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"STOP! GO BACK!" screa there caonized--a wail of such abysht birds and the insects into stillness Dona Isabel slipped, or stu at randoave way beneath her; then she slid forward and disappeared, almost out from between Esteban's hands There was a noisy rattle of rock and pebble and a great splash far below; a chuckle of little stones striking the water, then a faint bubbling Nothing more The stepson stood in his tracks, sick, blind with horror; he aying over the opening when Asensio dragged hi a heavy sleeper, was the last to be roused by Esteban's outcries When he had hurriedly slipped into his clothes in response to the pounding on his door, the few servants that the establishhly awakened Esteban was shouting at the that Dona Isabel hadfor a lantern, too, and a stout rope Cueto thought they must all be out of their minds until he learned what had befallen thea man of action, he, too, issued swift orders, with the result that by the time he and Esteban had run to the well both rope and lantern were ready for their use Before Esteban could form and fit a loop for his shoulders there was sufficient help on hand to lower him into the treacherous abyss

It was a co, slow roes exhibited more curiosity than concern over her fate In half-pleased exciteether, while Pancho lay prone at the edge of the orifice, directing therueso unused, its sides were oozing slime, its waters were stale and black He was on the point of fainting when he finally cli, inert weight which he had found at the bottom

Old Sebastian's curse had come true; Dona Isabel hadexhausted in his chains and when the flies torued so tirelessly had been her death Like an ignis fatuus, it had lured her to destruction Furthermore, as if in orirnmest irony, she had been per, she had searched to no purpose whatsoever; dying, she had alrasped it in her arms