paltry power, her freedom
but a caged freedom.

Somewhere beyond the great ocean that stretched away before her eyes
lay a world she knew nothing of; yet since her earliest childhood her
keen mind had told her that the silk with which she was clothed, the
jewels that encrusted her dagger-hilt, the ships whose pillage had
yielded up these things, must come from lands far distant, more
desirable than the maroon country of Jamaica. More, her ears attuned to
the whisper or roar of the sea, the sigh or shriek of the winds, carried
to her the mutterings of men long held in leash, who now saw in their
chieftain's death the realization of their own wild dreams of riches and
release. All these things told her that the great, strange world beyond
the sea-line was something for her to strive for; not for the rabble who
called her queen.

She paced back and forth, a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty
and passion, every movement a grace, each grace such as befitted a royal
woman conscious of mental and physical perfection. Her hair surrounded
her face and shoulders in a lustrous, rippling cloud, through which
peeped a bare arm and breast stolen from the goddess of beauty; her
tunic of quilted Chinese silk hung from one shoulder by a strap
fashioned from the ribbon of the Star of Persia, and fastened by the
star; her strong, slender waist was girdled with a heavy gold cord that
supported a long, thin dagger, no toy, in a jeweled sheath; the hem of
her single garment rang with gold sequins to the movement of her
smoothly muscular knees; her high-arched feet were protected from thorns
and shells by sandals of red leather.

As the moments passed, and no sign came from within the cave, Dolores
restrained her impatience with increasing difficulty. The men scattered
around were not of such stuff; they felt the impending crisis settle
heavily upon them, and white and black alike drew together for the
comfort of close touch. From time to time a hardier spirit uttered his
thoughts aloud, yet always with a glance of uncertainty toward Dolores.
They had reason to glance that way; for every man had tasted of the
queen's justice, which rarely erred on the side of mildness; many of
them had experienced her terrible competence to carry out a sentence in
person. Of them all, not one but knew that in Dolores he owned as queen
a woman who need yield nothing of prowess to any man: her knife was as
swift, her round wrist as strong, her bla