When he finally spoke, Margie jumped in surprise. His words were drawn out and deliberate as if he had to search for them one by one.
“Hable Espaňol?” he asked her in his gravelly voice.
Margie, exhilarated to hear a familiar tongue, nodded her head eagerly. Maybe all was not lost after all.
The man nodded his head back at her. “Many years ago, when I was a young man and stupid, I traveled down to where the Spaniards live. I thought I would learn more about the white man’s world and I did to my unhappiness. They made me their prisoner and forced me to work on a plantation. There were many there just like me and we were treated like slaves. They whipped and beat us and kept us in chains. They had raided some villages and they had taken the women for their own, using them for their pleasu
