forever.”

He turned suddenly to the doorway where Eleanor clung convulsively to Serrano’s arm, both their faces gone ashen.

“If you are so fond of her why don’t you take her out of here quickly? Don’t let her stand there and see this girl dying on the floor.”

“You—?” urged Serrano.

“Blair!” Eleanor sobbed, “come away—”

“Don’t trouble yourselves,” he exclaimed bitterly.

The general moved forward impatiently. They both turned with one accord and vanished through the door.

Blair knelt down and took Mariquita’s head in his arms.

“Little friend, don’t be frightened. We’ll be happier some other day.”

Then to the figure that seemed to tower above him, tall as God, breathing wrath, he muttered in a low voice, “Swine! what are you waiting for?”

Eleanor, trembling from head to foot, her breath coming in little gasps, climbed hurriedly into the carriage Serrano had waiting at the door. They drove rapidly down the street toward the legation, just too soon to hear a second revolver-shot echo hollowly within the general’s quarters.

The End