whom had been awaked by the commotion, dashed into the room, bearing lights, and loudly demanding to know what was the matter. "I'll be shot if I know," answered Jack; "but I daresay this chap can tell us. He got in through the window; and as the lightning showed him to be a stranger, and I also noticed that he carried a rather formidable-looking knife, it occurred to me that it might be wise to make a prisoner of him, and get him to tell us who he is, and what he wants. Now, friend, I will trouble you for that knife." The man surrendered the weapon with a sullen scowl. "Thanks!" said Jack. "Now you may stand up." The man rose to his feet, revealing to the gaze of the three friends a tall and sinewy form, attired in the picturesquely-tattered garb of a muleteer, or wagoner. The fellow was a low-class Spaniard, of singularly vicious and disreputable appearance; and as he glared vindictively at his captor he looked capable of anything, murder included. For a moment he appeared inclined to make a desperate bid for liberty; but as Jack had slipped between him and the open window, while Milsom, with a cocked revolver in his hand, stood with his back against the closed door of the apartment, he thought better of it, and simply enquired: "Well, what are you going to do with me?" "That will depend, to some extent, upon the answers which you may see fit to give to our questions," answered Carlos. "First of all, who are you; and what errand brought you here?" "My name, Senor Montijo, is Panza--Antonio Panza; my present occupation is that of a carrier of goods; and I suppose I may as well confess at once that my business here was to murder the English senor, your friend." "To murder me?" repeated Jack. "And why, pray? What harm have I ever done you, that you should desire to murder me?" "None whatever, Senor," answered the man. "But it would appear that you have harmed somebody else, or I should not have been hired to slit your throat." "So," exclaimed Carlos, "that is the explanation, is it? I suspected as much! And pray who is the coward who hired you to do his dirty work for him?" "Ah, pardon, Senor; that is just what I may not tell you!" answered Panza. "I was paid handsomely to undertake this piece of work; and it was part of the bargain that, should I fail, I was to keep my employer's secret." "Is it permissible to ask how much you were paid?" demanded Jack. "Certainly, Senor," answered the fellow. "I was paid fifty doubloons to kill you, if I could, and to hold my tongue about it." "Fifty doubloons--a trifle over fifty pounds sterling!" exclaimed Jack, in comic disgust. "Is that all that my life is worth to your employer?"