ou, Tom, of course?" I said, "Depend on me, Mas'r
Harry? Ah! I should think so. There never was nobody couldn't stick
to no one no tighter than I'll stick to you. There won't be no getting
rid of me; so don't never think so no more. What you say is quite
right, and we'll wait a week. If no one ain't touched that stuff for
three hundred years they'll leave it alone another week. I'll be on the
look-out for a couple of mules and spades, and we'll go, like the forty
thieves, to the enchanted cavern, eh, Mas'r Harry? I'll get 'em, and
we'll put them into the little wood under the mountain-side, eh? and
keep 'em there till it's dark, when we'll start. A week to-day, or a
week to-morrow?"

"A week to-day, Tom," I said; "and if you'll hang about here, I'll tell
you what time we'll go for a shooting trip."

We had a roam after breakfast, and then, returning to the mid-day meal,
I spent some time about the plantation, when, feeling tired and overcome
with the heat, I went into the house, lay down upon the couch in the
darkened room, and, I suppose, from the effects of past fatigue, soon
dropped off into a sound slumber.

I have some recollection of hearing voices and a low, buzzing sound
that, in my confused state, seemed somehow to be mixed up with gold.
Then it was Lilla's beautiful golden hair, and I was seeing it spread
out and floating once more upon the surface of the river. Then I was
wide awake, for I had heard Garcia's voice utter my name with an
intensity of bitterness that made me shudder as I rose upon my elbow.

"I tell you he goes to the Indian villages, where there are dark--
skinned maidens. I know it; and then he comes back here, pretending to
be ill and tired with his travels."

"It is not true!" I heard Lilla exclaim angrily. "And if he were here
now--"

"But he is not here now," said Garcia sneeringly. "He has some
assignation in the moonlit woods with one of his dark beauties, with
fire-flies in her hair and flashing eyes, such as those cold-blooded
Englishmen love."

"It is false!" cried Lilla; "and if he were here you would not dare to
say it."

"Look here!" he said. "I will be played with no longer. I have been
calm and patient while this English dog has come in here to insult and
try to supplant me. He has always been placed before me since the day
he set foot in the plantation. Your mother is my debtor, and you are
promised to me. Let there be any more of this trifling, and