United States or Brazil ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Then he took a step into the room, where he saw still the imprint of her head upon the pillow. He turned at this and ran into the hall, shouting her name. He was down the stairs in three bounds. The couch where he had left Sorez was also empty. The guard at the front door would not believe when told; but the proof lay in the absence of the guard in the rear.
The Priest saw the world swim before his eyes, and the next second looked up to find a woman his own daughter his Jo looking back at him! But Sorez still clung and still shoved with his legs towards the edge of the boat. "For God's sake what are you about?" gasped he who a moment gone had been the Priest. Sorez saw nothing of the change.
If he had seen the man he had struck down in the house of Sorez, he gave no evidence of it. And once again Wilson found himself moving on steadily towards the old palace. The men from the hills swept everything from before them; the superstitious enemy being driven as much by their fear as by the force of the attack. Behind them came the mercenaries to the very gates of the palace.
Though Sorez realized that the Priest must know of his presence here and would spare no effort to get the image, he felt safe enough in this hut. With a few simple defenses Flores had made secret approach to the hut practically impossible. The cliff walls protected them from the rear, while approach from the front could be made only by the lake, save for short distances on either side.
The chief immediate value of the secret lay to him in the power it gave him to check Sorez in whatever influence he might have gained over the girl. As soon as he could convince Sorez that the girl's psychic powers were of no use to him in locating the treasure, he would undoubtedly lose interest in her.
Otaballo had his hands full with prospect of more to do every hour. "Everyone in Bogova knows Sorez," he answered. "If he had been in the city for the last year I should know more of his possible whereabouts than I do. He was a surgeon in the Republican armies here, but he took no active interest in the Republic. How little his arrest proves.
He was busy bending up his legs, digging in his heels, and shoving. "Father! Father!" Sorez had heard the cry before. He felt the girl beating at him with her white hands. The raft was beginning to settle. In the heavy fall of the two men a section had been loosened so that now it might possibly hold two of them no more. The girl realized this; the man realized this.
But I tell ye fair, I'm glad to help a pardner and glad to have a try, fer the sake of the girl if nothin' more. I don't like ter see an older man play no sech games as this man who d' ye say his name is?" "Sorez." "Maybe we can find out more 'bout him down here. Anyhow, we'll talk it over, boy, when we gits through this. In the meanwhile yer secret is safe."
His heart burned with as hot a thirst as his throat. Neither Sorez nor gold nor all the brown men in the universe should balk him of them longer. Leaning forward he gripped the arm of his comrade with a strength the latter had not thought within him. "Old man," he said with a new ring in his voice, "you must follow me the rest of this journey. I've got down to one thing now just one thing.
"See here wait a minute. I tell you the girl is there, and I must talk to her." "An' I'm telling ye she isn't." "Is there a Mr. Sorez there " "Oh, the man who is just after comin'? Wait a minute now," he put in more civilly, "an' I'll see, sor." Wilson breathed once more. He started at every fairy clicking and jingle which came over the waiting line. "Waiting?"
Word Of The Day