andez. I did not know it, but he was stationed over here.
And when he found out what had happened to me he managed to come in to
see me."

And then Clif felt able to complete that story.

"I suppose," said he, "that he offered to free you if you would marry
him."

Bessie Stuart smiled sadly.

"You do not know the man," said she. "I will tell you what he did say. I
can almost hear him saying it."

"What?"

"'Miss Stuart,' he said, 'you have said you do not love me. And I think
you love some one else--I do not know whom; but I will not make you
unhappy by urging you any more. I might take advantage of your present
position to get you to promise to marry me. But I will not. If you will
be ready to-night I will help you to escape, and prove what I said about
dying for you.'"

The girl stopped and sat silent, too much moved to speak. And Clif was
too astonished.

That was indeed the act of a noble nature. The cadet saw it all then,
why the man had freed them and why he and the girl were both so quiet
and sad. Lieutenant Hernandez had given his life for hers.

It was fully a minute before anything more was said. Then Bessie Stuart
began again, in a low voice:

"About you," she said. "It was the lieutenant who told me, quite by
accident. He said there were five Americans captured, one a cadet, and
that he was to be killed. When I asked the name and he told me, I
fainted dead away. And I think that hurt the lieutenant more than
anything."

"Why?"

"I told him the story, how you had twice rescued me from the Spaniards.
And he asked--he asked if you were his rival."

The girl stepped abruptly.

"And you said that I was, I hope," said Clif, quietly.

Most women would have been embarrassed by a question such as that. But
Bessie Stuart was not.

There was some of the old-time self-possession in her voice as she
responded. She turned and looked fairly into Clif's eyes.

"I know you well enough to speak my mind," she said. "Yes, I told him
that you were."

And then the two sat perfectly silent, looking at each other. It was a
very few words they had said, but they covered a lifetime of feeling.

In that quiet way and under those strange circumstances Clif had
unbosomed his heart; and Bessie Stuart had done the same.

It was the first word that Clif had ever said to indicate how he felt
toward her.

For the two sat in silence for a minute or so; and then Clif went on:

"You told this officer that I was hi