The Argosy, January 1907 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

200 THE behind it just in time. When I peered around it a moment later, José was coming in sight, but farther away than before. Evidently we were gaining on him. This encouraged us to set out for another and larger rock somewhat to our right, where, as we judged, our flight would be cut off from José’s view by the boulder we left. We ran rapidly to this, for we did not believe the outlaw could hear the slight noise of our steps at such a distance. When we reached the stone, we found it hollowed on the far side, so that we ventured to trust ourselves in the shel- ter of it until the enemy should have passed. We waited in silence and marked the approach of José by the sound of his steps, which we could soon hear dis- tinctly. He steadily approached us, but did not come nearer than perhaps fifty yards. As the noise of his walking grew faint again, | ventured once more to look out from our shelter.. I found that the out- law was a long way from us. As he had his back turned squarely toward us, he was doubtless quite in ignorance of our presence near him. ~“'The best thing we can do,” Billy said, when I had told him of this, “ is to wait here until he has had time to get back to the hut, then go round care- fully, and so work back to our old place in the cliff.” [ assented to this, adding, however, that we would do well to keep a lookout on the cliffs, so that we might know if José should be leaving the darranca. We continued quiet for nearly an hour, then our impatience became so great that we decided to go forward. But we went straight to the precipice farthest from the hut and picked our way along the base of it, moving as silently as we could and keeping a con- stant guard against surprise. Aftér a time we came to a _ point whence we could see the hut, and there we discovered Jose, seated smoking as before. We continued our progress un- til we had passed a half-mile beyond our destination. ‘Then we moved across the floor of the Jarranca, taking care so to guide our course that we had always ARGOSY. something between the man and _ our- selves to hide us from his sight. By such means, we came at last to our niche in the rock. We climbed into it from the south end, and, safe in its shelter, rested and ate. When night fell, our last view of the outlaw showed him sitting placidly be- fore his hut, smoking. Now it occurred to me that José, when he reappeared, did not carry the parcel with which he had started from the hut. I spoke of this to Billy. “Why,” he exclaimed eagerly, “sure enough. [It must have been more booty.” ‘And it’s likely that he has hidden it at N. 17——” “Aye, that’s it,” Billy interrupted. “And we know now pretty near where the place is, for he was out of sight only for a few minutes. He couldn't have gone far.” “With that help we ought to hit the spot.” : “We're sure to—if we hunt long enough,’ was Billy’s confident decla- ration. ““ We'll begin the search to- morrow.” We discussed the question of mount- ing guard, turn and turn about through the night, but the enemy’s ignorance of our presence in the darranca, together with the fact that there was nothing likely to lead him in our direction dur- ing the night, made us decide that. it would be folly to weary ourselves with a task so needless. We lay down in our blankets and were sound asleep almost at the closing of our eyes. I was awakened in the gray light of the morning by hearing a strange voice shouting. I opened my eyes in a sud- den stupid terror, and there before me stood José, with an evil grin, his cocked gun pointed full at my face. CHAPTER= TV. THE TRAPPERS TRAPPED. For a moment I could only stare in amazement, without comprehending the disaster that had befallen. But a startled exclamation from my _ brother attracted my attention, and I turned toward him. : : ECOMICLOOO (C@