could even perpetrate a hieroglyphic
intended for the signature of his name; but these were the extent of his
acquirements. As to deciphering the contents or superscription of the
letter now in his possession, he knew that it would be mere lost labour
to attempt it. He was far too wary, however, to display his ignorance to
the gipsy, and thus to strengthen him in his refusal to say for whom it
was intended.

"Of course I may read it," he replied "but here it is too dark, and I
have no mind to leave you alone. Answer me, or it will be worse for
you."

Either suspecting how the case really stood, or through mere sullenness
at the loss of his money, the gipsy remained, with lowering brow and
compressed lips, obstinately silent. For a few moments Paco awaited a
reply, and then walking to a short distance, he picked up something that
lay in a dark corner of the vault, returned to the gipsy, and placing
his hands upon the edge of the tall cask against which the latter was
seated, sprang actively upon the top of it. Soon he again descended,
and, upsetting the cask, gave it a shove with his foot that sent it
rolling into the middle of the cellar. The gipsy, although motionless,
and to all appearance inattentive to what passed, lost not one of the
muleteer's movements. His head stirred not but his sunken beadlike eyes
shifted their glances with extraordinary keenness and rapidity. At the
moment when, surprised by the sudden removal of the cask, he screwed his
head round to see what was going on behind him, a rope was passed
swiftly over his face, and the next instant he felt his neck encircled
by a halter. A number of strong hooks and wooden brackets, used to
support shelves and suspend wine-skins, were firmly fixed in the cellar
wall, at various distances from the ground. Over one of the highest of
these, Paco had cast a rope, one end of which he held, whilst the other,
as already mentioned, was fixed round the neck of the gipsy. Retiring a
couple of paces, the muleteer hauled on the rope; it tightened round the
neck of the unlucky Jaime, and even lifted him a little from the ground.
He strove to rise to his feet from the sitting posture in which he was,
but his bonds prevented him. Stumbling and helpless, he fell over on one
side, and would inevitably have been strangled, had not Paco given him
more line. The fear of death came over him. He trembled violently, and
his face, which was smeared with blood from the scratches he h