He preferred to leave the criminal to the ordinary tribunals of his
native island. It could adjudge and carry out any punishment short of
death, if so inclined. In the Crimea the capital sentence only would
have been possible.
The trial was short and summary. Mariquita, dressed still in the
sober, quaker-like garb of a hospital-nurse, said what she had to say
in a few simple words. Her sweet face and artless manner were the
admiration of the whole court, and there was a little round of
applause as it came out that she had ventured so far and braved so
much out of love for the gallant soldier who was leaning on his
crutches close by her side.
Valetta Joe was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for four
years, and with his conviction the reader's interest in him will
probably cease. It disposed of the last of McKay's active enemies;
Benito, as we have seen, had died in Balaclava hospital, and Cyprienne
Vergette and her accomplice were in the grip of the French law.
The enemies had disappeared; friends only remained. When he landed at
Gibraltar numbers came to greet him, from the Governor himself to the
Tio Pedro and the old crone his wife. Letters had already assured them
of Mariquita's safety, and they wept crocodile tears of joy as they
clasped her once more in their arms.
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