UP THE FACE OF THE
CLIFF
Phil could see him dimly by the light of the camp-fire outside. The man had been completely cowed. What terrible torture had been inflicted to cause him to become such an abject figure, groveling before them, his voice hollow, and in his eyes a light of unreasonable fear?
“It is Midshipman Perry and O’Neil from the gunboat, Tillotson,” the lad whispered. “We hope to save you if you will keep quiet and do just what we tell you.” Phil could have wept in pity at the sight of the physical wreck before him. He was shocked at the sight. Tillotson’s eyes were dull and the face empty of hope.
“You don’t know what you are saying,” he answered in a monotonous voice. “No one can be saved who is brought to this place. Death is the one avenue of escape. Oh! No one knows of the tortures I have endured from that fiend’s hands.” Then his face lit up for a second as he raised himself from the ground and stared at Phil, who had approached and stood looking down pityingly upon him. “How can you save me? Oh, tell me the truth. Are you not prisoners also?”
Phil seated himself by the side of the unnerved man and begged him to be calm and reserve his strength. After a few moments he told him of the plan and his hopes for success.
“Let us pray for success,” the captive cried weakly. “I had determined to throw myself off the cliff rather than undergo another day’s torture.”
Tillotson talked for an hour, gruesomely dwelling on the details of his horrible treatment by Espinosa. He told of his mission to the spy, with the letter which Phil had taken from the dead messenger at Binalbagan. The message was in Espinosa’s own handwriting, and warned the attackers of the gunboat’s approach.
“I see now that I have been repaid for my stupidity,” he moaned. “I believed that I could unmask him and earn the thanks of the general, but first I wished to get from him a full confession and implicate his accomplices. I showed him the letter and told him I would call at his house after visiting the sentries.” The overwrought officer broke down and sobbed for several minutes before continuing. “I was a child in his hands; I did not know his power. His followers trapped me and carried me away by water, bringing me to this awful place. Every day some new torture is devised for me. To-day I was suspended by my neck with only my toes on the ground. That was the worst so far. I don’t know what it will be to-morrow,” he ended with a shudder.
Phil tried to console him as best he could, but a great fear had entered his thoughts. If this terrible punishment had been meted out to Tillotson, what would the treacherous and cruel Espinosa devise for him? Surely something many, many times more horrible.