"Ha! ha!" he chuckled, "so you are interested in her, are you? A sweetheart, perhaps, hey?"
Clif did not answer that; he was staring at the man in horror. Stop her! What in the world could he mean? What could he know about Bessie Stuart?
The girl was a dear friend of Clif's who had come to Cuba to hunt for a relative of hers.
Clif had left her under the protection of Gomez; and that was the last he had heard of her.
And here was the brutal Spaniard mentioning her. How had he and how had the villainous Ignacio learned about her?
It was small wonder that Clif started back; Bessie Stuart was the dearest friend he had.
Meanwhile the Spaniard was leering at him.
"The Yankee pig seems worried," he said. "If that girl is his sweetheart, he did not do wisely to leave her with the bandit Gomez. Did he, Ignacio?"
"No, senor," was that person's grinning response.
"For she will soon be somebody else's sweetheart," chuckled the other.