The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

852 threw a checker-board of shadows upon the lowered draw-bridge, the white glare of the dust upon the road- way, where a negro boy held two horses richly caparisoned, as though the riders had just dismounted. There were four soldiers in the guard-room, and two were shaking dice from an iron gauntlet upon the rough table; the other-two were kneel- ing on the bench, with their elbows on the table, watching the game. Their swords, with the belts wrapped about the scabbards, lay upon a second table behind them. Oakes grasped my arm. “ Three thrings,’”’ he said hoarsely—“ seize the swords, bar the door from the outside, and then for the horses yonder! Don't cheer. Come on!”’ Like a thunderbolt we were upon them. I saw the miseracordia gleam high in air as Oakes drove it home; then the four were on the floor with the table atop as we plunged out of the farther door. Oakes quickly slipped the loop of his thong through the latch and passed one of the swords through the slack of it, holding the door as if in a vise, and we tore down the path toward the portcullis. I sprang to the windlass and low- ered the grating to a foot from the ground, and we squirmed under it. The negro boy holding the horses gaped at us, but he had little time to ponder on what it all meant, for Oakes deftly tripped him up as we sprang to the saddles. A moment later we were in full gal- lop up the street, leaving behind us the shouts and clamor in the locked guard- room and the excited yelps of the negro boy, who feared for his own skin. We hastily turned several corners, then pulled down into a steady trot, for we knew that we had a start of a good half-hour, but we did not halt till we reached the line of hills far be- yond the city. “We must travel all night,” said Oakes breathlessly. “The blood- THE ARGOSY. hounds, you know, will be laid upon our trail, if they have aught—a girth, or anything with the smell of these horses on it—that will give them the scent. Pray for water.” We pushed on rapidly into the foot- hills. The vegetation changed rapidly from the rich, languorous tropic growth to the hardier shrubs, and our horses were nearly winded when we at last struck running water. ‘“ Shall we stop and camp? ”’ I asked. We had followed the stream for near- ly two miles. “Not for our lives! There is no halt for us till we sight Tortué Chan- nel, and that is sixty miles. Come on!” ‘“ But where are we bound? ” “Where any sailor can pilot you. Have you heard no rumors of the gathering of the Brethren of the Coast? Two sword-hands will bring their own welcome, and I have a debt to pay. Come on!” And again we pushed our horses up the narrow gorge. CHAPTER--IV, THE ESCAPE. Ou, the memory of that night and the next and the four days following! It was one long, unbroken stretch of riding when the forest was open; and when the jungle closed in upon us, and the growth would not permit the horses to move freely, we dismounted, and toiled and sweated up the steep hillsides covered with rough boulders carpeted with layer upon layer of dense tropical growth. For food wé had what fruit we could find, the roots that we dug, and a few small fish that we managed to catch with our hands. And always we toiled up and north- ward, northward ever; for there alone lay safety and security from the pur- suit of the Spaniard. “How. far is it, Oakes?.”’. F-asked despairingly, when we had traveled in eager haste for three days. Gomichbooks (E@)