Myra was infinitely glad to escape, and she flung herself down in a
chair with a sigh that was half a sob when she reached her bedroom.
"You may go, Dolores," she said, and motioned away the old woman, who
had been murmuring congratulations.
"Si, maestra, buena maestra," said Dolores smilingly, as she withdrew.
"'Maestra?'--That means 'mistress,'" ruminated Myra. "In what sense is
it used? He used the word when he addressed his men after the
mock-marriage. 'Nueva maestra,' I think he called me. That must mean
'new mistress.' His new mistress! How many mistresses have there
been--and what is going to happen to me? ... Oh, why didn't Tony play
the man!"
Time passed and the suspense was becoming almost unbearable when the
sound of heavy footsteps in the rocky corridor made Myra's heart jump
convulsively. She started to her feet as the door opened to reveal Don
Carlos, still wearing his cowl. Behind him were Garcilaso and Mendoza
with Standish, now fully dressed and with a bandage round his eyes,
between them.
"Does the Señora Cojuelo wish to say farewell to the lover who
renounced her?" inquired Don Carlos, with a note of mockery in his
voice. "I am now about to redeem my promise and have him escorted back
unharmed to the Castillo de Ruiz."
"Why are his eyes bandaged?" asked Myra sharply. "What has happened to
him?"
"Nothing has happened," Don Carlos assured her. "The bandage is merely
a precautionary measure. He was brought here blindfolded, so that he
might have no idea as to the location of my mountain nest. He leaves
blindfolded for the same reason. Don Carlos de Ruiz will follow him
when I so choose. Have you anything to say to Señor Standish?"
"Nothing," answered Myra, after a moment of hesitation.
"Myra, if only----" said Standish hoarsely, and paused, gulping as if
he were choking. "I suppose it isn't any use attempting to say
anything," he added weakly.
"Except farewell," remarked Don Carlos ironically, and laid his hand on
Myra's arm. "Permit me to escort you to the door, señora mia, to
witness the departure of Señor Standish."
In the wake of Standish and his escort, he led Myra along the corridor
to the outer hall, and Myra, her senses acute, watched him closely as
he manipulated knobs which looked like part of the rocky wall and the
great door that looked like rock itself swung open.
"Lead the English señor forward carefully, and remember I have pledged
my word that he shall be returned safely to the castle of Don Carlos de
Ruiz," said Don Carlos in Spanish. "Farewell, señor," he added in
English. "You will have great stories to tell on your return to
England of your encounter with El Diablo Cojuelo and how you escaped
from him!"
Standish's face contorted in momentary passion, then with a sigh and a
gesture of utter despair he submitted himself to be led away by Mendoza
and Garcilaso. Myra, her face tense and white, took an involuntary
step forward, and instantly Don Carlos's hand closed on her arm.
"You forget, dear lady, that you are the price of his freedom, and your
place is with your husband," he said, as he drew her back into the hall
and touched a lever which released the door.
To Myra the clang of the door as it shut seemed like a death-knell.
Don Carlos took off his cowl and flung it aside, smoothed his jet-black
hair with his hands, and drew a long breath. His eyes and expression
were inscrutable as he gazed fixedly at Myra.
"Exit Mr. Antony Standish," he said slowly, after a pause. "One
chapter of your life is closed, Myra. Now another opens, the most
wonderful chapter of all, in which you will fulfil your destiny."
Myra suddenly found herself cold and trembling, and to gain time and
avoid Don Carlos's eyes she crossed the room to the radiator and held
out her shaking hands to its warmth.
"Are you frightened, Myra mine?" asked Don Carlos gently crossing to
her side. "Are you still afraid of love?"
"If this is your idea of love, I hate it!" responded Myra with sudden
passion. "You have humiliated me until I feel that I am less than the
dust. What greater humiliation could you inflict on any woman than to
prove to her that the man who professed to love her would surrender her
to a bandit? You have humiliated me as much as Tony Standish, and
perhaps you have further humiliations in store."
"If you have a sense of proportion, you should thank me instead of
reproaching me for proving Standish to be at heart a knave," Don Carlos
retorted, the hard note creeping into his voice again. "If you tell me
you still love him, and prefer him to me, I will send you back to him
at once. Can you truthfully say that you still love him and would
marry him if you were free?"
Myra shook her red-gold head despairingly, and sank down into a corner
of the couch with a sigh.
"If he were the only man on earth, I would not marry him now," she
answered. "But that does not alter the case or excuse your conduct."
"I do not understand, Myra," said Don Carlos. "It was only because you
had promised to marry Standish that you hardened your heart against
love and me. You have surrendered to love now, at last, and----"
"I have not," interrupted Myra. "I hate you for what has happened."
"Yet, hating me, you have become my wife," Don Carlos commented, with
an air of perplexity.
"I am not your wife," protested Myra. "You have fooled me before, but
you cannot fool me into believing that the farcical service, gabbled in
a language I do not understand by one of your men masquerading as a
monk, constitutes a marriage."
"Padre Sancho is an ordained priest. The ceremony was not a farce.
You are now my wife--the wife of El Diablo Cojuelo, the outlaw. Later
on, when you marry Don Carlos--if Don Carlos still desires you--you
shall have a more elaborate ceremony, if you wish it, and you will be
doubly married without being a bigamist."
There came an interruption at that moment. Madre Dolores appeared,
murmuring apologies, with a tall glass of wine in her skinny hand, and
seemingly made some appeal to Don Carlos.
"Myra, some of my men are holding festival to celebrate our marriage,
and they have sent Mother Dolores to ask us to do them the honour of
taking wine with them and allowing them to toast us," Don Carlos
explained. "It would be a gracious act, which will endear you to all
my men, to consent."
"But I have told you I cannot believe the marriage ceremony was other
than a farce," objected Myra. "Is this another trick to humiliate me
and make it appear I have surrendered?"
"Again you misjudge me," replied Don Carlos abruptly. "It is a
compliment, and should be proof to you that my men know the marriage
ceremony was no farce. They will take it as an affront if you refuse
their invitation."
"What does that matter to me?" exclaimed Myra rebelliously.
Don Carlos's brows drew together and he looked chagrined.
"Tell the men, Mother Dolores, that the señora is either as lacking in
courage as the Englishman, or considers them such a gang of cut-throat
ruffians, that she cannot be persuaded to nerve herself to face them,"
he said, addressing the old woman. "Tell them she is aware she is
affronting them and----"
"How dare you suggest I am a coward?" interrupted Myra, starting to her
feet. "Tell them nothing of the sort, Dolores. I am not afraid to
face them----"
"So we will be graciously pleased to accept the invitation," added Don
Carlos as she paused.
"Yes," said Myra. "Otherwise, I suppose, you will taunt me with being
a coward."
"I think I managed that rather cleverly, Myra," Don Carlos said, his
face crinkling into a mischievous smile. "I thought you would not
notice that I was giving my instructions to Mother Dolores in English,
of which she scarcely understands a word!"
Myra crimsoned in annoyance, but she made no retort, nor did she offer
any protest when Don Carlos, after a few words of thanks to the puzzled
Dolores, who scurried away, drew her hand through his arm and led her
through the corridors to the great cave.
Dolores had spread the news of their coming, and every man was on his
feet, glass or flagon in hand. Myra and Don Carlos were each handed a
tall glass of wine, and the band drank their health with enthusiasm,
shouting all sorts of good wishes. Don Carlos toasted them in turn,
drained his glass, and called to Myra to follow his example.
"Drink to me and to love, Myra mine," he cried.
Myra was so confused by the shouting and by the men pressing around
with uplifted glasses and flagons that she scarcely knew what she was
doing and hurriedly swallowed the wine.
"Thank you, beloved," said Don Carlos, drawing her hand into the crook
of his arm again. "We will go now."
Through the corridors they went again, and Myra's heart seemed to miss
a beat as he paused at her bedroom and opened the door. She looked up
at him with dread and appeal in her dilated blue eyes, to see him
smiling exultantly.
"Mine! Mine at last, Myra!" he said in a low, vibrant voice, as he
slipped his arm around her waist and drew her into the room. "The hour
for which I have waited and craved."
"Don Carlos, is it useless to appeal to you to let me go?" gasped Myra.
"Surely I have suffered enough without--without--this----?"
"Darling, why should you fear love now?" responded Don Carlos tenderly,
enfolding her in his arms. "Let me fire your heart with the burning
ardour of my passion. I have won you, and I swore I would, and I claim
my reward. Myra, mia, I want you--want you!"
His dark eyes were ablaze with ardour, his lean face was flushed, and
his breath was coming and going pantingly as he crushed Myra to him and
kissed her until his kisses seemed to be burning her very Soul and her
senses were reeling. All power of resistance had gone from her. She
felt dazedly as if she were encompassed by flames and no hope of
escape. She was conquered....
* * *
Languidly Myra opened her eyes--and sat up with an involuntary cry of
consternation, for she could see nothing, and the terrifying thought
flashed through her mind that she had gone blind. Then she remembered
that the rocky apartment was dark as a tomb when the electric lights
were not burning, and she groped for the switch.
As the lights sprang to life, realisation of what had happened burned
its way into her horrified consciousness, and a burning blush stained
her pale, lovely face. She was alone in the bedroom, but she knew
instinctively that she had not been alone for long. Her hands went
convulsively to her breast, and she shuddered violently and moaned in
anguish.
Then followed anger--fierce, passionate fury against the man who had
imposed his will on her, and with clenched fists she beat the pillow on
which she knew his head had rested. The fury of rage speedily
exhausted itself, and Myra buried her face in her hands and sobbed
fearlessly.
"He will come back," she thought distractedly. "He will come back to
make mock of me, to gloat over me. Oh, if only I could get away! If
only I could die!"
She sprang out of bed and began to dress in frantic haste, starting at
every sound. She could not have explained what she intended to do or
the reason for her haste. All she knew was that she must get out of
the bedroom before Don Carlos returned.
Her hurried toilet completed, Myra with trembling fingers cautiously
opened the bedroom door and peeped out. The rocky corridor was
deserted, no sound came from the great cave, and the whole place seemed
almost uncannily silent. With an effort of will Myra mastered her
panic and tiptoed silently along the corridor towards the outer hall.
The corridor was lighted, but she found the hall, when she reached it,
in darkness, save for one tiny light above the electric switch on the
wall near the entrance. Myra pressed the switch and at once the
apartment was flooded with light.
"Oh, God, help me to remember!" breathed Myra, after a swift glance
around, to assure herself the place was untenanted. "Help me to get
away--if only it is to die among the mountains."
She had watched Don Carlos closely a few hours previously as he
manipulated the levers which opened the secret door when giving
Standish his freedom, and the thought had flashed into her mind that
she could manipulate the levers as he had done, and escape into the
outer world.
Her first attempt was a failure, and she bit her lips in chagrin and
hurt her delicate hands tugging vainly at various knobs and slides.
But again and again she tried, and at last, when she was about to give
up in despair, she heard a sudden click and the great door swung open!