“Let me get a shot at him, Mas’r Harry!” cried Tom excitedly.  “Hold up ­don’t go down, whatever you do.  It’s one of them great beasts ­I know it is.  There’s thousands of ’em here.”

As if to prove the truth of Tom’s words, one of the monsters dashed, half-running, half-wallowing, by us while, completely unnerved, I could do nothing but stand motionless as Tom beat the canes aside and tried to get a clear view of that which held me.

“Why, Mas’r Harry!” he exclaimed in tones I could hardly understand, “who ever saw such a game as this?”

Tom’s words brought me to myself, and, looking down, I found that which clasped me so tightly was a man’s hand ­my uncle’s!

Angry with myself for my cowardice, the next moment I was down upon my knees helping to extricate him from the position in which he lay, with one arm still bound to his side, and the dark cloth garment from which Tom had shaken the gold bound round and round his head and face, effectually gagging him; and if the intention of his captors had been to suffocate him, they had nearly effected their purpose.

“Uncle!” I exclaimed, as I held his head up and he began to draw his breath more freely.

“I thought it was all over, my boy, when I heard your voice,” he said faintly, and evidently not without considerable effort.

With some difficulty we got him upon his legs; but until we had thoroughly chafed them he could not take a step, so tight had been the bonds with which he had been confined.

But at last he seemed to exert himself to the utmost; and, sometimes leaning on Tom’s arm, sometimes on mine, we went slowly along the track we had made to the great prostrate tree, where, after a hasty glance around to make certain that no serpents were in the way, we sat down to rest, and my uncle, unasked, began to speak.

“I must sit down for a few minutes, my lad,” he said, “and then we will make haste on, for those women must not be left for an instant more than we can help.  The gold has all gone, though, Harry.”

“Uncle,” I exclaimed, “it seems as if my thirst for gold is bringing down a curse upon your peaceful home.”

“Not so fast, my lad ­not so fast.  Gold is a very good thing in its way, and helped me this morning out of a terrible difficulty.  Remember that it set me free from Garcia.”

“And they’ve got it all back from him again,” chuckled Tom.

“What!” exclaimed my uncle.

“Knocked the poor old lawyer about and grabbed all the bars,” said Tom.

My uncle seemed astonished at the news, but his brow knit the next minute.

“Never mind, Harry,” he said, “we’ll risk the curses of the gold.  I’ll help you, my lad, to the last gasp; and if we don’t get the treasure safe on board some vessel bound for old England, it sha’n’t be for want of trying.  But you must give me time, lad ­you must give me time; for, what with Garcia’s bullet and this blow on the head, I’m as weak as a child.”

“But how was it, Uncle?” I exclaimed anxiously.

“Give me your arm, lad, and let’s make haste back to the hacienda.  You, Tom, keep that pistol in your hand cocked, and walk close behind; and if you see one of those lurking copper-skins jump up, shoot him down without mercy.  You know how you both left me to go into the house, where I meant to put the gold into a chest in my little office?  Well, I stood looking at you for a few moments, Hal, and then I had taken a step forward, when I felt myself dashed to the ground by a tremendous blow upon the head; hundreds of lights danced before my eyes, and then all was darkness, from which I came to myself with the sensation of being suffocated by something bound over my face.  I felt, too, that my hands and arms were tightly bound, and that I was quite helpless, for I could not cry out.  I did not feel much troubled, though, for a heavy, sleepy feeling was on me.  All I wanted was to be left alone, while instead of that I could feel that I was being dragged slowly along over the ground; and then at last came a stoppage, and I knew that I was left.”

My uncle stopped for a few minutes, apparently exhausted, but he soon recovered himself and went on: 

“I struggled hard to get at liberty; but, do all I would, I could only get one hand and arm loose as far as the elbow, while as to freeing my legs and face, that I soon found to be impossible; and as I lay there I could feel that the muddy ooze was all in motion beneath me with the spawn of those great alligators of the river.”

“Wur-r-r-ra!” ejaculated Tom in a long shudder.

“Over and over again I felt something crawl over me, and once something seized me, gave me a shake, and then let go; but the height of my horror was reached when I felt slowly gliding and coiling upon me what must have been one of the water-boas.  I could feel it gradually growing heavier and heavier with the great thick folds lying upon my chest, my legs, and even up to my throat, till the sense of suffocation was horrible, and I lay momentarily expecting to be wrapped in the monster’s folds and crushed to death, till suddenly I felt every part of the body in motion, and that it was gliding off me, for the sense of the crushing weight was going.  For a moment I thought it was to enable the beast to seize me, but the next instant I knew what it meant, for I could faintly hear voices, which I rightly judged to have scared the reptile away.  Then something touched me as I heard indistinctly the voices close by, and with what little strength I had left I clutched at whatever it was; and you know the rest.”

By this time we had reached the edge of the plantation, and I was glancing anxiously towards the hacienda in dread lest anything should have happened.  But so far all appeared at peace.  It was drawing towards evening and the shadows were lengthening, but the whole place seemed to be sleeping in the gorgeous yellow sunlight, so still and placid looked all around.

Still, indeed! for an ominous change met us upon our reaching the court-yard.  Every Indian labourer, male and female, had gone, and the place was silent and deserted.

“The rats desert the sinking ship, Harry,” said my uncle huskily.  “For Heaven’s sake run in and see if all is well; I dare go no farther!”

I needed no second bidding to rush in and hurry to the room where the wounded Spaniards had lain, to find it deserted.

With a strange clutching at the heart I ran to the inner room and called Lilla by name, when, to my intense delight, she answered, and with my aunt, weak and trembling, she came forth.

We soon learned the cause of the silence about the place.  Shortly after I had taken my departure Senor Xeres had roused up from the short sleep into which he had sunk, to express his determination to recommence his journey, declaring that he had nothing now to lose; while, half an hour after, Lilla had seen through one of the verandahs the whole of the labourers glide silently away towards the forest, and then a silence as of death had fallen upon the hacienda.