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"Such a visit as this from me, Don Hermoso, can have but one object, and I think you will have no difficulty in guessing what that object is," replied Alvaros, with a somewhat embarrassed laugh. "Pardon me, Senor," answered Don Hermoso; "you credit me with a much larger measure of perspicacity than I can lay claim to.
The place was quite new to Carlos; he had never been there before, and it seemed unlikely in the extreme that a stranger to the neighbourhood as Alvaros was would know more about it than one who had dwelt only a few miles off during practically his whole life: yet Juan was now pressing on, a long way ahead, as though he were following on a hot scent, and presently he disappeared altogether in a thick cluster of fir trees high up the side of the hill.
To be perfectly frank with you, I cannot conceive why you should desire a private interview with me, unless how shall I put it? unless you find yourself in a position of temporary pecuniary embarrassment; and in that case I should have thought that " "Senor Montijo," exclaimed Alvaros, starting to his feet indignantly, "do you wish to insult me?"
Alvaros, he was convinced, was not only a blatant braggart, but also an unmitigated liar, and it might be that the foul deed of which he had boasted had never happened, and that the boast was merely another lie.
Altogether, Senor Alvaros spent a distinctly unpleasant evening, for which circumstance he blamed the young Englishman; and as he rode back to his quarters that night he cursed the English nation freely, and Jack in particular, for whom, he decided, there was no room in Cuba.
But," altering his tone from one of banter to that of concentrated anger, "let me tell you, Senor Alvaros, that Senorita Isolda Montijo is dead owing to your cruelty and for that and your other crimes retribution is about to fall on you. And this is the first part of it!" Saying which, he unbuckled Alvaros' sword, drew the weapon from its sheath, and snapped the blade across his knee.
But how he had contrived to accomplish these two things was the mystery: for Carlos and Jack had both been present during the lashing-up of Alvaros, and they both felt that they would have been fully prepared to declare that for the prisoner to release himself would be a simple impossibility, so securely had he been bound; while the sill of the opening was quite nine feet from the floor, and for a man to reach it without the help of a ladder, or some similar aid, seemed equally impossible, and there was no such aid in the building.
Reassured on this point, Don Ramon chatted with Jack upon indifferent subjects until breakfast was served and the servants had been dismissed, when he said: "You are no doubt anxious to learn the result of the enquiries into the truth of Alvaros' story which I undertook to make, yesterday afternoon.
Don Hermoso's reply to this suggestion was the repetition of a categorical and uncompromising refusal; whereupon Alvaros fell into a paroxysm of rage and swore that he would either compel Don Hermoso to give his consent, or certain very dreadful things would happen to every member of the family, Dona Isolda included.
When the party again met at the dinner-table there were indications that Senor Alvaros had made up his mind to treat Jack as a person much too insignificant to be worthy of the least notice: but he soon found that he must either abandon this line of policy or himself be left out in the cold, for the Montijos, one and all, persisted in including Jack in the conversation; and very quietly and unobtrusively, but none the less firmly, contrived to make Senor Alvaros understand that the young Englishman was already regarded as one of themselves.
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