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 "You have come back to carry me off. It is well! Open thy arms, Giovanni, my lover. I am coming." His prudent footsteps stopped, and, with his eyes glistening wildly, he spoke in a harsh voice:

"Not yet. I must grow rich slowly." ... A threatening note came into his tone. "Do not forget that you have a thief for your lover."

"Yes! Yes!" she whispered hastily. "Come nearer! Listen! Do not give me up, Giovanni! Never, never! ... I will be patient! ..."

Her form drooped consolingly over the low casement towards the slave of the unlawful treasure. The light in the room went out, and, weighted with silver, the magnificent capataz clasped her round her white neck in the darkness of the gulf as a drowning man clutches at a straw.