He led the way through rocky, winding passages to the great cave, in
which his motley band were enjoying their evening meal with much loud
talk and laughter. At sight of the cloaked and hooded figure of their
master and his fair captive there was a sudden hush, however, and
practically all the men sprang to their feet at once.
"Mendoza, the keys of the prisoner's cell, please," said Don Carlos.
"The señorita wishes to speak to the Englishman."
An elderly man with some keys on a chain attached to his belt hurried
forward at once, and unlocked a massive door giving access to a small
apartment that looked as if it had been hewn out of the solid rock. It
was unfurnished save for a straw mattress with a brown blanket for
covering, and a rough wooden bench, on which, when the door was flung
open, Antony Standish was seated dejectedly with his head between his
hands.
He sprang up with a sharp intake of breath, looking pale, startled and
dishevelled, at sight of Myra and the hooded figure he assumed to be El
Diablo Cojuelo.
"Hullo! What's the idea now?" he asked quickly. "Why have you brought
Miss Rostrevor here?"
"The señorita wishes to assure herself that what she has been told by
Don Carlos de Ruiz is correct," explained El Diablo Cojuelo, in his
disguised and muffled voice. "I, also, wish to hear you say that you
are prepared to accept your freedom and go back with Don Carlos to his
castle, leaving the señorita with me, resigning her to me as your
ransom."
Myra found herself strangely calm, felt as if she had run through the
whole gamut of emotions and exhausted them all.
"Tony, is it true you told Don Carlos that you were willing to go and
leave me here at the mercy of this outlaw, who professes to be
passionately in love with me?" she asked, scarcely recognising her own
voice. "Is it true?"
"True? Er--er--why, of course not," answered Standish, nervously
fingering his little sandy moustache. "I mean to say--er--what exactly
did Don Carlos tell you?"
"That you are prepared to leave me here, knowing that El Diablo Cojuelo
will force me to become his wife, and accept your own freedom rather
than run the risk of punishment," said Myra. "You are prepared to
renounce me, Tony?"
"No, no, nothing of the sort!" exclaimed Tony, his face flushing
duskily. "Nothing of the sort! I distinctly told Don Carlos that
nothing would induce me to surrender you to Cojuelo. Myra, darling,
you know I would never think of doing such a thing."
"So you assert that Don Carlos lied?" demanded Cojuelo sternly. "You
did not tell him you would accept your freedom and leave the señorita
to me if I refrained from flogging you and branding you? Will you
swear that on oath--on your sacred word of honour as an English
gentleman?"
"Don Carlos must have misunderstood me," Standish responded, nervously
licking his dry lips. "Look here, Cojuelo, drop this fooling and be
sensible. I realise you've got the whip hand, so to speak, and can
dictate your own terms. How much do you want? I told Don Carlos I am
willing to pay you ten thousand pounds--that's something like a million
pesetas in your money--to set Miss Rostrevor and me free. Think of it,
man--a million, and----"
"You have not answered my question, Señor Standish," interrupted
Cojuelo curtly. "Do you assert that Don Carlos de Ruiz lied when he
said you were willing to accept your freedom and leave the Señorita
Rostrevor to me? Will you meet Don Carlos face to face and denounce
him as a liar?"
"Don Carlos must have misunderstood me," repeated Tony. "It--er--it
isn't a question of calling him a liar. Look here, Cojuelo, what's the
use of all this bluff and bluster? Why don't you come down to brass
tacks and state your terms?"
"Don Carlos did not misunderstand you, and you are lying," Cojuelo
rasped at him. "Confess now to the Señorita Rostrevor that you have
renounced her."
"I shall do nothing of the sort, confound you!" Standish exclaimed
angrily. "Why the deuce don't you state your terms and have done with
it?"
"My terms were clearly dictated to you through the medium of Don
Carlos," said Cojuelo. "I give you your freedom on condition that you
renounce the Señorita Rostrevor and surrender her to me. Incidentally,
the señorita has promised she will marry me if you renounce her."
"I made the promise, Tony, because Don Car--er--I mean El Diablo
Cojuelo--boasted that you would surrender me to save yourself,"
interposed Myra hastily. "I knew nothing would induce you to give me
up, Tony. It isn't true, is it, that you agreed to go away with Don
Carlos and leave me here?"
"No, of course I didn't mean that, Myra," answered Tony, gulping as if
he had a lump in his throat. "Didn't I come here to ransom you?"
"If Don Carlos lied, and you still refuse to renounce the señorita
after you have been flogged and put to the torture, then I will set her
free and you also," Cojuelo said grimly. "That is a promise, and
Cojuelo never breaks a promise. Meanwhile I say again that you are
lying, and that Don Carlos told the Señorita Rostrevor the truth."
"Here, I say, Cojuelo, cut out this bluff about torture and all that
sort of nonsense," exclaimed Standish, with just a suspicion of
unsteadiness in his voice. "I tell you I am prepared to pay any sum
within reason as a ransom, and you won't get any more by threatening me
with physical violence. Look here, I'm willing to apologise for having
tried to shoot you, but you know you exasperated me by taunting me
about not valuing Miss Rostrevor."
"What a charming piece of condescension on your part!" sneered Cojuelo.
"If Don Carlos de Ruiz lied to the Señorita Rostrevor, I shall shoot
him. That is another promise, señorita. As for you, perhaps the lash
and the red hot iron on your flesh will induce you to speak truth as
well as test your courage!"
He turned to the door, outside which the man with the keys was standing.
"Mendoza, order Perez, Riafio and Garcilaso to get ready the whipping
post and make hot the branding irons at once," he commanded in Spanish,
then repeated the order in English for the benefit of Standish, whose
face went livid.
"Oh, surely you won't be so fiendishly cruel!" burst out Myra
passionately. "If you dare to harm Tony----"
"We will withdraw, señorita, and leave Señor Standish to nerve himself
for the ordeal that awaits him," interrupted Cojuelo, and hustled her
out of the cell before she could say more. "I swear I did not lie to
you, Myra," he resumed, as he clanged the door shut on the prisoner.
"I am bluffing now, and have no intention of flogging or branding
Standish, but only of scaring him into confessing that he is willing to
give you to me to save himself."
"And if he stands the test, if he refuses to give me up even when
threatened with flogging and burning, you will keep your promise and
set us both free?" asked Myra, after a breathless pause.
"Yes, assuredly--and I shall also keep my promise to shoot Don Carlos,"
was the grim reply. "Look, is it not a picturesque scene?" he added,
with a change of tone.
The great cave, lighted by electricity, was certainly a remarkable
sight, filled as it was with a picturesque crowd of men, some of them
in what looked like stage costumes, nearly all chattering like excited
children anticipating a treat as they watched some of their fellows
erecting a whipping-post in the centre of the place, while another was
busy working the bellows of what looked like a blacksmith's furnace and
making irons red-hot. A scene a great artist might have loved to
paint, yet the atmosphere was so sinister that Myra shivered
involuntarily.
"You are frightened, señorita?" queried Don Carlos, and it seemed to
Myra there was something mocking and sardonic in his tone. "In
England, I remember, you were renowned for your courage and your love
of adventure. Surely this is a great adventure?"
The remark stung Myra's pride, and her fair face flushed hotly.
"It disgusts and revolts me that you should try to terrorise a
defenceless man to gratify your own vanity and humiliate me," she
answered angrily. "As for being afraid, the remote prospect of having
to marry you certainly frightens me."
Don Carlos made no answer, but strode across and talked rapidly to the
men gathered round the whipping post and the furnace, evidently
explaining to them at length what he wished them to do. Myra, of
course, could not understand what was said, but she saw that some of
the men laughed while others looked disappointed, and she concluded
that Don Carlos was telling them that the preparations for the torture
of the Englishman were all bluff.
"God grant that Tony's courage does not fail him, and that he stands
the test," she whispered under her breath.
"It will be necessary for you to remain and witness the performance,
señorita," said Don Carlos coldly, returning to her. "If I spared you
the ordeal, you might again refuse to believe me when I reported the
result."
"I wish to stay," Myra answered, and her red-gold head went up proudly.
"My presence will give the man I love courage."
"It is a great gamble, and you, fair lady, are the stake," said Don
Carlos. "The stage is set and our fate will be decided within a few
minutes."
He nodded his cowled head, shouted some orders in Spanish to his men,
and took up a position beside the whipping-post, which somewhat
resembled an ancient pillory. Four men hurried to the cell in which
Standish was confined, to reappear after the lapse of a few minutes
with the prisoner between them.
They had stripped Standish to the waist, and he walked forward with
firm step and head erect, but at the sight of the whipping-post and the
furnace, and the sinister figure beside them with a cat-o'-nine-tails
in his hand, he halted suddenly with an involuntary gasp, and his face
went ashen.
"Cojuelo, you--you can't mean that you are going to be such a fiend as
to torture me!" he burst out breathlessly. "I haven't done you any
harm. Look here, I'll--I'll double the ransom if you'll let me off.
I'll make it twenty thousand pounds."
"Not for fifty thousand pounds would I forego my vengeance," rasped the
hooded figure. "Yet you have but to confess that you did agree to go
away and leave the Señorita Rostrevor here, well knowing what would
happen to her, you have only to tell her now that you renounce her to
me, and I will let you go unharmed."
"Don't, Tony, don't!" cried Myra. "Be brave, dear!"
Standish, who had not previously noticed her, jerked round his head at
the sound of her voice.
"Myra, for God's sake intercede for me," he screamed, and began to
struggle violently as his guards seized him and began to drag him
towards the pillory. "Beg him to spare me!"
"Oh, Tony, don't fail me!" cried Myra, shamed by his display of terror.
"Don't be a coward! Be brave! Be British!"
Struggling, shouting, protesting and appealing frantically, his face
livid and the sweat of fear pouring down it, Standish was dragged
towards the stake.
"The burning irons first, I think," snarled Cojuelo. "The burns will
make the lash more effective afterwards."
The man beside the furnace drew from the fire a branding iron, the end
of which was red-hot, and made a threatening movement. Standish
squealed like a rabbit caught in a trap.
"Don't! Don't!" he shrieked in a frenzy of terror. "Oh, spare me,
spare me! I'll give her up. I--I can't face it. You can have her!"
"Do you still accuse Don Carlos of having lied?" demanded Cojuelo
remorselessly. "Is it not true that you were willing to escape with
him, or by his aid, and leave the señorita?"
"Yes, yes, it is true," gasped Standish. "I lied to Myra to try to--to
save my face. Don Carlos said he would look after her. Let me go!
Let me go!"
"You hear, señorita?" exclaimed Don Carlos, his voice ringing out
triumphantly. "To save his own skin, your lover has renounced you....
Release the brave Englishman, my friends. The farce is over."
Nauseated by Tony's piteous exhibition of craven terror, Myra turned
away from him in loathing and contempt as the men released him.
"Oh, you coward!" she burst out passionately. "I was so sure you would
stand the test and would not fail me that I promised I would marry this
devil in your presence if you were dastard enough to offer to give me
to him to save your own skin. All these preparations for torture were
only bluff to test your courage and your love. You have failed me,
Tony, in my hour of greatest need, and I hate and despise you. I would
give myself to any bandit now rather than marry you!"
"I hold you to your promise, señorita," cried Cojuelo. "You will marry
me here and now in the presence of Señor Standish.... Come hither,
Padre Sancho, and perform the marriage service."
A fat little bald-headed man, dressed in a greasy black cassock and
carpet slippers, shuffled forward and addressed some questions to Myra
in a wheezy voice.
"He is asking if you are willing to marry me," Cojuelo interpreted.
"Yes, I will keep my promise and marry you in the presence of the man
who has failed me," said Myra, and flashed a glance at Standish that
made him quail.
"Here, I say! I--I didn't realise it was bluff," faltered Standish.
"I'll do anything... Cojuelo, I'll pay you fifty thousand if only
you'll----"
"Proceed with the ceremony, Padre Sancho," interrupted Cojuelo; and the
monk opened his book and began to gabble unintelligibly in his wheezy
voice. Presently he paused and addressed a question to the hooded
figure.
"I will," said Cojuelo, and took Myra's listless hand in his own. "You
Myra, will also answer 'I will,' when the Padre asks you. This ring,
which I took from the finger of Don Carlos de Ruiz, will serve for the
present."
"Myra, for heaven's sake----" broke in Tony Standish, but Myra paid no
heed to him.
"I will," she answered firmly, in response to the priest's
unintelligible question.
It struck her suddenly that the priest did not appear to be treating
the ceremony seriously, and the thought flashed into her mind that
possibly "Padre Sancho" was only one of the brigands deputed by Don
Carlos to play a part, and the whole proceeding was as much bluff as
had been the preparations to torture Tony Standish.
"Is he fooling me again?" wondered Myra, as Padre Sancho gabbled
through the rest of the service, closed his book and raised his right
hand as if bestowing a blessing, whereupon some of the brigands behind
and around him began to cheer. They cheered more lustily still when
their hooded chief put his arm round Myra's shoulders with an air of
possession.
"Mother Dolores will escort you to your room, Myra," said Don Carlos.
"Forgive your bridegroom for not accompanying you. I have to arrange
for the release of Señor Standish."