ill eat you, too!"

As if to add horror to the devil's gleeful statement, a huge slimy rat
ran across Clif's body just then; it made him shiver all over.

And Ignacio danced about as he saw him.

"Ha, ha!" he cried. "You begin! But wait till I start--wait till you
begin to feel some agony--till I begin to tear your eyes out! Then will
you yell? When I get through with you--ha, ha!--when you are dead,
perhaps weeks from now, you won't mind the rats any more! You may stay
in here in this grave for the Yankees to find if they capture Morro as
they say they will. Oh, I will make it a sight for them!"

Clif could not have stood the strain of that horrible ordeal much
longer; he would have fainted away.

But then the fiendish Spaniard's impatience got the better of him. And
he turned and crept toward the door again.

"I will get the instruments," he whispered, hoarsely. "The torture
instruments. Santa Maria, what things they are! And how you will
shriek!"

A moment later he turned the key and stepped out. He shut the door and
locked it. And Clif was left alone in all the blackness and horror of
that slimy place.

Never as long as he lives will he forget the agony of that long wait. He
sat straining his ears and listening for the first sign of the fiend's
return. He knew that he might come back any instant and begin his
horrible, merciless tormenting.

Clif knew that man for a devil incarnate. He would sooner have looked
for mercy in a hyena.

For Ignacio was of the race of the Inquisition; and of the horrors of
the Inquisition this was a fair sample.

The wretched American knew that he was alone and that he could look for
no rescue. He was buried in the very centre of the earth--or the centre
of hades.

And his cries would be heard only by Ignacio.

Clif knew also that the frenzied villain would make haste, that he would
come back panting and eager. Appalled, half dazed, he sat and listened.

The first thing he would hear would be the grating of the key; and then
would come horrors inconceivable.

Seconds were years at that time. Clif thought that his hair would turn
white from the suspense.

And then suddenly he gave a gasp.

There he was!

Yes, the key was sliding in. And now it was turning!

And then slowly the door was opened--groaning and creaking.

Clif imagined the dark, crouching figure. He had left the lantern behind
while these deeds of darkness went on.

The tomb-like cell was absolutely