The Argosy — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

The Robbers’ Ceve. 55 The cave was enormous—one of nature’s freaks when she heaped mountain on mountain in one of her convulsive throes, and left an arch in their midst. Like the tower, the entrance to it was narrow, though men could walk in and out erect. The inmates were numerous, and all were armed. ‘They were fierce, ill-looking men, to whom robbery and murder were common as their daily bread. No wonder the peaceable inhabitants of the mountainous district, of which the cave seemed the formidable centre, both woke and slept in terror of their lives. To approach the cave, hidden and guarded as it was, was impossible; to eradicate the robbers seemed utterly 1m- practicable. Anyone who saw them in their cave, with their fierce, sullen, diabolical faces, would have endorsed this. But their last awful deed had surpassed its predecessors, and Ap Madoc trembled lest he should be implicated. He was in their power, and he felt that they would as soon murder him as not. “Are you sure they are all gone?” he asked, somewhat un- easily. “All! All! Another toast to the heir!” was the reply. And so the robbers and their guest spent the night in revelry which the infant and his guardian passed in the tower-chamber. More than this, Ap Madoc took possession of Plas Werne, while ¢he murderers continued their maraudings, and the lawful heir lay perdu, unconscious of his rights. Meanwhile, the Reverend David Saunders plotted and planned. Nightly did he or Betto personate the ghost, while the one not so employed, mounted the tower stairs with food for the poor prisoners. Mistress Dinah languished, the babe throve, and nobody guessed what was passing in the old church tower. But everybody wondered at the unusual activity of the Parson. All day long he was absent from his parish, riding hither and thither, but none knew whither. He was away from early morn till nightfall, and Betto declared herself as lonesome as Dinah. ‘““T shall not be back to-night, Betto. You must be both porter and ghost,” said his reverence, one morning early, as he mounted his horse. ‘‘ Keep you the white garments on when you carry up the necessaries, and you will be as safe as if you had a regiment of dragoons to guard you. Maybe you will before long.” “Are you thinking I’m made of iron, Master?” asked Betto, trembling at the prospect before her. ‘Do the nght, and put your faith in God,” returned his reverence, riding off. It must be confessed that Betto, strong-minded as she certainly was, did not like being left alone at night. But she put a brave face upon it, wrapped her sheet carefully about her, and took a jug of hot milk and other food across to the church. The night was cloudy the aisles looked gruesome, and the lantern she had suspended from her neck, threw but a sepulchral light on the scene. Still she CoOnmicboooks im