He attempted to press her to his breast, when, without warning, he received a heavy blow on the back of the head, and with a groan he fell forward, all but unconscious. "The brute! I will teach him a lesson!" came in the well-known voice of Cara as, dropping her stick of granadilla wood, she rushed to Estella's support. "It is well I hid in the sugar-cane when they came up, otherwise they would have made me a victim, too." "Cara!" burst from Estella's bloodless lips. "Is he--he dead?" "No, darling; such brutes are not so easily killed. But come, let us fly!" "Fly? In which direction? Where can my father be?" "The fighting over in that field has ceased. Perhaps it will be best for us to return to the train," responded the maid. "But what of Señor Sherwood?" "They took him off and put him in a wagon, I believe. Come, come! ere Captain Nocolo recovers." Thus urged, Estella gave a last look at the prostrate form before her, and then quitted the vicinity. Arm-in-arm with her faithful maid, they made their way over the dark road to the railroad tracks, and thence to where the train lay derailed. As Cara had said, the battle in the cane-field had terminated, and now only an occasional shot could be heard. When they reached the cars they found the guards returning, bringing with them their wounded comrades, and several prisoners of war. The prisoners were chained hand to hand and foot to foot, and made to stand in a group, and endure the most brutal treatment without a protest. One man, who had had his arm broken, and who pleaded for surgical aid, was hit on the head with the stock of a gun, and knocked senseless. "Oh, this is awful!" murmured Estella. "Why do they thus treat prisoners? They are human beings, like ourselves." "The Spanish soldiery hate all Cubans," whispered Cara. "They would kill and torture all, had they the chance." "Where can my father be?" questioned Estella, turning from the awful sight with a shudder. "Let us look among the crowd," suggested the maid, and they started off; but the search, which lasted for fully half an hour, was without success. "He is not here; can it be he was slain!" murmured Estella, as a strange horror began to fasten itself upon her young heart. "Cara, what think you? Tell me the truth!" "Let us go to the battlefield and look," suggested the maid, evasively. "We can borrow a lantern, and no one will molest us women while we walk among the dead." "Yes! yes! we will go! I cannot endure this suspense any longer!" exclaimed Estella, as she pressed a hand to her burning brow. The lantern was readily procured from a train hand, and they set off, directed by one of the soldiers. In ten minutes they were in the midst of such a scene of carnage that Estella's heart was depressed with horror.