The Argosy, January 1907 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

THE ARGOSY Vol. LIT JANUARY, 1907. . No. 2 IN THE DEPTHS OF DISASTER. BY MARVIN DANA. The story of a pursuit which was transformed into a captivity, and which brought its victims into fearsome waters. (Cemplete in This Issue.) CHAPTER If. HELPLESS IN SIGHT OF TRAGEDY. “T) O you see the money coming?” “Not yet,” Billy answered. “'There’s nothing moving in sight.” My brother was standing on the brm of a four-thousand-foot precipice, gazing through a telescope down into the valley below. I sat at ease beside him. “Then Uncle Charles is late,” I continued. “Jove though, it’s a joy to have a hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars swinging along toward us. Eh?” “Rather! Especially when a few months ago we didn’t have fifteen thou- sand cents between the two of us. Un- cle Charles is a trump.” “He is, indeed,’ I agreed enthusi- astically. “‘I wish he would loom in sight.” Only a’ short. time before this same uncle, Charles Carnight, had sent to us, the children of his dead brother, in New York, asking us to join him on his coffee plantation in Mexico. There he had in- formed us that he intended not merely to make us his heirs but to give us at once some share in his wealth. Part of this was the plantation, but - the greater portion was in two mines which .he had acquired. One he had already sold for fifty thousand dollars. To-day he had ridden to “Cheros, the nearest town, to complete the sale -of the other and to receive the purchase money, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 1A One can imagine the delight with which we had experienced this change from poverty to wealth, and our grate- ful love for our uncle knew no bounds. We had ridden part of the way toward Cheros with him, and then turned aside to climb Buona, an outlying spur of the mountains. We wished te make some examination of the timber, as the mountain was our uncle’s proper- ty, and, also, we had a fancy to scale the highest cliffs, for the sake of the magnificent view. 3 It was to that end we had brought the telescope with which Billy now sur- veyed the trail. “Ah,” Billy exclaimed a moment later, “there’s something coming in sight to the south! It must be uncle. Yes, it’s somebody on horseback. Com- ing at a good pace, too.” — ‘Let me look,’”’ and I reached out my hand. . Billy passed me the telescope, and I adjusted the glass to my eye. Yes, the horseman was now to be seen clearly, cantering along the trail that ran like a silver ribbon across the yal- ley. Momentarily the form grew more distinct. : Yes, yes >. I ~-eried, ..“*1t’s --Unele Charles. I can recognize him now.” “And he’s bringing us a hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” my brother said exultingly. ‘“ He said he was going to divide it between us at once, Jack.” “Yes,” IT agreed. “It seems a good deal of money, my boy.” : COPMICOOOKS GO!