He straightened up and took her in his arms. "I know how you have
settled it," he said, "but I have stolen you. The anchor is coming up.
You love me--I have claimed what is mine. It is now beyond your power,
your responsibility."
"No, it is not," she softly denied. "I will not marry you--but I love
you--I love you!"
"You mean that if I hold you my prisoner you will still not be my wife?"
he incredulously demanded.
Slowly she nodded her head.
The man gazed off with the eyes of one stunned and slowly fought himself
back into control before he trusted his voice. After a while, he raised
his face and spoke in fragmentary sentences, his voice pitched low, his
words broken.
"But you said--just now--back there on the road--you wished someone
stronger than yourself--would take you away somewhere--beyond the Milky
Way."
His tones strengthened and suddenly he almost sang out with recovered
resolution, speaking buoyantly and triumphantly.
"Dearest, I am stronger than you, and I'm going to take you away--I'm
going to take you beyond the Milky Way, to the uttermost stars of Love.
How can it matter to me how far, if you are there?"
Again she shook her head.
"No, dear," she whispered, "you are not so strong as I, in this, because
I am strong enough to say No when my heart says only Yes--and because
Fate is stronger than any of us."
"Boat ahoy!" came a voice from the crow's nest.
"They have come for you," he said, speaking as through a fog. "Show them
here," he shouted to an officer who was hurrying to the gangway.
Two figures came over the side, and slowly followed the first officer
forward. One was a Capuchin monk, bearing himself rigidly; at his side
strode a Bedouin, bedraggled, but erect and military of bearing. The
original Arab turned with a sudden sag of the shoulders and looked
helplessly out at the path of silver that stretched across the water
below, to the moon, now sunk close to the horizon. He waved one hand in
a gesture of submission and despair, and stood silent.
The gipsy girl, standing near, took a sudden step forward and stood
close to him us the others approached.
"They may take me back if they wish to, now," she said, with a suddenly
upflaring defiance. "But they shall find me like this!" And she flung
her arms about his neck and kissed him.