“But you don’t for a moment think—”
“No, Mas’r Harry, I don’t; but I feel quite sure as they’ve burked him, and got him away with them bars of gold. You see if they haven’t now!”
It seemed so improbable that I was disposed to laugh; but I felt the next instant that it could be no laughing matter, and with a feeling of anxiety at my heart that would not be driven away, I turned to enter the house just as there was a noise and confusion in the yard, and, to my surprise, old Señor Xeres, the notary and banker, was assisted into the hacienda, closely followed by his attendant, both bleeding freely.
Tom looked meaningly at me, and the next minute we were helping to bear the old Spaniard to a couch, when, his wounds being roughly bound up, and a stimulant given, he told us in tolerable English that about three miles from the hacienda, while on his way to the nearest town, he had been set upon suddenly, and in spite of the resistance offered by himself and servant, they had been roughly treated, and the gold intrusted to him by Pablo Garcia had been taken away.
Again Tom gave me a meaning look, and I wondered whether the thoughts which suggested those looks could be correct.
“Was Señor Garcia with you?” I said at last.
“No,” said the notary; “he left us within ten minutes of our quitting this house, or he might have helped us to beat the scoundrels off. Only think, señor—two hundred and five ounces of pure gold!”
“For which you are answerable?” I said, inquiringly.
“No, no,” said the notary. “I would not take it to be answerable, only at the Señor Don Garcia’s risk.”
“But why does not your uncle come back, Harry?” said my aunt uneasily. “He would not be out of the way now unless there was something very particular to keep him.”