[CHAPTER XI.]
HOSKINS PAYS NATURE'S DEBT—ABOUT THE FIRST HE EVER DID.
Hoskins may have been astonished at this sudden intrusion and answer to the vain question he asked. I have no doubt but what he was, more especially when his eyes took in the huge form of the giant, but his surprise was as nothing when compared to the consternation exhibited by the creole.
Pedro Sanchez had appeared in the jolliest possible humor a few moments before; now, the smile that had illuminated his face at the time of the giant's entrance seemed frozen there.
Pedro Sanchez had good cause to remember Red Goliath.
The two had been comrades in crime, and together they had committed many of the deeds that made the city of New Orleans tremble to its center.
Between them they had carried off Adele, hoping to secure a heavy ransom from her mother.
At this time the treachery so natural to Sanchez exhibited itself.
A desire to obtain the whole reward, on which he could retire from business, possessed him, and he attempted to get rid of his comrade by pushing the giant over the edge of an abyss on the southern plains.
The creole really thought the other dead, but in some way Red Goliath escaped with severe injuries, that laid him up for months at a cabin.