er of goods; and I suppose I may as well confess at
once that my business here was to murder the English senor, your
friend."

"To murder me?" repeated Jack. "And why, pray? What harm have I ever
done you, that you should desire to murder me?"

"None whatever, Senor," answered the man. "But it would appear that you
have harmed somebody else, or I should not have been hired to slit your
throat."

"So," exclaimed Carlos, "that is the explanation, is it? I suspected as
much! And pray who is the coward who hired you to do his dirty work for
him?"

"Ah, pardon, Senor; that is just what I may not tell you!" answered
Panza. "I was paid handsomely to undertake this piece of work; and it
was part of the bargain that, should I fail, I was to keep my employer's
secret."

"Is it permissible to ask how much you were paid?" demanded Jack.

"Certainly, Senor," answered the fellow. "I was paid fifty doubloons to
kill you, if I could, and to hold my tongue about it."

"Fifty doubloons--a trifle over fifty pounds sterling!" exclaimed Jack,
in comic disgust. "Is that all that my life is worth to your employer?"

"He told me that it was the utmost he could afford to give, Senor; and
it was quite enough to tempt me. Why, were I to work all my life at my
trade as a carrier, I could never hope to save fifty doubloons, nay, nor
the fourth part of that sum. It is not so very long ago that I risked
my life constantly as a contrabandista, for a profit of one-fifth of
that amount."

"Well, Antonio," said Carlos, "according to your own showing you have a
very elastic conscience, which you appear to have made pretty completely
subservient to your own interests. Now, I suppose you know what will
happen to you if we hand you over to the authorities?"

"Yes, Senor," answered the ruffian. "I shall probably be sentenced to
six months' imprisonment with hard labour; which sentence will be
commuted to one month, if I behave myself, as I shall, of course."

"Six months' hard labour?" exclaimed Carlos incredulously. "You are
strangely mistaken, friend. You are far more likely to get ten years'
penal servitude in Africa. Attempted murder is a crime that is usually
punished very severely."

"Usually--yes," assented the prisoner. "But that is when one attempts
to murder a Spaniard. This muchacho, however, is English; and nobody in
Cuba is just now likely to trouble himself very much over the attempted
murder of an Englishman. Be