He sought the acquaintance of such “new” Americans, tendered them his services and goods, and charged exorbitantly for both.
Should an American planter protest, the crop in one of his sugar or tobacco fields was burned, nor was it long before the planter learned that “irrepressible friends of Senor Vasquez had rebuked a grasping foreigner.”
Should an American merchant protest at Vasquez’s charges, something happened to the “impudent merchant’s” stores or warehouses.
Yet Vasquez himself had always kept on the safe side of the law, while cheerfully ruining Americans.
They were simply compelled to submit to his extortions. One American, a planter, who had resolutely resisted the Spaniard, had been found dead, but the crime could be fastened on no one.
Just before the outbreak of the Cuban rebellion, Henry Richardson had started sugar plantations in the interior. He had fallen into Vasquez’s hands at the outset, and had been systematically plundered.
Hal Maynard, who had come to Cuba a year before as Mr. Richardson’s private secretary, had detected the Spaniard in several doubtful dealings.
Naturally Vasquez’s feeling for our hero was far from cordial.
While Hal and his employer were still in the interior, Vasquez had tried to involve them in trouble with the Spanish authorities.
This menace Mr. Richardson had dodged by paying a liberal bribe to the officer commanding the nearest garrison.