Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 1, 2025
There was no one in sight and he stooped down and examined the stairs carefully. Then he straightened up and rubbed his chin as a sudden gleam of intelligence passed through his brain. "So," he muttered, "this is why Santiago dwells in a house that is directly back of the banker's. That was his box and he is the strange man who made the million-dollar deposit in Don Esteban's bank."
She stopped; a curious anxious look in the Padre's persistent eyes both annoyed and frightened her. "What other motive could he have?" she said coldly. Father Esteban's face lightened. "I only ask because I think you would have known it. Thank you for the assurance all the same, and in return I promise you I will use my best endeavors with the Comandante for your friend the Captain Bunker.
For the lady could not rest without knowing all there was to know about the treasure. Avaricious to her finger-tips, she itched to weigh those bags of precious metal and yearned to see those jewels burning upon her bosom. Her mercenary mind magnified their value many times, and her anger at Don Esteban's obstinacy deepened to a smoldering hatred.
He ran hastily down the stairs and a minute later the boys heard the gate close behind him. "I guess this is the quickest way," thought Donald as he gained the sidewalk. "I'll not bother with a mozo. With American soldiers on guard and my automatic in my pocket, I have nothing to fear." A couple of minutes later he was ringing the bell at Don Esteban's house.
Leslie turned to voice his irritation and surprise to Norine, but she had slipped away, so he glared at O'Reilly, wondering how the latter had so artfully managed to mistranslate his remarks. When Rosa and O'Reilly returned to Esteban's cabin they found Norine ahead of them. She was kneeling beside the sick man's hammock, and through the doorway came the low, intimate murmur of their voices.
"I am," he announced, making a literal translation of his name, "Don Pedro Sangre, an unfortunate gentleman of Leon, lately delivered from captivity by Don Esteban's most gallant father." And in a few words he sketched the imagined conditions of his capture by, and deliverance from, those accursed heretics who held the island of Barbados. "Benedicamus Domino," said the friar to his tale.
For an instant the young man supported him in his arms, then placed him gently in the chair he had just quitted, and for the first time in their intimacy dropped upon his knee before him. The old man, with a faint smile, placed his hand upon his companion's head. A breathless pause followed; Father Esteban's lips moved silently.
Norine was the first to realize the truth, but it was some time before she would acknowledge it, even to herself. At last, however, she had to face the fact that Esteban's months of prison fare, the abuse, the neglect he had suffered in Spanish hands, had left him little more than a living corpse.
Both guides, having crossed the trocha more than once, affected to scorn its terrors, and their easy confidence reassured O'Reilly in spite of Esteban's parting admonition. The American had not dreamed of taking Jacket along, but when he came to announce his departure the boy had flatly refused to be left behind.
Don Miguel opened his arms to his nephew, whose lingering panic he mistook for pleasurable excitement, and having enfolded him to his bosom turned to greet Don Esteban's companion. Peter Blood bowed gracefully, entirely at his ease, so far as might be judged from appearances.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking