g her time because on her rested Betty's fate. He pressed
the knife a little deeper. So steady was his hand, so stiff Zoraida's
body, so gradual the increased pressure, that the knife point made in
the white flesh a tiny, shadow-filled dimple.

Now came into Zoraida's eyes a swift change, a look which in all of her
life had never been there until now. A look of terror, of realization
of death, of frantic fear. She sought to speak, and words failed her.
The knife pressed steadily. A piercing scream broke from her.

CHAPTER XVII

HOW ONE WHO HAS EVER COMMANDED MUST LEARN TO OBEY

Suddenly Zoraida had become as docile as a little frightened child.
She shivered from head to foot. She put her two hands to her throat
where just now the point of the knife had been.

"Quick!" said Kendric.

She rose in haste. A vertigo was upon her like that dizzy weakness of
one very sick, seeking prematurely to rise from bed. She had
experienced a shock from which she could rally only gradually; she
looked broken. Her eyes appeared to see nothing about her but stared
off into the distance through a veil of abstraction.

"We will have to go," she said tonelessly. "There is no other way."

They passed by the inert figure on the floor and out, Kendric with his
left hand always on her arm. Again the knife was hidden under his
coat, but his fingers did not release it.

"Quick," he said again.

So Zoraida, obedient in this strange new mood governing her, making no
effort to shake off his hand having no thought to gainsay him,
hastened. In perhaps five minutes they were unlocking the last door,
and Kendric heard beyond the whining of the puma. Kendric had had time
for thought during this brief interval which had seemed much longer;
for the present both his safety and Betty's would undoubtedly depend
upon his keeping Zoraida with him. So now, as he flung open the door,
he carried Zoraida along into the room.

At first he did not see the cat lying close to the cage; he saw only
Betty. A little color had come back into her cheeks; he saw the look
in her eyes before it changed and knew that to Betty had come the time
when hope is given up and when death is faced. She had passed beyond
tears and pleading and crying out. It was given Kendric then to learn
that when the crisis had come it found in the girl's heart a courage to
sustain her. Her face was set, her attitude was no longer cringing.
In such tender breasts as