The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 188: what you’re looking at

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

890 when I heard the clank of arms and Cabrera stepped quickly back to us. Pest! he said. “-it 45-4. patrol. Follow me quickly now, and take care how you step that you make no noise.” But fate, who generally manages to have a hand in human affairs, ordained that the matter should not end so easily or so happily. We ran quickly down the street, keeping to the dark side, and were about to debouch upon the sea beach when,*as luck would have it, Senor Cabrera, breathless from his un- wonted exertions, stumbled over a sleeping pig and fell headlong on the coarse gravel. : There was a sigh from Cabrera and a series of soul-stirring squeals’ from that infernal pig as he raced up the street, and close behind us, in the dark- ness, a voice shouted: “Aqui, hombres! Estan aqui! Pronto!” (Here they are, men! Quick ! ) Dolores was sobbing breathlessly as she leaned upon my arm. I quietly threw it around her waist and plunged on up the beach, seeking the boat and a sure means of escaping the patrol, for to be captured as we were meant death for all of us; for me, as one of the Brethren of the Coast; for them, as conspirators against the king. Twenty yards and Cabrera was down again! We heard the feet of the patrol upon the gravel; lights gleamed in the street above us, and a shot rang out from the muella. “Here!”’ shouted a voice close to me. ‘‘ Here, Upholme! Quick, man!” It was Alston at last, and the boat was there, not fifty yards frontus. I did not fear now for myself, because when we should once shove off the darkness would cover us; but I did fear for Dolores. | “Quick, man! Into the boat!” I shouted. : He sprang aboard and shoved her off into deep water. I heard a rush of men’s feet above me, and, hampered as I was by Dolores, 1 flung her behind me as I cleared my sword-arm. —— “tsk THE ARGOSY. Cabrera sprang in front of me just in time to receive a pike-thrust from a man in the patrol. I saw the point stand a hand’s breadth out behind his shoulder-blade. There was no time now for sword- play, so I cut straight at my man. There needed no second cut. He went down like a pole-axed ox, and I sprang for the boat and seized the gunwale. ‘Is she on board, Alston?” I panted. ‘Aye, aye,’ he said carelessly, as he shipped his oars and backed off into the darkness. ‘A close shave, Up- holme. She’s in the stern-sheets.” I sprang aft. Dolores was sitting in the stern-sheets, bowed forward, with her face buried in her hands, and she made no_resistance as I quietly passed my arm about her. “Give way for the Osprey, Alston,” IT said. “ We need speed now, if ever! Give me an oar!” | And we pulled noiselessly off into the gray fog that was rolling in from seaward. CHAPTER XII. THE BATTLE OF THE SHIPS. None of us spoke a word during that trip to the Osprey. I could tell by the heaving of her shoulders that Dolores was weeping; but she gave no outward sign beyond a convulsive pres- sure of my hand. : When we had gone a short distance I took an oar, and we pulled silently but steadily down the coast till we rounded the headland behind which the vessel lay. We did not see her till we were close aboard, when she loomed sud- denly up out of the sea-mist, and, after answering the low hail of the lookout, we clambered on board, and I took Dolores at once to the cabin. In the darkness the men could not see her and, of course, making a light was out of the question. “Keep the deck a moment, will you, connicloolks (C@)