I tried to spring up and go after them, but my body seemed a mass of
pain, and my left arm hung limp and powerless. It was fractured below
the elbow. There was no bell in the room, and I limped out in search
of assistance. I made my way painfully along a gloomy corridor, and
hearing a male voice speaking Spanish, I knocked at a door, which
was opened by the landlord. I addressed him, but he shook his head
and gave me to understand that he spoke no English. Unhappily I spoke
no Spanish. Then he smiled as some idea flitted through his mind, and
bowing me into the room he motioned me to be seated, and hurried away.
He returned in about five minutes accompanied by Annette, whom he had
brought to act as interpreter. I was almost tempted to fly at her and
strangle her where she stood. She was undisturbed, calm, and still
smiled. She spoke to the man in Spanish, then she explained to me that
she had told him I had slipped on the polished floor, and falling over
a chair had injured myself, and she had requested him to summon the
village surgeon if need be.
Without waiting for me to reply she swept gracefully out of the room.
Indeed, I could not reply, for I felt as if I were choking with
suppressed rage. The landlord rendered me physical assistance and took
me to my bedroom, where I lay down on the bed, feeling mortified, ill,
and crushed. Half an hour later a queer-looking old man, with long hair
twisted into ringlets, was ushered into my room, and I soon gathered
that he was the village surgeon. He spoke no English, but I explained
my injury by signs, and he went away, returning in a little while with
the necessary bandages and splints, and he proceeded rather clumsily to
bandage my broken arm. I passed a cruel and wretched night. My physical
pain was great, but my mental pain was greater. The thought forced
itself upon me that I had been defeated, and that the fiendish, cunning
woman was too much for me. I felt no resentment against Jack. His act
of violence was the act of a madman, and I pitied him. For hours I
lay revolving all sorts of schemes to try and get him away from the
diabolical influence of Annette. But though I could hit upon nothing,
I firmly resolved that while my life lasted I would make every effort
to save my old friend, and if possible restore him to the bosom of his
distracted wife.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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