Сердца трех / Hearts of Three

I should like to have a lion to play with…’

The unmistakable air of �Back to Back Against the Mainmast �being whistled openly in the street, caught Henry’s attention, and he was crossing his big cell to the window when the grating of a key in the door made him lie down quickly on the floor and feign sleep. Ignacio staggered drunkenly in, bottle in hand, which he gravely presented to Henry.

�With the high compliments of our good jailer, Pedro Zurita,’ he mumbled. �He says to drink and forget that he must stretch your neck to-morrow.

’

�My high compliments to Señor Pedro Zurita, and tell him from me to go to hell along with his whiskey,’ Henry replied.

The turnkey straightened up and ceased swaying, as if suddenly become sober.

�Very well, Señor,’ he said, then passed out and locked the door.

In a rush Henry was at the window just in time to encounter Francis face to face and thrusting a revolver to him through the bars.

�Greetings, camarada,[26 - Camarada – приятель, товарищ (исп.

)]’ Francis said. �We’ll have you out of here in a jiffy.’ He held up two sticks of dynamite, with fuse and caps complete. �I have brought this pretty crowbar to pry you out. Stand well back in your cell, because real pronto there’s going to be a hole in this wall that we could sail the Angelique through. And the Angelique is right off the beach waiting for you. Now, stand back. I’m going to touch her off. It’s a short fuse.’

Hardly had Henry backed into a rear corner of his cell, when the door was clumsily unlocked and opened to a babel of cries and imprecations, chiefest among which he could hear the ancient and invariable war-cry of Latin-America,

�Kill the Gringo!’

Also, he could hear Rafael and Pedro, as they entered, babbling, the one: �He is the enemy of brotherly love’; and the other, �He said I was to go to hell is not that what he said, Ignacio?’

In their hands they carried rifles, and behind them urged the drunken rabble, variously armed, from cutlasses and horse-pistols to hatchets and bottles.

At sight of Henry’s revolver, they halted, and Pedro, fingering his rifle unsteadily, maundered solemnly:

�Señor Morgan, you are about to take up your rightful abode in hell.’

But Ignacio did not wait. He fired wildly and widely from his hip, missing Henry by half the width of the cell and going down the next moment under the impact of Henry’s bullet.