Beadle's Dime Novels No. 119: Blackeyes — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

98 BLACKEYES. and look after his immediate concerns, without attempting to fight the victorious Americans. As the United States forces had not yet reached his pueblo, the padre considered himself able to gratify his desire for re- venge without hindrance. In the first place, he wished to gain possession of Luke Royston, in order to make the num- ber complete, and for that purpose went to the room in which he had locked up Dolores, at a very early hour in the morn- ing, intending to compel her to reveal the secret of the young goldier’s hiding-place. Greatly to his surprise, he found that the bird had flown, and the loosened gratings and the rope at the window plainly showed how she had made her escape. Highly indignant at having been foiled by a girl, he hasten- ed to her mother’s room, thinking that Dolores might have taken refuge there; but Sefiora Colatzin was absent, and no one knew what had become of her. He then went to the prison, in the lower part of the house, to wreak vengeance upon Bill Ward. His surprise amounted to astonishment when he unlocked the door and found the cell empty! Con- vinced that the prisoner could not. have made his escape without assistance, he soon came to the conclusion that Sefiora Colatzin had recognized her husband, had released him, and had gone off with him. Pale with rage, he mounted his mule, and rode to the buried temple, satisfied that he yet had three victims—Lieutenant Bent and Major Buttress and his daughter. He found the two warrior guards, together with a number Of other Indians and the priests and peons of the temple, collected in the large hall, near the sacrificial altar, and gazing earnestly at the beams of the newly-risen sun that poured through the open- ing at the east. Their countenances exhibited various shades of expectation and disappointment. He approached them, and inquired the cause of the unusual gathering. “ We are waiting and watching for Prince Izatlin,” replied one of the warriors. | “Prince Izatlin! Who is he ?” A “He is the son of the great Montezuma. We saw him last night, and he-promised to appear to us in the sunrise this morning.” Further questioning elicited from the Indians. the whole . comicbooks.conn. 4