Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 107: what you’re looking at

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

FOR COUNTRY. placid mirror surface as the bargeman’s oar-strokes propelled them toward the castle. The Carlos Quinto, a small Span- ish cruiser that unforgivingly had taken position near the fortress, lay near the two American cruisers whose guns had domi- nated Ulua during the fight. What had seemed fair and low across the harbor became grim and towering as the walls of the massive fortification were neared. The small boat wormed in and out of the shipping, and nosed into the cooling shadow of the great sea-wall. Antiquated big guns peered over the parapet; an enormous rusty chain drooped from the wall and disappeared into the sea. In a corner, on an esplanade outside the wall, a corrugated iron shed half concealed a torpedo tube from which Mexican de- fenders had been warned to stay away un- der penalty of being blown off the reef. To westward of the castle the boat en- tered the open moat. Square embrasures, yawning high above the surface of the water, pierced the wall and with a touch of modern utility were barred by crossed lengths of trackrails. The water in the moat was pellucidly green, like the deadly arsenic streams of the far west. Through it the foul bottom gleamed with repugnant suggestion of mys- tery and corpses. American marines stood guard at the sallyport. Dangling at the belt of the cor- poral of the guard was an enormous metal ring from which swung gigantic keys that surely must have known medieval days. Patria and Nelson roamed wonderingly about the terreplein, the courtyard of the fortress. It was topped by great flagstones, Feeble wisps of grass between the joints strove pathetically to keep alive, as though nature herself were in protest against the terrors for which the place was infamous. With matter-of-fact air that bespoke the - soldier long accustomed to soul-hardening things, the corporal escorted them to the main prison entrance. It lay so deeply un- der an archway that no ray of sun could penetrate its maw from any angle. A stout iron gate barred further progress, and the ancient lock moaned resentfully under torque of the great key. 905 Within the prison proper the gloom seemed impenetrable. A second grille a few feet beyond the gate interposed its bar- rier. Clinging to the bars with strangely white hands a dozen humans could be dim- ly discerned, their eyes sunken, their cheeks as well. Hair, beard, and clothing bore witness to utterly unkempt misery. A clammy and moldy odor hung heavily about this cavern of darkness. A leering, subservient “ trusty ” hustled the prisoners away from the grating as the visitors en- tered the great cell where the moldiness increased in offensiveness until it became a stench. Gray shadows slunk near the walls; others huddled in corners in fetid apathy —and as eyes adjusted themselves to the gloom it became apparent that the shadows were men. A Mexican keeper, uncouth and inhuman in appearance, cracked a blacksnake whip and the shadows stirred sluggishly until they formed a rough line. The political prisoners of the Mexican government stood before the visitors, an ap- palling exhibit. Nelson was indignantly aroused by the misery and squalor of what he saw. A doddering old fellow smirked inanely at him. “Why are you here?” Nelson asked him. With a wealth of gesture and sibilant, liquid speech, the man poured forth a volume of Spanish too rapid for Nelson to understand. Patria, who had sufficiently conquered her repugnance to follow into the cell room, translated: “He says he does not know why he is here—that he has been in this cell for twenty years—that he is innocent of any crime. And he wishes to know when Por- firio Diaz is going to let him out.” The trusty glided up: “Don’t believe him, senorita,’ he whined, “‘ he is a murderer and a thief and has been here only three years. He is just trying to excite your sympathy, for he knows perfectly well that Sefior Madero is president; he put him here.” Nelson turned half accusingly to Patria. Through her, in a way, he seemed to ar- raign her government and her people. Re-— sentment stirred within him. Gomichbooks (E@)