"Me catch him.

Keep him for Americano to kill.

Now you shoot him." [Illustration: "'Him Holguin Spaniard.

Now you shoot him,' said the Cuban."] Thus saying, the negro handed Ridge a loaded pistol that he had taken from the Spaniard, and then stepped aside with an air of ferocious expectancy to note with what skill the latter would fire at the human target thus provided.
Mechanically Ridge accepted the weapon, and with blazing eyes strode towards the hapless Spaniard, who uttered a groan of agony, evidently believing that his last moment had arrived.

As the young trooper passed the place where Dionysio had squatted, he snatched the negro's big machete from the ground.
At this the latter chuckled with delight, evidently believing that the blood-thirsty Americano was about to hew his victim in pieces, an operation that, to him, would be vastly more entertaining than a mere shooting.