"I'll give you water, but
first tell me where--where! God in heaven! Can't you see that I,
too, am perishing?"
"I must have a drink."
"Tell me first."
Sebastian lifted his head and, meeting the speaker's eyes, laughed
hoarsely.
At the sound of his unnatural merriment Isabel recoiled as if
stung. She stared at the slave's face in amazement and then in
fury. She stammered, incoherently, "You--you have been--lying!"
"Oh no! The treasure is there, the greatest treasure in all Cuba,
but you shall never know where it is. I'll see to that. It was you
who sold my girl; it was you who brought me to this; it was your
hand that whipped me. Well, I'll tell Don Esteban how you tried to
bribe his secret from me! What do you think he'll do then? Eh?
You'll feel the lash on your white back--"
"You FOOL!" Dona Isabel looked murder. "I'll punish you for this;
I'll make you speak if I have to rub your wounds with salt."
But Sebastian closed his eyes wearily. "You can't make me suffer
more than I have suffered," he said. "And now--I curse you. May
that treasure be the death of you. May you live in torture like
mine the rest of your days; may your beauty turn to ugliness such
that men will spit at you; may you never know peace again until
you die in poverty and want--"
But Dona Isabel, being superstitious, fled with her fingers in her
ears; nor did she undertake to make good her barbarous threat,
realizing opportunely that it would only serve to betray her
desperate intentions and put her husband further on his guard.
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