The Moment of Vengeance

"I have not doubted it, sweetheart."

"But do you doubt their ability to carry out the decree?"

"I do."

"Ah, Dubravnik, you little know the men with whom we have to deal."

How sweet it was to hear her include herself with me, against them.
"They are like bloodhounds on a trail. They never leave it, nor tire.
They are indefatigable. When one falls, another takes his place. They
number thousands, and you are one."

"WE are one," I corrected her, smiling. "I do not doubt their
intentions, but I have not lived till now, and found you, to be killed
by the nihilists."

She gazed at me a moment in silence, and then, slowly, she added: "Do not think that I sought to frighten you by what I just said. I
already know you much too well for that. My intention was to warn you."

"I understood you, dear, perfectly."

She turned away from the window again and faced me, and her eyes were
glowing with the light of love. Again for the moment we were face to
face with the perils that menaced us from the outside, and before that
consideration, all else faded to nothingness with Zara. A little while
ago she had repudiated me, but all-conquering Love had stepped in
again, had overpowered her, enthralled her, and I could see that she
was more than ever mine own, now.

For a space we looked into each other's eyes across the short distance
that separated us. We were reading each other's souls, and both saw and
understood all that the heart of love could desire. It was an
undiscovered country to each of us, upon which we trod just then; a new
creation that was the sweeter because of its strangeness.