Both lads felt their hearts stop beating, and a cold chill seized their
bodies as they heard the footsteps pass other cell doors without
pausing, and continue down the passage towards their own.
Those dreadful cries still rang in their ears, and they felt that if the
approaching person was coming to conduct them also to the torture, they
could not bear it. They were still, it must be remembered, only lads,
and the sound of those cries of agony had racked their nerves--as they
might those of much older men--more than they themselves knew.
They felt their very hair rising on their scalps, and a sensation of
deadly sickness and faintness swept over them.
Harry was the first to recover his presence of mind, and he spoke to
Roger.
"Come, come, Roger, lad," said he; "pull yourself together, my friend.
If they are indeed coming for us, we must make up our minds to endure it
as best we can, even as we have done before. And perchance we are
mistaken, and they do not intend to torture us at all."
Roger came out of his dismal reverie of foreboding, and his face became
once more immobile. A few heartbeats and he was as well prepared as
Harry for what might happen.
Once, for a moment, the footsteps paused, and their hearts gave a great
bound of thankfulness. The messenger, then, was not coming for them
after all!
Their sensation of relief, however, was of but brief duration.
After a pause, lasting but a few moments, those inexorable footsteps
resumed their approach once more, and nearer and nearer they came toward
the door of the last cell.
Roger and Harry glanced at one another, rose from their respective
stools, and stood upright facing the door. They had just time to give
each other a firm and reassuring hand-clasp, when the key grated in the
rusty lock outside, the bolts were slipped back with a grinding noise,
and the door creaked open on its hinges, disclosing, against the
semi-darkness of the long corridor, the form of a man, robed from head
to foot in black. Even his head and face were invisible, covered by a
kind of black cloth helmet terminating in a peak, and with two slits cut
in it for the eyes. Through these slits they could discern a pair of
fiery orbs, shining like those of a cat in the darkness, looking full at
them, as though to read their inmost thoughts.
If the mysterious visitor anticipated seeing any signs of alarm on the
lads' faces, he was disappointed, for the two stood up facing him, and
gave him back glance for glance.
Just for a single instant the same thought leapt through both their
brains: "Why not make a rush, knock the dark visitant down and stun him,
and attempt to find our way out of the building before aught is
discovered?" Indeed they both exchanged glances at that instant.
It seemed, however, as though the masked man read their thoughts; for,
stepping to one side of the door, he pointed silently down the corridor,
and there they saw what at first they had not observed, namely, a file
of similarly masked figures on each side of the passage, standing
against the walls, with naked swords in their hands.
It was of no use. Escape that way was, on the face of it, hopeless.
The masked messenger read the expression on the boys' faces as they
looked, and they could have sworn that a cruel smile lurked behind that
black mask. Then came a voice from the figure, in pure English, without
a trace of any foreign accent:
"You are both required to attend a scene of punishment. It is the order
of the Grand Inquisitor, and you are required to witness it as earnest
of what you yourselves will undergo here should you be foolish enough to
disobey, or in any way attempt to thwart, the wishes or designs of the
Holy Inquisition." Here he crossed himself. "A warning is but seldom
given to heretics; so accept this one as it is meant; for your own good
I tell you this. Now follow me, and be careful that you make no attempt
at escape, for it is absolutely impossible for you to succeed, and you
would but bring a heavy punishment on yourselves. And, above all,
whatever you see or hear, keep a still tongue in your heads; do not
presume to speak to anyone where you are going. If you obey implicitly
it may be that you will be leniently dealt with."
The masked man turned, beckoning over his shoulder for them to follow,
and then preceded them up the passage.
They were a great deal relieved to find that they were not to be this
time tortured; but they knew only too well what punishment it was that
they were to witness, and they felt their hearts sicken within them.
They both knew that the advice they had just received was good, and
resolved, if possible, to abide by it. They therefore followed their
leader along the corridor in silence, while the masked men with swords
fell in behind them as soon as they had passed, effectually preventing
any attempt on their part at escape.
Up the passage they went, reached the end of it, and then turned to the
right, afterwards climbing up a long flight of steps. This brought them
to another long passage, but much wider than the one leading to their
own cell. It was also covered with some kind of matting, and several
doors opened into the corridor.
Along this corridor they went, and came presently to another large door,
through which they passed, finding themselves in a large and lofty room.
This was somewhat dark, and, after the light through which they had just
passed, they could not for a few moments discern the objects contained
therein. Then, as their eyes became more accustomed to the half-light,
they perceived, hanging on the wall, strange instruments of iron and
wood, and in different places in the apartment were standing
curious-looking machines, the use of which they could only imagine with
a shudder.
The door through which they had just entered was closed and locked, and,
turning round, the two friends saw that the masked guards had vanished,
as also had the guide who had conducted them thither. But the chamber
was tenanted by several funereal figures in black, all with their faces
hidden, and whose movements even seemed to suggest something horrible
and repulsive.
In silence one of the masked figures took down an instrument from the
wall, and walked to the opposite end of the room, where stood another
group of men in black, with cowled heads.
The lads watched, as if fascinated, and with an inward feeling that
something dreadful was about to occur. They could perceive a certain
dim outline of something that looked like a framework of timber, but its
complete shape was hidden from them by the figures of those who were
standing in between.
All the masked men appeared to the boys to be waiting for something or
someone before they proceeded with whatever they were preparing to do.
As they stood there, frozen into rigidity and silence by a dreadful and
indefinable sensation of horror, they heard a fluttering sigh coming
from the opposite end of the room, apparently from somewhere near the
mysterious framework.
This sigh, faint at first, suddenly changed into a most fearful sound--
something between a moan and the noise a man makes when the breath is
suddenly driven from his body. The sound was so full of horror that
they felt their blood literally curdle within them. It was all the more
terrifying because they could not tell who or what it was that produced
it. In spite of themselves they moved a few steps nearer, and then a
sight met their eyes which turned them sick.
What they had taken for a wooden framework was indeed a framework, but
one for a terrible use.
It consisted of four pieces of timber merely, two long and two short.
These were fastened together in the form of a rectangle, thus producing
an article somewhat resembling a bed-frame, only rather narrower; and
the wood-work was much more massive. Two iron rings were fixed in the
centre of each of the short pieces, and to each of these were attached
stout straps of raw hide.
And there, stretched upon this framework, and supported in position
solely by his hands and ankles, around which were fastened the raw hide
strips attached to the rings, lay the figure of a man!
The body was perfectly naked; and as the boys looked, unable to turn
their eyes away through sheer horror at the sight, which held them as
though fascinated, the groups of cowled men separated and, seizing the
lads, pushed them forward until they stood close to the framework and
had a full view of the whole dreadful scene. A voice behind them
uttered the words:
"Look! Take warning!" But it is very doubtful whether either Harry or
Roger heard the words; their brains seemed paralysed by the sight that
met their eyes.
The figure was that of a man, evidently in the prime of life; the legs
were stretched so far apart by the framework that it was extraordinary
that flesh and blood could endure the strain and still hang together.
The arms were also stretched out above the man's head to such an extent
that they seemed to be literally parting from the poor body at the
shoulders. The muscles had started up, and seemed to be bursting
through the skin, and the flesh was stretched so tightly over the bones
that it seemed a skeleton rather than a human living body upon which
they gazed.
But it was not this sight of a living, breathing, sentient human body
strained and stretched to the point of being torn asunder that excited
the lads' commiseration and horror, and caused them inwardly to register
a solemn and awful vow of vengeance upon the human fiends around them
should the opportunity ever arise. No, terrible as was that sight,
there were others--horrors that only the most debased and cruel
imagination could possibly invent, and to which no pen could possibly do
justice, even were any good purpose to be achieved by the attempted
recital of them--that caused the lads' souls to revolt at once and for
ever against a people that could perpetrate such diabolical cruelties.
Another deep groan issued from the lips of the hapless sufferer, and he
opened his eyes, which had until now been closed, and then they saw that
a certain suspicion that for some moments had been growing in their
minds was but too well founded. Yes, yes! Oh, horror! it was de Soto,
that noble, brave, and chivalrous Spaniard whom they had last seen
retiring with the rest of their prisoners into the depths of the jungle
of Cuba!
Harry uttered a little cry, and, swaying for a moment, fell heavily into
the arms of Roger, who laid him gently on the stone floor.
At this, one of the cowled inquisitors stepped forward; but at that
moment a door opened and a man entered, clad in rich and costly
vestments, his identity unconcealed in any way by cowl or cloak.
Roger looked up, and could scarcely credit his senses.
Where--where had he seen that sinister and evil countenance before? As
he looked, so did the man who had just entered look at Roger, a new
light dawning in his evil eyes.
Then Roger recognised the man; he had seen him before. It was Alvarez!