The latter spoke in a different tone.
The man glanced at her, and asked:
"Why Renie, what has come over you. Did you not give me to
understand that you were prepared to go with me to Cuba any
time I desired?"
"Yes; I gave you so to understand."
"Then why do you now refuse to go?"
"I will tell you; the time has come for me to unmask, Mr.
Garcia."
"The time has come for you to unmask?"
"Yes."
"I do not understand."
"You shall."
"I must."
"Murderer, I have been playing you that I might in the end
entrap you into the hands of justice."
A change had come over the demeanor of the girl; but a still
more remarkable change came over the face of Garcia. He
glanced at the girl with blazing eyes, and his hands worked
nervously and there was a tremulousness in his voice as he
asked:
"Are you mad, girl?"
"No, I am not mad. Do you not think I have been deceived; I
know you, I have known who you were all the time, thou chief
of the smugglers."
"And you have been deceiving me?"
"I have."
"And what has been your purpose?"
"To wait until a favorable moment when I could denounce you,
and hand you over to justice."
Our readers have already discerned the truth; but we will make
plain the incident which led up to the scene we are about
describing. Upon the very night Vance sailed on the yacht,
Garcia, with a gang of men, appeared after midnight at the
cottage of Tom Pearce. The old fisherman was murdered and
Renie was drugged and carried away; but the girl had been a
witness of the murder before she was found insensible lying
beside her bed.
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