"Our skulls will grin at you
from every corner as you work--"
"I don't care!" shouted the priest. "I don't care! Here you rot. This
gold is mine. No man shall touch it but myself."
"But if we promise never to return, and to tell no man of what we know,"
interposed Rafael, feebly.
The priest laughed. "With the glitter of gold in your brains? You could
not keep an oath on the cross." He turned swiftly and strode down the
passage.
"What will he do?" gasped Adan.
"Roll a stone over the entrance and secure it with others," said Roldan.
"There are plenty nigh. If we follow, he will beat us back with those
fists, and one blow would crack our skulls in two."
"Then what shall we do? Rot here? Starve to death? Madre de dios!"
"We have been between the teeth of death before, have we not? We shall
have many more adventures, my friends."
But although he spoke confidently he was profoundly disturbed. This was
no ordinary predicament. He knew that unless the priest relented they
stood small chance of seeing sun and stars again. Would he relent?
Roldan's own indomitable will and growing ambitions responded to the
awful forces in the man, overgrown and abnormal as they had become.
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