“‘Tony,’ he say, an’ put his big han’ so gentle on my head, ‘Tony, it is not right that one man torture another. That way is not greatness won. Remember that, my son.’
“An’ then,” there was almost a sob in Tony’s voice and Phil, greatly moved, leaned closer so that he might not miss a word, “my father, the great Pedro, he go back an’ he watch his chance an’ he try to rescue the prisoner, this one who was kind to him.
“Espato he caught him, my father, an’ the prisoner also. He call’ my father, the great Pedro, traitor, declare’ that he too, then, should suffer the fate of the man he had try to save.”
Tony’s voice broke and he stood silent for a moment. Phil realized now the meaning of the tears that had been in his eyes.
“They keel him, my father the great Pedro,” cried Tony, turning upon him in a sort of fury. “They tie him to a tree beside the man he had try to help an’ they torture him—torture him till his great heart break an’ he die. You hear—he die, my father, the great Pedro, there in the shadow of the fire, without a moan to tell of his agony. An’ I—I try to reach him an’ they thrust me back with vile words. An’ then I rush into the fores’ an’ I lie on my face an’ I think I die too. I hope I die. I pray I die. I think no one can bear such pain an’ live. My father what I love, the great Pedro. An’ there they fin’ me an’ drag me back an’ make me live....”
A deep silence, during which Phil’s throat felt constricted and dry. He wanted to say something, felt the need of saying something, but didn’t know what to say.
“Tony,” he said, finally, his voice husky with sympathy. “He was a great man, Pedro, your father.”
“Si, senor,” said Tony quietly and without another word, picked up a tray from the table and went out.
For a long time after he was left alone Phil could think of nothing but Tony’s tragic story. He forgot temporarily his own desperate plight in contemplation of the other’s problem.
At the time, it seemed to him about the most important thing in the world that Tony should be given his revenge upon Espato.