he eyes: "Thy test, friend. Here am I. Out there is the grove, and
beyond it the sea. Take this torch. Put light to the powder train, and
thou and I will depart in the white schooner. We shall leave nothing for
these vultures to fight over. But together we will go far away into thy
world, thee and me."

"And leave my friends here?" he asked, huskily.

"Ay, my man, but not alive!" she whispered, thrusting her dark, flushed
face close to his, and letting her lips breathe their fragrance upon
him. "They, thy friends, are not as my beasts. They have the brains of
the white kings of the earth; they have the cunning which makes of all
other races slaves and dependents. Leave them here, living, and in a day
they will rule these rabble and together they will hunt us down. Come,
haste. Put thy fire to the train."

"Not yet! Tell me what deviltry is to be worked upon my companions."

"Hah! Then thou'rt but lukewarm in thy love. Am I not Dolores? Am I not
worth thy two friends? Listen, I'll tell thee my price, friend. If thy
friends are to live, then destroy this trash ere we go, so that they get
it not. If thy heart is bent upon saving this treasure, then thy hand
must first put thy friends into their long sleep. Nay, peace! There is
no alternative. The man who mates with me shall be a man indeed; no
petty, squeamish lover whose weak heart sickens at removing a rival."

"Give me until morning," he replied, dry of throat, and pallid of face.
"It is a terrible thing you ask, Dolores. Yet I dare not say the cost is
too high. As for destroying these treasures, that I know is but a trick
to try me. You could never go out into a new world and take a low
station. That you would have to do if I set fire to that train." He
suddenly darted a look of fierce challenge at her, "There!" he cried.
"The trial is yours!"

He flung down his torch, and the powder-train began to splutter and
fizz. Dolores flashed a look of approval at him, and burst into a
ringing, happy laugh. She kicked aside the torch, and trampled out and
relaid the train; then ran to Pearse impulsively, and said with simple
earnestness that utterly deceived him:

"Now I believe in thee again, and for ever. 'Twas but to try thee, John.
We will leave nothing of worth when we go. But that makes it the more
imperative that thy friends have no power to harm us afterward. Think
not that Dolores will take a lower station. I shall be queen wherever I
go, and my man shall be made