The Argosy — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

The Robbers’ Cave. 59 Parson. He dismounted and tried the door, which was on the latch. He went in boldly enough but soon retreated, and signalled to the soldiers. “Tt is full of men; some asleep, some half awake,” he said. “They did not see me, but I’ll warrant they are all robbers.” In a few moments a cordon of soldiers was formed round the house, and the child and Dinah placed in the midst of a second cordon. Men and horses remained still as statues. Not a sound, save the twittering of the birds, disturbed the peace of the scene. Suddenly the juvenile Ap Madoc began to cry, and his cry was even more lusty than when he aroused the inmates of the Vicarage. A shutter was partially unclosed, and a face partly visible. “Tt is the captain,” muttered the Parson and Dinah simultaneously. *“ And I’m sure he saw the child and me.” The shutter reclosed instantaneously. “Tf they attempt to escape it will be down the glen,” whispered the Reverend David Saunders. His words proved oracular, for in a few minutes a band of armed men poured through a side entrance, and rushed down the terraces that surrounded the house, towards the haunted glen. ‘Down the back road and you will meet them at the Towers,” said the Parson, pointing. A guard was told off to protect the child, and the Colonel and the rest rode away. The robbers, with the wicked Captain Ap Madoc in their midst, tore down the glen, pistol in one hand, sword in the other. When they reached the Towers, they shouted, and out poured more robbers secreted there. The cavalry were behind them, and the fugitives - shot at them as they fled towards the shore. Down the glen, through the haunted field they ran lke fiends, making for the noted Points. “They are open for us; they will close on the soldiers,” shouted Ap Madoc. But on the beach they were brought to bay. It was a fearful scene. Some were killed, some surrendered, others succeeded in reaching the Points. Among the latter was Ap Madoc. But the tide was coming in rapidly, and those yawning jaws, that spared the infant heir, were greedy to devour the usurper. And they did not spare him or those who rushed to their destruction with him. The sea makes quick work of it when it chooses; and no sooner was Ap Madoc round one Point and making for the other, than “they closed ” upon him, as the saying was, and the world was well rid of the murderer and his accomplices. And so the robbers were rooted out, and the youngest born of the race of Ap Madoc came to his own again. CoOnnicboooks im