Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine — page 119: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

TEXAS FEVER. plastering had fallen out, and they easily climbed down and remained crouching in almost a foot of mud which covered the bottom. : So far they were safe, but they were still in grave danger. They heard the men dis- mount and go stamping about among the ruins, hurriedly searching for some one. Their voices frequently drifted down into the depths of the well, and once some one came and looked down; but as both of the crouching figures were darkly clothed and Jude had heard the man approaching in time to warn De Cardac to hide his face and hands, the seeker turned away. “Do you suppose they are after us?” Paul whispered. For reply, Jude put his grimy hand across the white:man’s mouth. A long time elapsed in silence. The hid- den men could no longer hear voices, and imagined that the seatching-party had passed on, but they dared not venture forth. For now they were in terror lest their horses be discovered and thus the suspicion of the seekers be aroused to such an extent that they would probably hang about the ruins all day. Finally Jude considered it safe to go up and look around. He began-the climb, but found it considerably more difficult than the descent. But he fimally accomplished it, and was gone some time. De Cardac was alarmed and could not imagine what had happened, but at last Jude’s face appeared, and the mulatto called down that all was safe. : ~ Paul climbed out, and saw that there was no trace of the horsemen. “Where have they gone?” he whispered, looking about over the expanse of prairie: “Dey are concealed from us by that thicket where the horses are hid,” Jude responded. “I done looked. Dat’s what took me so long.” “Now they are sure to get the horses,” Paul moaned. “ We better go back into the well.” “Dey is long past where the hosses is,” Jude contemptuously explained. So the horsemen had -passed them by. Their search had certainly not been very thorough, but perhaps they had been too 461 anxious to press on and had regarded the old ruined mission as a most improbable place to discover that for which they sought. “Well, we learned one good thing,” De Cardac announced. “ Fred Pope’s cabin is without his protection. Let’s go there at once and see what we can find.” ‘ First,” Jude began, “ dare’s something - mighty strange here. Let’s see about it.” It seems that while in the well ke had noticed the cavity where a large stone of the wall had long since fallen out. And he had heard the footsteps of the horsemen very distinctly through this opening. He de- clared that he believed the side of the well would prove to be the wall to a cellar. They grubbed about in the ruins and sure enough before long discovered a huge trap-door, hidden beneath almost half a foot of debris. The door was made of big, heavy timbers and in a fine state of preservation. It was held in place by a monstrous bolt, which had so corroded that, try as they would, the two men could not budge it. “No use,” Jude declared. couldn’t prize that open. the well.” They did so, and Jude, with little difficul- ty, succeeded in effecting an opening large enough for them easily to slip through. He then lighted a torch that he had brought down with him and crept through the hole. De Cardac was about to follow him when Jude cried that it was no use. ‘ Nothing here,” the mulatto declared; ‘“just-a cellar and big steps up to that trap- door.” “Well, I’m going to see,’ Paul declared, dropping through the hole and dislodging another large stone, which fell with a thud the distance of about four feet to the bottom of the well. They found themselves in an underground room of about twenty feet by twelve. At one was an old stairs that led to the trap- door which had probably once opened into the kitchen or pantry of the mission. The room had an earthen floor, which was not very hard and: the earth of the roof was supported by heavy boards resting on rough posts. The place was chill, but the air was not very bad. “Ten men Let’s go down conniclooolkks.conn