"Come back, or I will shoot you as dead as he is! Ha, ha! por grados" (by degrees) "I shall get rid of you all."
I paused and looked at him; my young heart beat wildly; I felt that I was facing death, and what would I not have given had my hatchet been a pistol, even with one barrel, though my opponent was master of twelve charges.
"He is dead then?" said I, in a husky voice.
"Who—which?" asked the Cubano, with a fresh cigarito between his strong white teeth.
"Captain Weston."
"Aye, dead as Judas!" said he, laughing hoarsely.
"But I understand that Hislop—" I stammered.
"El contra-maestre—well?"
At that moment, a low moan which went through my heart, came from the state-room or little side cabin of Marc Hislop.
"Well, hombre, what of him?" growled Antonio.