expression changed many times. Horror held her eyes for a time, then
slowly retreated, and his own fierce pride looked back at him. She
lifted her head when he had finished, her throat throbbing, her nostrils
twitching.

"Thou hast done that--for me?"

"Ay, Ysabel!"

"Thou hast murdered thy immortal soul--for me?"

"Ysabel!"

"Thou lovest me like that! O God, in what likeness hast thou made me? In
whatsoever image it may have been, I thank Thee--and repudiate Thee!"

She took the cross from her throat and broke it in two pieces with her
strong white fingers.

"Thou art lost, eternally damned: but I will go down to hell with thee."
And she threw herself upon him and kissed him on the mouth.

For a moment he forgot the lesson thrust into his brain by the hideous
fingers of the desert. He was almost happy. He put his hands about her
warm face after a time. "We must go to-night," he said. "I went to
General Castro's to change my clothes, and learned that a ship sails
for the United States to-night. We will go on that. I dare not delay
twenty-four hours. It may be that they are upon my heels now. How can we
meet?"