She laughed and blushed, then taking the crimson blossom from her hair, handed it to me. I was about to inhale its fragrance when the strange, fixed look in her eyes fascinated me, and as I placed it in the lapel of my coat with a murmured word of thanks, I confess I was startled by the sudden transformation of her countenance. "Good-bye," I said, taking her hand. It was cold, limp, and trembling. "Adieu," she answered huskily. I turned to shake hands with her brother, but before I could do so, he had pounced upon me from behind, holding my arms powerless, crying-- "No, no, my friend, you will not escape so easily!" "What--what do you mean?" I gasped in abject amazement. "I mean that you do not leave this place alive," he hissed in my ear. Though I could not see him, I could feel his hot breath upon my cheek, and struggled violently to free myself, but in his iron grip I seemed powerless as a child. "Now, quick, Doroteita!" he commanded. "Remember, we have no time to lose. Don't stand staring there!" "Do you mean to kill me?" I cried, clenching my teeth and struggling with all my might to free my arms. "Curse you, woman! Don't you hear me?" he yelled at Doroteita, who stood transfixed, with face ashen pale and hands clenched in desperation. "Remember what we have at stake! You have trapped him-- finish your work, or--or I'll kill _you_!" In a second she sprang forward, and, snatching from my buttonhole the flower she had given me, held her handkerchief over my mouth with one hand, while with the other she pressed the flower against my nostrils. It seemed damp with some evil-smelling fluid, and though I struggled, she held my face with such determined force, that the leaves of the blossom were forced into my nose, and I was compelled to inhale the disagreeable perfume they emitted. The odour was strange, and in a few seconds produced a curious giddiness such as I had never before experienced. My brain became paralysed and my limbs assumed an unaccountable rigidness. I tried to speak, but was unable. My jaws seemed to have become suddenly fixed, as if attacked by tetanus. A thrill of horror ran through me, for I could not breathe, and the pang of pain that shot through my eyes was excruciating. Feeling myself utterly helpless in the hands of those who had so cunningly plotted my murder, I wondered in that brief instant whether Luis was Doroteita's lover, and whether on discovering our friendship, he had planned this terrible and merciless revenge. My enchantress's handsome face, now hideously distorted by mingled fear and passion, was close to me, her eyes riveted to mine, and as she pressed the strange flower against my face, her white lips moved as if speaking to me. But I was deaf. My senses had been destroyed.