The Argosy, January 1907 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

IN THE DEPTHS OF DISASTER. I stared, fascinated, at our enemy. I knew at once that this was José, for besides his massive bulk, there was the long scar across one side of his face, of which we had been told. I studied him at my leisure, and the survey made me sick at heart. Se If ever merciless cruelty was written in the lines of a countenance—in the curves of the brow, in the glowering of the eyes, in the thin, compressed lips—it was written in that man’s. He looked the scoundrel every inch of him, and, as I regarded him, my gorge rose at the thought that here before me reposed the assassin of my uncle. , I could easily have shot him as [I sat there, and my heart would have found pleasure in the deed; but I realized that to kill him were to destroy perhaps our only chance of tracing the money. Therefore, his life was sacred for the present. We discussed an effort for his cap- ture, but abandoned the idea for the time being, since the nature of the man led us to believe that threats would not force him to reveal: his secrets. If seemed wiser to watch and follow him, in the hope that he might lead us un- wittingly to the object of our desire. At the end of half an hour, José lazily stretched himself. Then he erawled into the hut, and in a moment came out again, carrying a small bundle in his hand. Without any pause, he turned about and walked briskly up the barranca toward the north. “Wait until he gets farther away be- fore we start to follow him,” I re- monstrated, for José had not gone two paces when Billy prepared to set out in pursuit. “But suppose he doesn’t come back- this way?” Billy argued. lose him altogether.” ‘TI don’t see how,” I said. “If he’s going to leave the dbarranca he’s pretty sure to go by the way we came, so that all we have to do is to keep our eyes on the cliff there. If he doesn’t climb out we can keep just close enough to see him, without any danger of his seeing us.” “We might By this time the outlaw had gone on until he was about a quarter of a mile from us, and I deemed it prudent to be- 199 gin stalking him. So we scrambled down from our nook and started work- ing our way carefully north, darting from boulder to bonlder, and taking pains to expose ourselves only when we had José in view, and therefore were sure that he was not looking in our di- rection. The day wore on, and still we dodged forward, tired by the constant strain, but not daring to relax our caution. We managed to eat something in short halts, and once we tried some water from one of the tiny streams, but it was so sul+ furous that we could get no satisfaction from it. It was nearly noon, as I judged from the sun’s height, when we lost sight of José completely. Often he had disap- peared from our view beyond the boulders that lay between us, but al- ways we had caught sight of him again ere many minutes had passed. Now, hewever, we waited in vain. We peered here and there, but all to neo purpose. ly vanished, and we began to grow alarmed lest in some way he had come to suspect that he was being followed, But a little later I caught sight of him commg straight toward us and distant scarcely two hundred yards. ! whipped around a boulder out of sight, dragging Billy with me, while bidding him -be silent. ‘“What is it? José?” he whispered. “ Yes,” I answered softly. ‘‘ We must get away from this; he’ll be up with us in a minute now.” ‘Has he seen us, do you think?” “No. Make a straight lie back to the next boulder, keeping this one be- tween him and us. Then we can get to another one. Only, we must go faster than he does, and we must make no noise. Come on.” I set out at once, half-running, but careful to avoid any noise, Billy just behind me. The next boulder was only about ten rods from our starting-point, and I hoped we might reach it without José’s observing us, for the boulder we had left shut off his view in our direc- tion, and, though I kept turning my head as I hastened, I could see nothing of him. We soon came to the boulder and got oo COMMICLOO® S A) Our guarry had complete- (E@)