before the drowsy, conscious stare of those fixed eye-

balls starting out of the grimy, dishevelled head that j>cd very still with its mouth closed askew. The Atonel ground his teeth and struck. The rope vi- brated leisurely to the blow, like the long string of a iuluin starting from a rest. Hut n<> swinging mo- was imparted to the body of Seflor Hirsch, the well-known hide-merchant of the coast. With a con- vulsive effort of the twisted arms it leaped up a few inches, curling upon itself like a fish on the end of a Sefmr Hirs. li's }i. flung back on his straining throat; his chin trembled. For a moment .the rattle of his chattering teeth pervaded the vast, shadowy room, where the candles made a patch of light round the two flames burning side by side. And s Sotillo, staying his raised hand, waited for him to k, with a sudden flash of a grin and a straining forward of the wrenched shoulders, he spat violently into his face. The uplifted whip fell, and the colonel sprang back with a low cry of dismay, as if aspersed by a jet of

!y venom. Quick as thought he snatched up his

revolver and fired twice. The report and the con- cussion of the shots seemed to throw him at once from >vernable rage into idiotic stupor. He stood with Mrooping jaw and stony eyes. What had he done? Sangre de Dios! what had he done? He was basely ^palled at his impulsive act, sealing forever these H;K from which so much was to be extorted. What could he say? How could he explain? Ideas of head- long flight somewhere, anywhere, passed through his

mind; even the craven and absurd notion of hiding