Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 961 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

y ifie grasp of two Indians, Al tore himself FP trom those who held him, and, rushing to ~ _™ her, struck one of the Indians down with a 4 sCOMhighty blow of his fist. mas A more astonished group never existed, and Al began to regret the action as soon 4s it Was done. The Indians, enraged beyond measure, flew at him, and, but for the appearance of the tramp, he would have been torn limb from limb. The juggler raced forward in his red robe, nodding, frowning and shouting. He loudly ordered the woman and the boy to be released, but of course he was not un- derstood. The men stared, however, and fell back, though they still held Aztec Al and the frightened woman. “You won’t go, eh?’ Smith howled, ad- ae vancing and shaking his fist. “Let him loose, I say! If you don’t—” Reaching forward to the nearest Indian, he pulled a big black beetle out of the fel- low’s nose, which he cast backward over his head, and then, reaching the leader, with a further stride, he combed out of the leader’s hair a small handful of ants and bugs. “Go! go!” he yelled. | He lifted his hands dramatically to the skies, as if he would call down Heaven’s vengeance on them, and they, seared be- yond all conception, scudded away like rats, leaving Aztec Al and the woman free. - ‘The woman threw herself at the jug- gler’s feet, but he lifted her, with a pomp- ous wave of the hand. Then she put an arm around the neck of Aztec Al and began to cry. At that instant the interpreter and an- other Indian, somewhat bolder, came for- ward, and Aztec Al learned that he was now this woman’s son—that he was to ’ take the place of a boy who was dead, and that her adobe hut was henceforth to be his home. It was a queer sensation, this feeling that he had been adopted by an old In- dian woman, and his feelings were even queerer as he accompanied her to the hut. a, When they were alone together, she threw herself on his shoulder, and then, bringing up a necklace of pearls from some secret hiding place, she proudly strung it about his neck. CHAPTER XIV. FROM ONE DANGER INTO ANOTHER. he The days did not pass without bringing ot many plans of escape. To remain in that {i valley, the prisoners of those Indians, was { / not to be thought of. But how were they | to get away? ahs Two parties formed among the Indians— Py one party favoring the whites and: the other opposed to them and demanding ott their death. The first party was led by those who believed in the miraculous powers of the juggler; the other by the adherents of cer- iG; tain priests, who were disbelieving, and aa jealous of the homage and consideration ae shown the white medicine-man. Unfortunately the woman accused of witcheraft, who had been rescued from nk death by Al and Bazoo, had been snatched rs from priests opposed to the whites. ha “T don’t like the outlook,” Israel Isett in| Oe declared. th They were in the room assigned to Ba- vs zoo, and to this room Al had come, fool- ir ishly wearing the necklace of pearls. “Though these Indians are Tahayumaris is and are very superstitious and easily de- ceived, they still have men among them . who have got sense enough to know that a) tees you've been playing a game, Bazoo. The rs ls priests, for the most part, must be sure of aR ha it, for they are in the habit of putting up The Tramp’s Trump-Trick. me ei e-tsi—(‘“‘i— CC little miracle tricks themselves, to increase their power. “What I heard one Indian say to an- other awhile ago makes me afraid that our days of grace are up. They are planning to kill that woman, and us, too! They'll murder us, likely, and then cause the woman to be burnt, if they can force into subjection the opposition!’ The information was very disquieting. That Isett’s fears had a strong basis of fact was shown to Al almost as soon as darkness had fallen. The old woman, who seemed to have conceived: for him almost as much affec- tion as if he were her son, seized him by the hand, put into his possession a bag of gold, and drew him hastily away from the hut, At a corner she left him for a moment, and when she returned to conduct him on, she threw another string of pearls about his neck. She could not say a word that he could understand, but her actions and evident anxiety, combined with what he had heard from his father, made him know that some peril threatened, of which she was informed. Taking him to the house of the juggler, she pointed to the mountains and by signs urged him to fly from the place and from the valley. Then she glided away and disappeared. “We'd better cut sticks, I’m thinkin’!”’ Bazoo avowed. “There’s deviltry afoot. But how we're to git out o’ this valley is what worries me!” “There may be a pass! We haven’t made a search, you know. We're judging only by what ,»we'’ve seen and heard.” Al’s hopeful view was adopted as pos- sible, and the only one that offered hope, and they began to discuss how they might carry out a hastily-formed plan, when a crawling sound drew their attention. From within the room they could see out into the dusky street, while themselves un- seen, and now they beheld three dark fig- ures creeping slowly in their direction. That these were assassins slipping up to murder them admitted of no doubt, for closer looking revealed the gleam of knives held in the teeth of these men. The imperiled prisoners were absolutely weaponless, except for a club that Al had picked up on the way. “ Make a dash for it!’ Al whispered, with his customary quickness, “If they corner us in here, we’re gone. And, see! There’s more of them!’’ Behind the three armed Indians came four more, advancing in the same stealthy manner. The crawling villains were now within three or four yards of the entrance. To delay longer invited death, With a rush the three prisoners dashed through the opening, Aztec Al leading the way. Before the Indians knew that their pres- ence was known, the whites were out of the room and beyond immediate danger. Instantly the attitude of the Indians al- tered from that of stealthy, would-be mur- derers to open enemies and alarmists. While their plan of assassination had misearried, there was now placed in their grasp a most formidable weapon. They had only to make known to the village that the prisoners were trying to escape to turn nearly all of the villagers against’ them. That the fugitives could get away they did not believe. They knew the impassa- ble character of the mountains. There was but one route out of the valley which unskilled men could track. That was a route known only to the leading priests and estufa worshipers. Al swung his club and knocked down an - —~ é Indian who attempted to oppose him in a narrow street; and all three, running like the wind, fled out of the town and headed toward the mountains at the lower end of the valley. Isett stopped an inStant when the town was cleared: to pant out, “We must stick together, this time! There may be a gap in the mountains where the river goes through, and we'll hunt for that, first. If that fails, we'll look for a pass!” The town was being aroused. Cries rang out shrilly, shouts resounded, and signal fires began to flare. The river served to guide their direction. They ran straight down its left bank, plowing through the irrigated fields, and wading to their knees in the muddy ditches, These people had needed rain only for the pasturage of their flocks and herds, The river furnished all the water required. for crops. The tramp stumbled blindly over a row of Irish potatoes. “If we only had time to dig some of these we'd be all right. Do you know, fel- lers, we’re startin’ without a bite to eat?’ Bazoo always thought first of his stom- ach, and, in this instance, it was a very important consideration, Rey The noise in the direction of the village now told that pursuit had commenced. A run of less than a mile brought our friends to the mountain wall, at the point where the river flowed out. But no gorge was found leading from the valley. The river again dived into a tunnel! They stood surveying the place as well as they could in the darkness. The roar of the water almost deafened them. “ Shall we risk it again?’ Isett queried. “Will it take us into another valley and another treasure chamber?’ Smith shook his head. ‘* Pardners, I’ve had enough of that kind of a plunge bath!” Convinced that it was useless to look further here, they began to search along the high mountain wall that curved back toward the village. The search only confirmed their previous belief that the wide valley was nothing more than the bottom of a big canyon, rimmed in by walls that were practically unscalable. Possibly the Indians, through long familiarity with the place, might be able to get in and out, but no hope was offered to any one else, Their peril was so extreme, however, that they made the search very thorough. Leaving the river, they continued on around the wall until they gained the up- per end of the valley near the point where they had been brought out of the cavern. “If we can’t do anything else, we can go in there and hide and baffle them for a time.” This suggestion, made by’ Al, was not at all a pleasant one, and Isett and the tramp both declared that they would al- most as soon fall into the hands of the Indians as to trust themselves again in those winding passages. That there was gold in unlimited quan- tities back there in the darkness did not attract them in the least. Finding a cleft in the rocky wall, they lay at its mouth listening for, sounds of pursuit, and, as they thus listened, they be- gan to debate the feasibility of swimming the stream and trying their luck on the opposite side, CHAPTER XY. A FIGHT ON THE LEDGE. f Juan Romero, the bandit and insurgent leader, stood in the rocky country, just beyond the walls of Carretas, quaking and listening. . : BS Coe Mx ura =e -——-—l tbat teeth, Po = ad : ows af S33; i fll Piary- * amg tes ‘~Z ~, a + » “aa