The Argosy, August 1905 — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

. white with passion and a thin froth appeared upon his lips. It seemed as though he would rush to the door and eall loudly to the guard below. His fin- gers clutched convulsively upon the ivory image in his hand. They re- laxed@ and the erncifix dropped to the floor. With a hoarse ery—the cry of a sav- age beast cheated of its prey—the dicta- tor of Mexico threw himself upon the bed and tore the sheets into ribbons. Even he respected an oath taken on the cross. Sefior Perote descended the stairs and walked out upon the veranda. The guard saluted stiffly. “The senor captain’s command have but just passed. I wish the senor suc- cess at the inn on the Acapulco road,” said he in a deferential voice. “JT thank you, senor,” answered Perote coldly. “I am generally suc- cessful in what I undertake.” He descended the steps leading to the ground and walked toward the town. The guard shrugged his shoulders and muttered under his breath: “It is as he says. Truly this Mazatlan is a terri- ble man. I would rather meet the devil than encounter him in anger.” CHAPTER XII. A GAP IN THE CIRCLE. THE inn oyer which Senor Perote had once officiated presented a gloomy and forbidding appearance. The windows were boarded over, the door loose upon its hinges, and a heap of half-burned embers and ashes marked the spot where had once stood a likely stable. Some little distance back of this de- serted hostelry was a low hill, the summit of which was covered with bushes and rank vegetation. At the base of the hill, on the side farthest from the inn, a deep depression ex- tended for perhaps half a mile toward the north. At certain seasons of the year the bottom of this ditch was shed with ___- water, but in the summer time was affording a comfortable shelter one desirous of concealing him- » THE ARGOSY. - afternoon of the aay which had witnessed their departure from Chalco two men occupied this nat- Late in the ural hiding-place. They were Lieuten- ant Haddon and the Texan. The latter, who had been examining the landscape from the summit of the hill, had just returned to his companion. “Wither he has gone astray or has decided not to follow your suggestion, for I take it for granted he has not fallen again into the hands of the Mex- ieans,””’ said he. “ Any of the three is possible, for had he come straight from Chaleo he could have reached this place shortly after daybreak,” answered the Virginian in an anxious voice. “ As matters now stand, it would be better that he avoid this neighborhood as he would the devil’s hunting-ground. There he would meet only one fiend of hell, while somewhere out yonder are twoscore or more, led by that wolf Mazatlan.” Sergeant Bradley uttered this blunt speech with an embellishment of choice Texan oaths. No less anxious than his companion, he had a different way of showing his disquietude. The Americans had grave cause for apprehension. Anderson, the artillery- man whom Haddon had liberated from the stone house in Chalco, had not ap- peared at the rendezvous. Had he decided to push straight for the American lines without waiting for the Virginian to join him, as had been agreed upon, all might be well, but if he had lost his way or been foreed to make a wide détour to avoid the Mexicans scattered over the country, his delayed arrival at the inn might prove his destruction. Somewhere behind the hills whieh dotted the landscape lay Mazatlan and his guerrilleros. To appear, pushing forward in fancied security, would be to walk into a trap which meant a speedy, perhaps painful, death. Concerning the rumored approach of a detachment of American cavalry, Had- don and his companion felt less concer Mazatlan’s plan was to pe northerners to ride fa country, where they we ed, orif ‘ comicbooks.com)