black, and Clif could not see one
thing. But he heard the door shut, heard the key turned. He shivered as
in an ague fit.

Above the noise of the scampering rats he heard a soft, stealthy
footstep as the man crept across the floor.

And then came the scratching sound of a hand running along the wall. He
was feeling for him!

And a moment later Clif gave an involuntary cry as he felt the hand
touch his face.

Perfectly motionless and paralyzed he sat and fancied what might be
going on in the blackness after that. He felt, the hand pass downward
along his body, felt it fumbling at the manacles that bound his ankles
to the wall of the cell.

Then to his surprise, his consternation, he heard a key softly turned.

What happened then almost took away his breath.

The iron fell off.

He was loose!

"Can he be going to take me elsewhere?" Clif gasped.

But he nerved himself for one thing; gathered his muscles for it. Before
Ignacio secured him again he would get a kick, one that would almost
kill him.

Eagerly Clif waited, to see what would happen next.

But what did happen was more startling and incredible yet; he could
scarcely believe his senses.

For he felt the hands running down his arm. They fumbled at his wrists
for an instant.

And then with a clatter the handcuffs dropped to the ground!

"Merciful heavens!" Clif thought to himself. "Can he be insane?"

For a moment he actually thought so; then it flashed over him that
perhaps the fiend was torturing him with the most horrible of all
tortures--hope.

"He'll wish he hadn't!" Clif gasped, as he braced his muscles.

But that was not the true solution of the mystery; there were stranger
things yet stranger and stranger.

The only things that bound Clif now were the ropes that had held his
wrists at first. He tugged at them, but in vain.

There was a moment's silent pause. And then to Clif's unutterable
consternation he heard another sound, a sound from across the room--a
low, grating sound!

It left him breathless.

Some one else was coming into the cell!

And with one rush the true state of affairs swept over Clif.

"This isn't Ignacio!" he panted.

And a moment later he received proof positive of that fact. For again
the hand stole down his arms and there came a couple of quick slashing
cuts that hurt his wrists more than the ropes.

But seconds were precious then. In one of them Clif's hands were free.

And his pulses leaped as he f