To
be sure, the overseer had acquired title, of a sort, to the
plantation by paying the taxes over a period of years, but it was
the quinta itself which he desired, the Quinta de Esteban with its
hidden gold. That there was a treasure Cueto had never doubted,
and, once the place was his to do with as he chose, he began his
search.
Cueto was a tireless, thorough-going man, therefore he did not set
about his explorations in the haphazard manner of Dona Isabel.
Commencing at the lower edge of the grounds, he ripped them up
with a series of deep trenches and cross-cuts. It was a task that
required the labor of many men for several weeks, and when it was
finished there was scarcely a growing thing left upon the place.
Only a few of the larger trees remained. Cueto was disappointed at
finding nothing, but he was not discouraged. Next he tore down the
old slave barracoons and the outbuildings, after which he
completely wrecked the residence itself. He pulled it apart bit by
bit, brick by brick. He even dug up its foundations, but without
the reward of so much as a single peseta. Finally, when the villa
was but a heap of rubbish and the grounds a scar upon the slope of
La Cumbre, he desisted, baffled, incredulous, while all Matanzas
laughed at him. Having sacrificed his choicest residence, he
retired in chagrin to the plantation of La Joya.
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