"I came here to
tell you both good-by. I may be gone for some time. I--I don't
know when I can get back."
"I'm sorry," Esteban told him, with genuine regret. "We have grown
very fond of you. You will leave many friends here in Matanzas,
I'm sure. But you will come back before long, eh?"
"Yes, as soon as I can. That is, if--" He did not finish the
sentence.
"Good. You're one of us. In the mean time I'll remember what you
say, and at least I'll be careful." By no means wanting in tact,
Esteban rose briskly and, after shaking hands with O'Reilly, left
the two lovers to say farewell as best suited them.
But for once O'Reilly's ready tongue was silent. The laughter was
gone from his blue eyes when he turned to the girl at his side.
"You say you are going away?" Rosa inquired, breathlessly. "But
why?"
"I'm going partly because of this war, and partly because of--
something else. I tried to tell you yesterday, but I couldn't.
When the revolution started everybody thought it was merely a
local uprising, and I wrote my company to that effect; but, bless
you, it has spread like fire, and now the whole eastern end of the
island is ablaze."
"Esteban says it will be more terrible than the Ten Years' War."
"God forbid! And yet all the old fighters are back again. Nobody
believed that Maximo Gomez had returned, but it's true.
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