Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/165

Rh "Do you think Cayan is a fool?" was the rejoinder. "Jesus Maria! No! I see what you want very well. Dios! You deserve no share of the booty at all, for your pains!"

"But the diamond is mine!" exclaimed the other. "I first told you of it. I will pay you jour share equitably; but the diamond is mine!"

Here a struggle ensued between the contending parties: several blows were struck, and a heavy fall was followed by a cry of suffering, and a groan; then there was silence broken by the sound of retiring footsteps. Lope contrived to bandage his temples with a piece of linen he had torn from his dress; and with great difficulty dragged himself—fainting and exhausted from loss of blood—to the neighbourhood of the miners habitations, where he arrived at a late hour of the night.

It was reported betimes on the following day in the district, that Cayan, the Indian, had attacked and robbed Lope Cluca and Don Manuel, and had escaped; also that the body of the latter had been found, close beside the Niña cliff, quite dead.

Intense was the disappointment and exasperation of Lope Cluca, as he recovered from the