The Argosy, August 1905 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

for the second time and his saber rat- tled. * Sartillo, you devil, where are you? Am I to stand here all night?” he de- manded fiercely. Suddenly a figure appeared, advanc- ing through the moonlight toward the angry Mexican. Sergeant Bradley thought it was the tardy Sartillo come to report that the guard was nowhere to be found. Captain Valeno heard the footsteps approaching him and turned sharply, a torrent of abuse upon his lips. But it was not forthcoming. The Texan saw him start violently, peer forward, and a question took the place of the oaths he would have uttered. “Tt is you, Sefor—Mazatlan? Jam waiting for ; ' A look of the keenest satisfaction leaped into the eyes of the American. He half-raised the muzzle of ‘his pistol, his finger toying with the trigger. Then a strange thing happened. The man whom Captain Valeno had addressed as Mazatlan, whom he had plainly recognized by the livid double sear, sprang like a wild beast toward the throat of his own officer. Captain Valeno uttered the single cry “ Oh, God!” and went down with a crash which sent the stones rattling down the hillside. Then before the eyes of the aston- ished Texan a terrific struggle took place. A shriek of agony echoed across the hills, the glitter of steel flashed thrice in the moonlight, and one of the combatants arose to his fect. All thought of using the pistol he held vanished from the Texan’s mind. He sat motionless, staring at the figure of the man sianding above his groaning victim. Suddenly this man bent down and peered into the face of the form upon the ground. A hoarse laugh reached the Texan’s ears—a laugh which made him shudder, though he had faced death a hundred times. And close upon this sound, more demoniacal than human, a voice rang out across the hill, bae 1h is thus Perote repays those who injure him, sefior. A hundred times have I held my hand when opportunity viven me to strike because I chose to a ee THE ARGOSY. find you near the inn where you tortured me. You have ventured near that ron to-night, Senor Valeno.” . The Mexican upon the ground strug- eled to a ‘half-sitting posture. Sergeant Bradley could not see his face, but he knew that he was desperately wounded. Valeno raised one hand toward the man who gloated over him. “Mercy, senor! In the name of God, spare me!” he eried in a trembling voice. “And you ask that—you who blew upon the charcoal that the iron might heat more guickly? Did you spare me then, Senor Valeno? ” “Tn the name of Heaven, as you hope for forgiveness! It was a mistake. We believed you had taken the paper, and, the paper missing, death stared us in the face. And that Urrea—it was he who eaused it—I can direct you to him, that you may strike——” “Then you think I do not know. Perhaps Santa Anna, dictator of Mex- ico, might tell you differently. It was in truth that Urrea who lied to me in order to obtain the paper; he lied, but— he did not torture,” answered Sefor Perote coldly. The wounded man, overcome by weakness, fell back upon the ground, yet he continued to ery out feebly, beg- ging for merey. Senor Perote laughed for the second time. “You expect that, and I have killed an innocent man in order to reach you? I struck down the soldier who accompa- . nied you to this place, and he had never injured me. Do you think, then, I will oe took the iron from the Ile uttered the words with awful calmness, and his disfigured face in the- white light was the pitiless face of a demon. Captain Valeno threw up his arms and shrieked in terror’ Through the mist of blood which covered his eyes he could only vaguely distinguish the form of his enemy. In the weird light the form of the ex- innkeeper seemed to be floating in a wave of crimson which surged backward and forward like the surface of the sea. _ Suddenly Perote bent down and said in a cold voice: a ~ ey