Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 1061 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

“Bueno! Dismount, stable your mustangs, and all come inside. ‘within, among which you'll find old friends, Lena Castro, welcome, thrice welcome to your ‘birthplace! you anon. fresh as yonder biushing cactus flower.’’ The bandit chief stepped to the side of her animal, to assist Lena from her saddle with exaggerated politeness, born of deep potations. Leva shrunk from his grasp with a loathing, | sickening fear at her heart, as the bandits, who had torn her from her home, with coarse laugh- ter rode around the casa to the stables. Jerking ber mustang, she whirled about; but seeing no avenue of escape, and knowing by the taunting look of the fiend near her that there was none. she sprung unaided to the ground, though she staggered back with the numbness of one long in the saddle, added to the priva- tions of the trail. Recovering herself she as- ‘sumed an erect, proud position, and with blaz- | ing eyes exclaimed: ‘Why have your cowardly ruffians torn me from my poor old father’s arms? Why am I brought to this spot, now dismal, though once the beautiful home of my ancestors? Fitly does the cypress wave over the blood-stained stones where murder and rapine took the place of peace and love. Who are you, and what am I to you? Have you any claim on me or mine?” ““ Dios! but you, in your anger, are ravish- ingly beautiful; and compare well with your ‘mother as | first knew her.” ‘‘Had I a weapon, I would lay you dead at my feet for daring to mention one so holy; daring to contaminate her memory by speak- lug of her with your vile lips!” With tolded arms, poised head and taunting manner Lena faced Don Brogado. “You would bave made a star actress,” he answered, sneeringly. ‘ Why I have had you brought here you will know soon enough, Rest satisfied with what you do know, for, by the powers of Hades, you would regret the sense of hearing, did I give an explanation.” Lifting a silver whistle which hung about his neck, be now blew a call which was im- mediately answered by the appearance of a maiden, who, although careworn, and showing the marks of much mental suffering, was still beautiful, though now her features were con- torted with jealous rage. | ** Were you listening, Panchito?’ demanded Don Brogado, ‘‘that you are here so soon? Beware! no dogging of my movements, no spy- ing. Take this visitor to the upper, east ahamber, give her suitable clothing and food.” Then in a lower tone he added: ‘“*Remember that your tongue must not wabble, and for fear of intrusion you lock her door and bring the key to me. Do you under- stand?’ ** Si, senor.” ** See that you obey my instructions to the letter. If you do not you know what to ex- 9? The two women-+one biting her lips with pent-up passion, the other utterly bopeless, helpless in the power of a human devil un- scrupulous, merciless, almost dead from forced marches, want of sleep and food—disappeared within the portals of the gloomy, prison-like bacienda, followed by the bandits, Last of all entered Don Brogado, the chief cut-throat of them all; who double barred the strong door, with a rude chuckle of pleasure, fiendish in ex- pression. Seated on the sward, in his old position, is the portero, Antonio, puffing at his cigarrito, apparently the only live man within those grim, gray garden walls, When Lorenzo Brogado had securely fasten- ed the outer door be followed the recently arrived men into the large diving hall, where a score of as desperate ladrones and assassins as themse!ves were congregated, engaged in a debauch, whose wild, boisterous revelry would have been heard outside were it not that the windows im this reom had been sealed up with masonry, to the full thickness of the walls. _ A leud yell of welcome greeted the new eowers, and shouts of ‘‘ Viva Corlies! Viva Don Brogado! Carraeas Americanas!” resound- ed threugh the room, amid the clink, clink of glasses, aud crash of empty bottles against the walls. Ihave a merry crowd | _who had been his successful rival in'love, and | giving the death-shot to one he hated and de- I have an agreeable surprise for | I see the jornada has fatigued you, | ‘but never mind. A few days of quiet rest— | it?s very quiet here, by the way—and you'll be | eee 8 ee Buckskin Sam. a —— - ——— + - Western Texas and as it were bearding the lion in bis den, capturing the only child of him tested for being the slayer of many of his men and the frustrator of many of his murderous plans. The bandit chief manifested his pleasure by ordering bis peons to bring fresh supplies of liquors. Then, at the head of the long table, which stood in the center of the room, he _ pledged his band in a toast. ‘Fill to the brim, my brave soldats! (sol- diers.) We rule the plain and chaparral, and now have a queen to rule the old hacienda! She is a beauty, worthy of your chief. Besides, I have combined business with pleasure, Revenge is my business; one more life, avd the vendetta between the Brogddos and Castros ends. The father will come for his child, and within these walls, if he can effect an entrance, where be first saw light; my cochillo shall drink his life- blood, though not until I show bim his daughter the willing slave of his destroyer; and his wife a gibbering maniac! . ‘**Drink, mt hombres, to the White Lily of San Antonio; the last scion of the Castilian Castros; the queen of our fortress; now the slave wife of your chief.” Loud rung the vivas through the hall; from ruffians already crazed with drink, and glasses crashed into fragments as they were brought down on the table empty. The dehbauch was kept up until, one by one, the brutes in the shape of men slid from their seats to the floor, and dropped into drunken slumbers, with muttered curses and babbling nonsense issuing from their poison-reeking lips. CHAPTER XIV. A STRANGBLY FOUND FRIEND. WHEN Panchito conducted Lena Castro to the apartment designated by the chief, she left the captive while she went for a change of clothing, and for food for the a most famished girl. No sooner did the door close, and Lena find herself alone for the first time in many days, than she fell upon her knees, and prayed long and fervently to the Blessed Virgin to watch over and temper the grief of her dear old father, and open some avenue for her es. cape and return to his arms. Upon rising to her feet she glanced about her prison. The room was furnished in elegance; but what interested her most was the case- ments. There were three windows, two look- ing east and one north; unglazed, and guarded by bars of iron, set into the walls. Lena sprung from one to the other, grasping each bar of iron and striving with her feeble strength to loosen it or show signs that it could be removed. But they were firmly imbedded, and she could not stir them. One thing she noticed, which pleased her. The branches of the trees brush- ing against the walls outside threw their green twigs aud foliage between the bars of iron, so that they projected into the room. Reaching up she plucked a branch to hold to her parched, feverish lips and brow, when, to her horror, she found it was a twig of ill-omicned cypress. At that her little remaining hope fled away. To be sure, judging from what she knew of the character of Buckskin Sam she had no doubt that if he lived he would leave no stone unturned in his endeavors to save her from the fearful fate she did not dare to allow her thoughts to dwell upon lest reason should de- sert her altogether. Was he alive? The last view she had of him he lay motion- less and covered with gore, among the dead bandits. Augustin Silicozo, although her devoted lover and slave, was not sufficiently versed in prairie lore to follow the long trail she bad core, even should bis gold bribe Texas Mexi- cans to assist him, She knew even they would hesitate to risk the danger when they knew they would receive no quarter from the fol- lowers of Don Brogado, when once they met in battle. Was it not an impossibility for any ene to penetrate to this mysterious retreat, ence her babyhood home, the scene of the mur- der of her grand-parents, and the abduction of ber mother? ! | Though her family history had been locked Don “Brogado was elated by the suecess of | in the breast of her father, yet through his his tools in penetrating to the primeipal eity of | mutterings in troubled slumbers, and the ua- —_— ——-+ guarded conversation of the bandits on the march, she had learned enough to know that she was in the power of a brutal fiend, whe bad brought death, despair, perhaps dishonor, upon ber cearest relatives, aod caused her father’s form to bend prematurely and turned his hair to silver with anguish and torturing agony. Where was that dear mother whom she never remembered to have seen? Was she still alive? Great God! It was impossible for her to live and retain reason! Pacing back and forth across the room with clenched hands, disordered tresses and tears running down her cheeks, Lena stopped in tke middle of the apartment, while a shudder con- vulsed her frame as the massive door swung on its hinges. Thank God!—it was Panchito— not he, At the sight of Lena in anguish and tears, Panchito slammed the door, threw the clothing upon a chair and caught both hands of ber she bad been commanded to serve. Gazing into her eyes with a glance pierc- ing, wild and filled with passion, she de manded: ** Does my lady love Don Brogado? will she be his wife?” ‘May the Holy Virgin save me from such fate!” burst vehemently from the Jips of Lena —at once an answer and a prayer. ‘*T hate, ay, loathe him, more than the poi- son-fanged serpents that hide in the orange twigs and spring without warning to bring a horrible death to those who never harmed them, Sooner than be his wife, I would trust my eternal happiness to the mercy of our 4o)¥ mother and take my own life!” A gratified expression played upon the features of the Mexican girl as she quickly drew from ber breast a small, keen, glittering stiletto, saying: ‘*My lady will not take ber own life and be eternally lost; but when Don Brogado seeks to do her barm cut his foul heart in twain. He won my love under anotber name; he induced me to leave my dear father and mother in Mier—I loving him better than life, than honor. He promised to marry me, but bis tongue speaks naught but lies. I had a little babe—his babe and mine—and—let me whis- per the dread crime within your ear—he strangled the innocent nursling that, in the few days God loaned it to me, I had learned to Jove more than its father. I was too weak to save its life, but swore by the Virgin and saints over the cold form of my little Bonita that I would have vengeance; and I will, if God give me the chance. ‘‘ He thinks I love—I only fear him still, TI wait for my time. It will come, and revenge —revenge sweeter than the thoughts of Heaven that spring from innocent minds—shall be mine!” ‘“‘Thanks be to Heaven that I have found a friend in this band of brutes!” exclaimed Lena, as she clasped Panchito in her arms, For a moment the two were silent, for they realized the necessity of caution, and knew that it would even be better for them to appear enemies to each other, should they be brought together in the presence of Don Brogado. Lena, after changing her draggled clothing, torn to ribbons by her wild ride through the chaparral, and partaking of a hearty supper, with an appetite born of her newly-fcund bope, spent some time talking with Panchito in re- gard to the way in which things were con- ducted at the hacienda, and the means of egress. Both came to the conclusidn that it would be a matter of impossibility to escape without out- side aid. Antonio, the portero, was an old member of the gang, and one who could not de influenced or bribed, To this most important post the bandit chief had appointed one that he knew was faithful to the death tu his interests, and one too well known by his crimes to eare to venture even 2s far as the trail to Monterey, which passed but a mile from the hacienda walls. This whole distance was a dense mesquite and cactus chaparral, in which noe one vould be liable to trust themselves, even did they stumble on one of the many narrow, winding trails made use of by the guerrillas, Assuring Lena that she would not be dis- turbed that night, as the bandit band, with their ehief, were too intoxicated to pay hera visit, Panchito folded her unfortunate sister in distress in her arms, kissed her good-night, and opened the door, 900 comic ‘S cor