“Let me be brief, then,” said José; “my voice is still feeble from long confinement.
“We were younger then, Antonio, young, and perhaps a little wild. But after the city of L—— was recaptured, you and I, who were volunteers, did a little looting, as did the soldiers and their officers also.
“You will remember that dark night when a friendly native offered to conduct us to a blood-stained temple, from which he told us the priests had fled, and that the eyes in the idols were diamonds of the purest water; that, moreover, they were charms, and had the power of keeping off disease, and rendering the owner proof against death by violence?”
“Yes, and I shall never forget that fearful night, José.”
“Well, Antonio, we gained access to the temple, and I had broken one idol, and taken out the glittering diamond that served as an eye in the forehead. I gave it to you till I went in search of another.
“I sent you,” continued José, “outside to watch.”
“And I never saw you more; and when the guide rushed out, he said he had seen you fall stabbed to the heart.”
“I was stabbed, Antonio, but it was only through the arm.
“I was then stripped to the skin, but no diamond being found on me, I was condemned to be lashed, and confined in a loathsome dungeon, with barely rags enough to cover my lacerated and bleeding body.
“Centipeds and gecko lizards I could see about me in scores by the dim light that came from the narrow slit in the wall. There were scorpions too, and other loathsome, slimy things. Antonio, I will not harrow the feelings of these gentle ladies by describing all I suffered. God kept me alive, and now I hope to devote the years that may be left me to His service.”