"I understand that you are threatening me," answered Pedro, "and I shall report you."
This "report" meant fifty lashes on the bare back of the prisoner, delivered publicly before retiring to rest.
Alfonso gnashed his teeth savagely.
"Take care," he said.
"I shall report you twice if you do not instantly go to work."
This was intended to convey the fact that the punishment would be doubled, and the number of lashes increased to one hundred.
Alfonso's eyes glared like those of a wild beast.
Jack shrank back, for he felt sure that some terrible tragedy was about to take place.
In any case of disobedience reported by the overseers, the convicts were unmercifully flogged with a rawhide, and Alfonso had been treated to that kind of discipline twice during his period of incarceration.
What wonder that a man condemned for life to the most degrading drudgery, who had no hope of a commutation of his sentence, and who could only expect to die in his chains, should rebel when he thought himself persecuted by those in authority over him?