him. Furthermore,
the inhabitants of the hacienda were never troubled by inconvenient
enquiries about him, for it afterwards transpired that when he set out
upon his fateful journey he had not thought fit to say whither he was
going, or how long he intended to be absent; by the time, therefore,
that his prolonged absence from duty had provoked enquiry, all trace of
him was completely lost.

The male occupants of the house were just finishing early breakfast next
morning when Senor Calderon presented himself before them, in a
condition of considerable mental discomposure, with the intelligence
that the prisoner had apparently contrived to effect his escape; for one
of the negroes had just come up to the house with the report that, upon
his opening the door of the tobacco shed to give the captive his
breakfast, Alvaros was found to have disappeared, and no trace of him
had thus far been discovered. This was distinctly alarming news, for it
was instantly recognised that if Alvaros had really contrived to get
clear away, he would undoubtedly make the best of his way back to Havana
and there report to the authorities the violence to which he had been
subjected; and also, possibly, the rescue of the Montijos from the
convict ship, though mention of the latter would probably depend upon
whether their conviction had been the result of representations to the
Capitan-General, or whether, as Don Ramon Bergera had surmised, it had
been the work of Alvaros alone. In either case, the consequences were
likely to be quite serious to the Montijos; and Carlos, accompanied by
Jack and Calderon, at once hurried away to investigate the circumstances
of the alleged escape.

Upon their arrival at the tobacco shed they found the door of the
building still locked and the negro guard still posted before it, the
door having been re-fastened, as Calderon explained, immediately upon
the discovery of the prisoner's disappearance. Entering the shed, they
at once satisfied themselves as to the truth of the statement that its
late occupant was no longer in it, for the building was absolutely
empty, and, being a perfectly plain structure, with simply four stone
walls, a cement floor, and an unceiled roof, there was no nook or cranny
in which even a rat, much less a man, could conceal himself. Moreover,
the rope by which he had been, as it was thought, securely bound before
being left on the previous evening, was lying upon the floor,
immediately