a vicelike grip, and by a sudden jerk throwing him upon
his back, proceeded to drag him through the aperture, behind which he
himself was stationed. His strength and adroitness, and the suddenness
of the attack, ensured its success; and in spite of the gipsy's
struggles, Paco speedily pulled him completely into the dungeon, upon
the ground of which he cast him down with a force that might well have
broken the bones, but, as it happened, merely took away the senses, of
the terrified esquilador.

The strange and mysterious manner of the assault, the stunning violence
of his fall, and his position on regaining the consciousness of which he
had for a brief space been deprived, combined to bewilder the gipsy, and
temporarily to quell the courage, or, as it should perhaps rather be
termed, the passive stoicism, usually exhibited by him in circumstances
of danger. He had been dragged into the wine-cellar, and seated with his
back against a cask; his wrists and ankles were bound with ropes, and
beside him knelt a man busily engaged in searching, his pockets. The
light was so faint that at first he could not distinguish the features
of this person; but when at last he recognized those of Paco, he
conjectured to a certain extent the nature of the snare into which he
had fallen, and, as he did so, his usual coolness and confidence in some
degree returned. His first words were an attempt to intimidate the
muleteer.

"Untie my hands," said he, "or I shout for help. I have only to call
out, to be released immediately."

"If that were true, you would have done it, and not told me of it,"
retorted Paco, with his usual acuteness. "The walls are thick; and the
vault deep, and I believe you might shout a long while before any one
heard you. But I advise you not to try. The first word you speak in a
louder tone than pleases me, I cut your throat like a pig; with your own
knife, too."

And, by way of confirming this agreeable assurance, he drew the cold
blade across Jaime's throat, with such a fierce determined movement,
that the startled gipsy involuntarily shrunk back. Paco marked the
effect of his menace.

"You see," said he, sticking the knife in the ground beside him, and
continuing his in investigation of the esquilador's pockets; "you had
better be quiet, and answer my questions civilly. For whom is this
letter?" continued he, holding up Rita's missive, which he had extracted
from the gipsy's jacket.

But although the esquil