turned and motioned to the two men.

Without a word they faced about and stole away. They went out of the
door, and Ignacio, trembling all over with his fiendish eagerness, shut
the great iron barrier and locked it.

And then with a hoarse cry of rage he faced about.

Clif Faraday was alone with his deadly and merciless foe!

CHAPTER XVI.

IN THE DUNGEON VAULTS.

Ignacio was a horrible object to contemplate at that moment, and it was
but little wonder that Clif turned sick and faint as he watched him.

The man seemed fairly turned into a devil then. He seemed insane. He was
alone, absolutely alone, with his victim. And no one under heaven could
stop him. He had the key himself! And he had his prisoner iron-bound and
helpless!

For several moments the man fairly danced about the place, yelling as if
to prove to his hated foe that there was no care for anything any more.

And then suddenly he made a leap at him.

He crouched in front of him until his gleaming eyes shone into his face,
and his hot breath could be felt. His claw-like fingers he seemed
scarcely able to keep away from Clif.

"Yankee!" he hissed, in a wild voice. "Yankee, do you know where you
are?"

The fiendish man saw the white look on his victim's face; and he
laughed.

"You do know!" he cried. "You do know! Ha! ha! You are in Morro, deep in
the lowest vault! And no soul can come near you--near you--hear me?"

He struck him in the face as if to draw his attention.

"Listen; yes, stare at me! I don't wonder you quake. You have defied
me--ha, ha! You have ruined all my plans, but I've got you now. And, oh,
how I will pay you back, how I will twist you and tear you! You shall
pay for everything. And you may shriek and scream and no one will know
it more than if you did not. Listen!"

And again from sheer bravado Ignacio raised his voice and shouted. The
sound died in the grave-like cell--the granite and the iron shut it in.

"You see!" panted Ignacio. "Not a soul heard! And you are mine. Ah, they
hate you and they like me, for I told them about that girl. Ha, ha! You
wince!"

Ignacio's face was almost touching Clif's as he hissed that.

"You can't get away!" he yelled. "And, oh, the things that I shall do to
you! I've got instruments up stairs to tear you to pieces, burn your
eyes out--but never kill you, oh, no! And all night you will scream, and
all to-morrow, if I choose. And I will watch you--I and the rats. And
the rats w