Gaspacho, perceiving that no one heeded his entrance, cried out, so as to be heard above the tumult—
“Señor Captain! we have captured the comrade of the negro and the Indian. Here he is.”
To the astonishment of Don Cornelio, the person thus addressed as the captain was no other than the hideous individual who was handling the whip.
“Very well,” responded the latter, without turning round. “I shall attend to him presently, as soon as I have made this coyote confess where he has hidden his wife and his money.”
The whip again whistled through the air, and came down upon the back of the wretched sufferer, without producing any other manifestation than a deep groan.
It is scarcely necessary to say that the victim of this barbarous treatment was Don Fernando Lacarra. The words of Arroyo have already made this known to the reader.
Perfectly indifferent to the spectacle, Gaspacho, having introduced his prisoner to the presence of Arroyo, walked out of the room.
As regards Don Cornelio, he stood where the robber had left him, paralysed with horror. Independently of the compassion he felt for the sufferer, he was under the suspicion that both Costal and Clara had already perished, and that his own turn might come next.
While these fearful reflections were passing through his mind, a man whom he had not before noticed now came up to him. This was an individual with a jackal-like face, and the skulking mien of that animal, with all its ferocious aspect.
“My good friend,” said this man, addressing himself to Don Cornelio, “you appear somewhat lightly clad for one who is about to present himself before people of distinction.”