Leave them I would, but betray them--never!" What could I say?
What choice had I in the face of an alternative so headstrong and so unreasonable?
To rescue Eva from these miscreants I would have let every malefactor in the country go unscathed: yet the condition was a hard one; and, as I hesitated, my love went on her knees to me, there in the moonlight among the rhododendrons.
"Promise--promise--or you will kill me!" she gasped.

"They may deserve it richly, but I would rather be torn in little pieces than--than have them--hanged!" "It is too good for most of them." "Promise!" "To hold my tongue about them all ?" "Yes--promise!" "Promise!" "When a hundred lives were sacrificed--" "Promise!" "I can't," I said.

"It's wrong." "Then good-by!" she cried, starting to her feet.
"No--no--" and I caught her hand.
"Well, then ?" "I--promise.".