"No need of it; my back bears the record."
"For two days in succession, my friend," exclaimed Pedro, who seemed to take a pleasure in tormenting the convict, "you will be flogged in the presence of your companions."
Alfonso's herculean frame trembled, and he shook like an aspen leaf.
"God!" he cried, uplifting his eyes to the dark rock above him, "my time has come—and his."
With a wild gasp he sprang upon Pedro.
Harkaway would have interfered, but he saw that it was useless to make any attempt to separate them.
It was a duel to the death between these two men.
He would only have endangered his own life and have done no good.
Pedro discharged his pistol, as he had threatened to do, but Alfonso received the bullet in his left shoulder without flinching. With his right hand he drove the sharp point of his pick into the skull of the keeper.
Pedro fell with a groan.