“Not so fast, my lad—not so fast. Gold is a very good thing in its way, and helped me this morning out of a terrible difficulty. Remember that it set me free from Garcia.”
“And they’ve got it all back from him again,” chuckled Tom.
“What!” exclaimed my uncle.
“Knocked the poor old lawyer about and grabbed all the bars,” said Tom.
My uncle seemed astonished at the news, but his brow knit the next minute.
“Never mind, Harry,” he said, “we’ll risk the curses of the gold. I’ll help you, my lad, to the last gasp; and if we don’t get the treasure safe on board some vessel bound for old England, it sha’n’t be for want of trying. But you must give me time, lad—you must give me time; for, what with Garcia’s bullet and this blow on the head, I’m as weak as a child.”
“But how was it, Uncle?” I exclaimed anxiously.
“Give me your arm, lad, and let’s make haste back to the hacienda. You, Tom, keep that pistol in your hand cocked, and walk close behind; and if you see one of those lurking copper-skins jump up, shoot him down without mercy. You know how you both left me to go into the house, where I meant to put the gold into a chest in my little office? Well, I stood looking at you for a few moments, Hal, and then I had taken a step forward, when I felt myself dashed to the ground by a tremendous blow upon the head; hundreds of lights danced before my eyes, and then all was darkness, from which I came to myself with the sensation of being suffocated by something bound over my face. I felt, too, that my hands and arms were tightly bound, and that I was quite helpless, for I could not cry out. I did not feel much troubled, though, for a heavy, sleepy feeling was on me. All I wanted was to be left alone, while instead of that I could feel that I was being dragged slowly along over the ground; and then at last came a stoppage, and I knew that I was left.”
My uncle stopped for a few minutes, apparently exhausted, but he soon recovered himself and went on:
“I struggled hard to get at liberty; but, do all I would, I could only get one hand and arm loose as far as the elbow, while as to freeing my legs and face, that I soon found to be impossible; and as I lay there I could feel that the muddy ooze was all in motion beneath me with the spawn of those great alligators of the river.”