Part 3 (1/2)

”Battling with the surf I did not see nor hear,” he muttered at last.

”But he could not sail without me!” he added. Fiercely he raised his head and his eyes flashed. ”He dare not so betray me!”

Wildenai, too, had been considering.

”The great white captain knew, then, that you were not on board?” she asked suddenly.

”No,” replied the young man reluctantly, ”that did he not. I came without his knowledge. He would have prevented me,” he continued stubbornly, ”and I had promised thee a gift. Never did I break my word, nor would not then. But I did not dream it possible they could get away so soon! By our virgin lady in Heaven I swear I know not what to do.”

And once more he seemed lost in despair.

But only for a moment. Then he turned hastily to the entrance.

”I must follow them at once,” he declared impatiently, ”I can overtake them even yet.”

Swift as lightning the girl threw herself between him and the opening in the cave.

”No, no, senor Englishman,” she cried. ”It is impossible! Listen, only listen to me! What have you, then, to steer by save the stars? And you see that, drowned in moonlight, they do not s.h.i.+ne tonight. And, more than that, you do not even know what course the vessel takes. Remember, too, that there is neither food nor drink within your boat. You would surely die ere you could ever find the s.h.i.+p.”

Gradually she compelled him to listen to reason until, seating himself again upon the skins, he challenged her still further.

”But what, then, shall I do?” he demanded. ”Can'st also tell me that?”

And with equal readiness the princess replied:

”If you will but let me I can hide you here. The cavern is my own. Here for many a moon have I worked and waited. No one would dare to enter.

You will be safe. Besides, my father's anger will grow cold in time, and then I know that, if I ask him, he will help you.”

His chin propped upon his hands, the young n.o.bleman moodily considered.

”Well, do then as thou deemest best,” he told her finally.

And from that moment there began for the little princess a time so wonderful that for all the rest of her life she remembered each separate hour as though it had been some beautiful word in a poem learned by heart.

With deft fingers she piled her softest doeskins for his bed.

”But what wilt thou do, tell me, if I rob thee of thy nest?” he asked, watching her with amused eyes as she worked.

”I go always to the village to sleep,” she answered simply, and so left him.

But in the morning while yet the red of sunrise burned above the great peak Orazaba, she returned, bearing upon her head an olla of carved stone filled with water from a mountain spring. This in smiling silence she set before him and disappeared. Within the hour, however, she was back again and this time, kneeling on the ground, she laid at his feet the ripe fruit of the manzanita tree, lying like small red apples, dewy fresh, upon a wild-grape leaf.

”Ala--ate, see! Are they not good?” she asked triumphantly.

And so from day to day she ministered to him. Many a time as he sat, listless and moody, within his hiding-place, a handful of wild strawberries, steeped in the warm sweetness of the hills, would be pushed beneath the leafy branches that concealed the door. Sometimes she brought him bread baked from a curious kind of meal made of pounded seeds.

Once, too, when a sudden storm had chilled the air, she kindled a fire for him within a smaller cave, receding like a fire-place into the rocky wall opposite the opening. It was a long and tedious process which the man watched curiously. First, kneeling on the ground, she rubbed together two dry willow sticks until a little pile of dust had gathered.

Then, still stooping, she struck two flints together until at last a spark fell into the dust. Some dry leaves were dropped upon the tiny blaze, then twigs, and lo, a fire!

In spite of himself the Englishman smiled, though a softer feeling shown in his eyes. How beautiful and yet how childish she looked kneeling there with the anxious pucker between her brows. Poor little princess, how very hard she worked to serve him!