him?" he cried, clenching his hands nervously;
"didn't you hurl the viper on the rocks beneath?"

"Would you?" I said.

"Would I?" he cried, "ay, and be proud that I had rid the world of such
a one. The saints would sanction such a deed."

I told him what had happened, at which he gave a great sigh as if of
relief, after which a scornful smile played around his mouth as I told
him of the terrible sufferings I had endured.

He did not speak a word during the recital of the visit to Ruth's home,
but gave a start as I told him of my determination to visit her grave.
Then he sat like one entranced as I described my entrance into the
church, and related how I lifted back the stone from the vault.
Breathlessly he sat while I narrated how I had removed the clasps from
the coffin and looked on the still face of my darling; and then leapt
like a madman from his chair as I told how I felt her hand move. After
that, while I related the remainder of my story, he walked up and down
the room excitedly, sometimes laughing and again giving a cry of
gladness, until I came to that part where I told Ruth of my sins,
whereupon he sat down again, still staring at me wildly.

"And you left her because of that?" he said in astonishment, when I had
finished.

"I could do no other," I replied.

"Ah, but you could," he cried.

"How?" I asked.

"Why, that action of hers did not express her aversion of you, or if it
did it could be easily overcome. You should have remained with her and
she would soon have forgiven you."

"How could she when I could not forgive myself? Besides, if I had
stayed in England I should have been arrested as a murderer, and that
would have brought her worse sorrow still."

"That need not have been," he replied. "You could have brought her
here, ay, and she would have gladly come, too."

I dismissed this suggestion, for I knew it was not possible.

For three weeks I remained with Salambo, then I felt that I could stay
in Barcelona no longer, and must be on the move. Bitter memories still
urged me to go somewhere, it mattered not where, in search of peace.

I told Salambo this, and he did his best to persuade me to stay with
him, Inez adding her entreaties to his; but I felt I could not.
Something, I knew not what, impelled me to leave them, so I got a berth
on board a vessel, and went away again to follow the calling I had
followed so many years.

We shook hands at the vessel's side; he to go back