"Yes, he, the villain who is blockading Havana and destroying our ships.
I had the knife at his heart, and that Yankee pig prevented me. Do you wonder that I hate him?"
"No. I hate him, too."
"Yes! For you are a true Spaniard. But about that money, Jose. I got it as I say, from this Schwartz. For when this Yankee pig stopped him from blowing up the New York he ran away and hid. And he paid me this for helping him to Cuba."
Ignacio held up the bills before the hungry eyes of the Spanish sergeant.
And when he had given him time to look at it and think of what it meant for him, Ignacio suddenly bent forward and got close to him.
"Jose," he cried, "it"s all for you!"
The man stared eagerly.
"What for?" he cried.
"I will tell you!" said Ignacio.
Once more he slipped his hand under his jacket.
"Look," said he.
And he drew out a sharp, gleaming dagger!
He ran his fingers over the edge, hissing as he did so between his teeth.
"It is sharp," he muttered. "Ha! ha! sharp! And it will do the work."
"What work?"
"Listen, Jose. There lies the fiend of a Yankee. He is in my power at last. He has baffled me, ruined me, but now I have him! Yes, he can"t get away! Ha! ha! I feel merry. Jose, he is my deadliest enemy; he is your enemy, too, the enemy of our glorious country. I hate him--so must you."
"I do!"
"Then listen. I want to take this knife, this nice, sharp knife that I have been grinding for him. Ha! ha! Santa Maria, how sharp it is! And I will put this money, all this money, into your hands and you will turn away so as not to see. And I will take this knife in my hand so. And I will creep over toward that fellow----"
"And kill him?"
"Listen, Jose. You spoil it. He"ll scream. He"ll turn pale and tremble like the coward he is. But he can"t get away, Jose, he can"t get away!
I"ve got him, Jose! And I"ll unb.u.t.ton his jacket, that hated Yankee uniform. And I"ll take this knife and I"ll put it right close to his soft, white skin. Then I will press down--down! And you"ll hear him scream as it goes in; he"ll twist about and shriek, but I will pin him to the floor. And then he will lie there, Jose, and we can watch him die. Ha, Madre di dios, how I hate him!"
The Spaniard"s rage had been such that his face grew fairly purple. And he s.n.a.t.c.hed up the knife and started forward toward the cadet.
"How I hate him!" he panted again.
What were the feelings of poor Clif may be imagined; he was perfectly helpless and could only lie still and gaze into the eyes of his deadly foe.
But there was some one else to stop Ignacio.
The sergeant caught him by the arm.
"So, no!" he cried. "Stop."
"What!" panted Ignacio. "Why?"
"They would punish me."
"But they need not know?"
"The others will tell."
"Nonsense."
"But they will."
"What? Cannot a knife kill more than one man. Carramba, I will kill all five."
"But I was ordered to deliver them alive."
Ignacio was nearly frenzied at those objections.
"Jose" he yelled, "you are mad. We can fix it. I will fix it with Blanco. Say they got loose, chewed the ropes, and attacked us. I will swear they did, swear it by all the saints. And I hate that Yankee so, Jose, that I would cut my own flesh to make the story seem more probable. I will say we had a desperate battle--tell them how you saved my life. And you will be promoted. Blanco will believe me, Jose."
But the Spanish soldier shook his head dubiously.
"I dare not," he said. "The captain"s last words were to deliver them safely."
"But think of the money, Jose! Think of the money!"
Ignacio fairly ground his teeth with rage over the delay; he was like a wild man.
"Por dios," he cried, "how can you hesitate? It is the chance of your lifetime--of your lifetime!"
The five unfortunate prisoners had not all of them understood those words, but they had no doubt of their meaning. And they lay watching Ignacio feverishly.
It was as if they had been charmed by a serpent, their eyes followed his every motion. They realized that at any moment the cunning villain might leap at them.
But the sergeant, though wavering, still shook his head.
"The men will tell," he objected.
"Here is another hundred for them!" gasped Ignacio. "It is all I have.
Por dios, what more?"
There was at least half a minute of agony after that while the man upon whom everything depended wrestled with that temptation. It was a great one, and Clif felt a cold perspiration breaking out all over him as he sat and watched.
But the stolid sergeant was apparently too much of a coward to take the risk. He said no, and Clif gave a gasp.