<h3 class="newchapter2">MILO CROSSES THE BAR.</h3>
<p>Milo watched Stumpy disappear down the grove path, and heard him call to
his men to follow. Then he regarded the receding yacht intently for a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</SPAN></span>
moment, and the last vestige of noble devotion went from his face and
gave place to a great and absorbing bitterness. In that instant, the
foundations, pillars, and capitals of his soul shook and tottered; his
universe changed from a thing of golden beauty and heavenly splendor to
a shameful mockery of truth and faith.</p>
<p>In that moment his thoughts flew back to little Pascherette, and his
great heart yearned toward her. False she had proved, but to what? To
whom? He asked himself these things as he slowly walked back along the
tunnel, not yet knowing what he would do. He answered his own question.
Pascherette had proven false to falsity; she had schemed against the
schemer; and, in the other tray of the balance she had done these things
for love of him, out of a deep and all-powerful ambition to place him,
Milo the slave, in the high place of the wanton ingrate who had deserted
her people. And the thought hurt him now; he had not yet yielded her the
kiss she craved. Even now the little gold-tinted one might be cold in
death, denied that small consolation because of his obstinate heart.</p>
<p>He ran along the tunnel and burst through the great chamber, cursing the
idle slaves into silence when they cried their helpless queries at him.
And straight to Pascherette he sped, to fling himself down by her side
and seize her tiny, moist hand in frantic appeal.</p>
<p>"Pascherette!" he whispered with a dry sob. "Little golden one, speak to
thy Milo. Speak, and forgive!"</p>
<p>The octoroon gave no sign of life, and the giant dropped her hand and
gently raised her pallid face. His lips sought hers in a passionate
kiss, long and yearning; and slowly her eyelids fluttered and opened.
The dark eyes were misty, yet that longed-for kiss had brought back her
fleeting spirit to recognize her man. She closed her tired eyes again,
with a little sign, and the small, pale lips formed the words: "I am
content, Milo, my god."</p>
<p>The giant bowed his head over her silent face, and his black eyes
searched for a returning flicker of vitality. It was gone forever.
Pascherette was dead; and Milo laid her head down gently, and drew back
to stare at her with growing rebellion and horror. What gods could there
be to use him thus? He leaped to his feet with arms flung upward.</p>
<p>"Hah, gods of earth and sea, witness Milo's penitence!" he said
hoarsely. "To Dolores I have given the worship that belonged to ye and
ye have taken terrible atonement. Pity me!"</p>
<p>He paced the small alcove nervously, seeking light where no light was.
Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and
he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to
discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place.
He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath
the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the
furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left
them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now
attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they
roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused
avarice.</p>
<p>Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured;
he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them,
muttering:</p>
<p>"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's
blessing go with it!"</p>
<p>He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her
cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber
the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests,
were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass
of treasure revealed.</p>
<p>Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a
pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a
roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the
pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage
fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious
place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy.</p>
<p>The giant glowered at the snarling men<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</SPAN></span> as at some repulsive beasts,
horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's
death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back
through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great
promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of
a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a
great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead
girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel.</p>
<p>Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with
the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with
questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and
caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging,
wounded bull, he rushed in to join battle.</p>
<p>Running women brushed against Milo in the passage; all the camp's living
people had caught the fever. The giant strode on, until he stood in the
rugged rock portals and gazed once more over the sea. The schooner had
moved but slightly since he last looked at her; he could see Dolores's
head still advancing, and very near to the vessel now. The breeze had
lulled, perhaps preceding a shift of wind; and the visible people on the
deck of the Feu Follette appeared to be running back and forth in
indecision.</p>
<p>At Milo's right hand the great rock sat on its ledge, ready to fall at a
touch, and his brooding eyes flashed to it with terrible meaning.
Inside, the great chamber resounded with the clash of steel, the shouts
of furious human beasts, and the shrill cries of women urging them on;
for there must be victors, even to such a sordid fight, and to the
victors, spoils. Where victors and spoils are, there harpy women await
them.</p>
<p>Milo gazed long and passionately into the face of his dead; then he laid
her softly down outside the rock and arose with a fierce light
irradiating his face.</p>
<p>"Dogs, who would thus break the sleep of my beloved, I give ye good for
evil!" he muttered. "Treasure ye crave: treasure I give ye, and none may
take it from ye!"</p>
<p>He turned, put his hand upon the great rock and started it from its bed.
And as he moved the mass, the mountain rocked and crashed with the
thunder of the bursting powder-magazine.</p>
<p>Down came the great rock, pinning Milo beneath it, threatening in its
final fall to crush him and the body of his love. His great arms shot
out and up, every muscle on his colossal frame stood out like ropes, his
back cracked with the tremendous strain. He stiffened his knees, bit
into his lip until the blood gushed; and a groan burst from his breast
as he felt his stout knees stagger.</p>
<p>His bulging eyes glared ahead over the sea; into the air flew a thousand
fragments of shattered rock; they fell and thrashed the sea into foam a
mile from shore. Rocks fell upon his already overwhelming burden; his
knees bent, and the blood trickled from his nostrils. And with his fast
ebbing breath he breathed his valedictory, fixing his stony eyes upon
Pascherette as upon his deity.</p>
<p>"Gods of my fathers, receive my spirit into thy halls. Let thy swift
justice overtake the cause of this upheaval; and receive with my spirit
the spirit of the one who loved me." He fell to one knee, and a great
sob shook him. The rock was falling in a shower about him; it rang and
crashed on the gigantic stone that was crushing him. He bent his gaze in
anguish afresh on the dead girl, now almost buried under stone and
earth, and murmured: "Pascherette, I come! I see beyond the blue ocean
and the golden horizon the throne of my gods. Come, golden one, let us
go. There will our faithfulness meet just reward!"</p>
<p>He pitched forward upon the dead girl, and the great rock crashed down,
building them a tomb grand as the eternal hills.</p>
<h2 class="newchapter"><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></SPAN>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
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