Lopez addressed the note which I had written, sealed
it with his sleeve-link, and sent it by the hand of the servant,
Jose. How they murdered him I do not know, save that it was
Murillo's hand who struck him down, for Lopez had remained to
guard me. I believe he must have waited among the gorse bushes
through which the path winds and struck him down as he passed.
At first they were of a mind to let him enter the house and to
kill him as a detected burglar; but they argued that if they were
mixed up in an inquiry their own identity would at once be
publicly disclosed and they would be open to further attacks.
With the death of Garcia, the pursuit might cease, since such a
death might frighten others from the task.
"All would now have been well for them had it not been for my
knowledge of what they had done. I have no doubt that there were
times when my life hung in the balance. I was confined to my
room, terrorized by the most horrible threats, cruelly ill-used
to break my spirit--see this stab on my shoulder and the bruises
from end to end of my arms--and a gag was thrust into my mouth on
the one occasion when I tried to call from the window. For five
days this cruel imprisonment continued, with hardly enough food
to hold body and soul together.
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