In this she was successful. In the meantime Captain Nocolo had by an adroit movement managed to draw a keen dagger from an inner pocket in his coat. "Take that!" he yelled, as he plunged the sharp-pointed weapon into Howard's breast. "I reckon that will settle you for all time to come." Howard tried to dodge the thrust, but could not, and with a groan he sank back, gave a convulsive shudder and lay still. "You have killed him!" shrieked Estella, and in despair she felt herself on the verge of mental eclipse. She reeled and would have fallen had not the captain caught her and thrown her into the coach again. "Back, for your life!" yelled Captain Nocolo to Tomasso, as he picked up the fallen pistol, and as Tomasso retreated a few paces, he urged the horses on, the driver plied the whip, and once more they went forward, with poor Estella still their prisoner. CHAPTER XXVI. "DEFEND YOURSELF OR I WILL STRIKE YOU DEAD WHERE YOU STAND." With her gentle heart all but paralyzed with fear, beautiful Estella lay unconscious in the coach, only an occasional gasp proclaiming the fact that life had not entirely left her. "Turn off to the Bayamo road, Romano," were Captain Nocolo's directions to the driver, and the man answered, "Si, capitan," and went on at full speed. "A narrow escape, truly," mused the rascally Spanish officer, as with gloating eyes he drank in the beauty of Estella's well-moulded form. "But she is still mine, and in the future I'll take good care to avoid such surprises. The result of this war will be of little consequence to me if I can make her my own, and remove her father, Mazenas and that accursed American! Not only she, but her fortune must be mine!" And he rubbed his fat hands together, as if Estella and her prospective wealth were already within his grasp. It was well that the coach turned off on a side road, for soon the main body of the soldiery came along. From the coach window Captain Nocolo gave directions to a lieutenant, and then the coach disappeared from view. When Estella recovered consciousness she found herself in an upper room of a two-story stone house, such as are frequently seen in the interior of Cuba, a rambling affair, whitewashed and partly covered with moss. The room was small and plainly furnished. She lay upon a rude bed, and as soon as she realized her situation and remembered what had happened she leaped to her feet. She tried the door, but found it locked. Then she ran to the single window of the apartment and discovered that an iron grating had been securely nailed over it from the outside. "Heaven help me!" she moaned. "He has made me his prisoner! For what purpose I dread to conjecture!" The thought of what had occurred to Howard drove away, for the time being, all thoughts concerning her own welfare. How seriously had her lover been hurt? Were his injuries fatal? "No, no! not that!" she moaned. "Oh, Heaven above, not that!"