usky faces at his shoulder.

The door was down, and from the threshold they could see what the front
room contained. It was Nicholas who, with clattering teeth and nerveless
fingers, dragged a blanket from the bed and covered the woman's figure.
It was he who traced the feeble voice to the wreck of a room behind, and
strove to lift Inocencio out of the welter in which he lay. But the
Haytian blasted him with curses for opening his wounds; so they propped
him against the wall by his direction, and bound him about with strips
torn from the mattress. Then he called for a cigarette, and its ashes
were upon his breast when the French doctor arrived from the hospital on
the Point.

When the white man's work was done, the mulatto addressed him weakly:

"Will m'sieu' do me a great favor?"

"Certainly."

"M'sieu' is acquainted with the American, Senor Williams?"

"_Oui._"

"Will _m'sieu' le docteur_ please to tell him that Captain Inocencio has
won his wager?"

"I don't understand."

"Listen! In the room yonder, under the bed, m'sieu' will find a little
boy baby rolled up in a blanket. The woman heard them at the door, and
she was just in time. Oh, she knew they would be coming."

The French doctor nodded his comprehension. "But--your wife herself?"
said he. "Perhaps when you are well again you can have your vengeance.
The soldiers will--"

"Bah! What is the use?" interrupted Inocencio. "The world is full of
women." Then, strangely enough, he bared his yellow teeth in a smile of
rarest tenderness. "But this boy of mine! They came to kill him,
m'sieu', and to show that the San Blas blood cannot be crossed; but the
woman was too quick of wit. They did not find him, praise God! _Le
docteur_ has seen many children, perhaps, but never a child like this."
He ran on with a father's tender boastfulness. "M'sieu' will note the
back and the legs of him. And see, he did not even cry, poor little man!
Oh, he is like his father for bravery! He will be my vengeance, for he
has the San Blas blood in him; he will be a man like me, too. Bring him
to me quickly; I must see him again." He was still babbling fondly to
the negroes about him when the doctor reappeared, empty-handed.

"The child is dead," said the white man, simply.

In the silence Inocencio rose to a sitting posture. His fierce eyes grew
wild with a fright that had never been there until this moment. Then,
before they could prevent him, he had gained his feet. He wave