Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 150 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

Se —o— . : eee et gga ra cams = a et ee ee - —_ when the slim man, who had a long pointed never got to Me mustache, called out: ‘Who are you, gentlemen? Halt, please.” He pointed his pistol and the two Mexicans halted, but. neither offered to throw his hand forward while the senior said: , A Scope Soe sco me ge late general of ca in iapas, now a free on my way to hunt up recruits for Ortega. Thisis my rie, Captain baldo. To whom have I the honor of speaking?” **T am Colonel Olaf Svenson, late Instructor at Arms of Honduras, now a free rover and looking for a service. This is my friend, Don Carlos Brown, in the same predicament,’ was the answer of our friend the swordmaster. The Mexican general burst out a a **IT could have sworn you were, like myself, a soldier of fortune, down on his luck. Come, senor, my party is down to-day, but this isa land of fluctuations. Join forces with me and ho knows what we three Rubios may accom- plish? I can promise you under my chief as a place as that you have lost. The pay it is true is only oe for ci , but then wd ee tenemos onglas libres [we have nails +e ant ne and you do not need to be told what that means.” a pic ue phrase, an m I su , that you have plenty of pick- in WwW ho Enews, Don Jose, I may accept your offer. , ‘** Hands upon it then,” cried the other frank- ly. ‘‘ Weare cavaliers and we have our arms and horses. Who shall refuse us a forced loan?” ** Who indeed? A forced loan, I suppose, is—” “The tribute commerce pays to arms. We come to a town full of merchants and they pay for our protection. You understand, the country is full of guerillas and we are the friends of or- der. It proper society should pay us, my friend.” si I see.”’ Olaf could not help smiling at the careless recklessness of the handsome Mexican. ‘But come, my friend, my party isin cam over yonder in the valley and it is time to ea Share my hospitality.” ‘** With pleasure, Don Jose.” They rode along to where the lancers were now bivouacked and dismoun when a bounti- ful repast was spread before Olaf and his fellow- traveler, causing the Briton to exclaim: ‘*T say, colonel, you know, if this is the sort of way the ‘ out’ party fares, the ‘ins’ must live in clover all the time.” Ramirez asked for a translation of the remark, and laughed heartily. ‘* This is the cousin for a soldier of fortune,” he said. ‘‘ Nature and the Indians do the work and we live on the fat of the land. But it is well understood that we must be ready to fight aca 3 lives all the time. That is t draw- Dinner over they saddled up and Olaf asked: ‘* Whither now, Don Jose? This is not the way Faith, : see — cae ene , ow,” responded Ramirez. ‘‘] have a week which: to roam before we meet my chief and hardly know what to do. Can you su t any scheme to fill our in the mean time, for our party needs money?’ Olaf nodded. ‘*T have a scheme on which I was bent, but had not enough men to render it safe.” ** And what is that?” **'To find the Lost City of the Aztecas.” Ramirez started. ‘The Lost City? How did you hear of it? I ht that was a secret among our people.” “* 1 have heard of it.” **Do you know where it is?” ‘*1 know where it is said to be.” The Mexican looked thoughtful for a time. ‘** Do you know, Don Olafo,” he said, ‘ that I have had a dream of that city haunting me for many _ and have never had any opportu- nity till now of realizing it?’ ** Indeed?” ‘“Yes. What do you know what have you ever heard about this Lost City?’ Bare that up in these mountains, and as near as I can find not far from here, the In- dians say there is a hidden city still held by the ancient Aztecs.” ‘Yes, thatisit. But that is not all.” **How not all? What else?” ‘‘Have you not heard of the ransom of the great Moctezuma?” , ‘‘No. What is it?” It is said that when the octezuma prisoner and be- ore the Mexicans rose for Noche Triste when they drove the Spaniards from the city, the king offered to pay Cortez a great ransom of gold and sent word to all his chiefs to collect it. But the Noche Triste came, the treasure but was carried away into these mountains. Then came the conquest and the Aztecs were driven out of all their old towns while our race took possession of all.” **T have heard all that.” “True, but not of Guatemoezin’s sister, Tla- homa.” “No, Who was she?” tb ‘They say she was a princess six feet high and as strong as two common men, Anyway she was the only Aztec who took to the moun- 7 defied Spain and maintained her free- om. ** But what has she to do—” ‘* With the Lost City?” sé Yy es. ” ‘“‘Simple enough. She founded it.” ‘“* Founded it! Then it is a modern place.” ‘Not exactly.” ‘What do you mean?” ‘The tradition goes that it was a sacred oe only inhabited by priests and sacred to he God of War, Quetzalcoatl.” a reegee tS Pot a name!” ‘Yes; we'll call him the War God, it’s much easier. Well, the city was built in the midst of mountains like a fortress with only one nar- row entrance so that the temple could he de- fended by twenty men. It was a fitting temple for a War God.’ ‘* But Tlahoma—what of her?” ‘‘ I’m coming to that. The time came at last when Tlahoma—her band reduced to less than a thousand faithful warriors, was hunted into the mountains and took refuge in the War God’s temple. She found the land around it so fair that she made it intoa city and from it planned numerous expeditions into Mexico, all of which succeeded. Therefore in the Lost City, which was once nothing but a temple, are collected all the treasures of Moctezuma’s ran- som and all the fruits of Tlahoma’s raids.”’ ‘** But what became of her?” ‘She married the chief priest of the War God, it is satd, and her descendants rule there to this day. But simce ber death they have never come down out of the mountains. That’s all.” ‘* But how did you learn all this?” ** Merely by legend. You know our Indians are very fond of telling legends. It may all be false, but if it be true—” He paused doubtfully. ‘* Well, if it be true?’ ‘‘ Why, then, there must be enough gold and silver in the Lost City to make us as rich as Cortez.” Olaf nodded. “Then why not go h and six of us. ‘‘And how many men had Cortez, when he made war on an empire?” Ramirez shrugged his shoulders. ‘You are right. He had only five hundred and fifty, and seventy muskets, with sixteen horses.” ‘Yet with those he = Spain an empire. We only seek to find a city and we have a hun- dred horses, with rifles and revolvers, Your men have their fire-arms; is it not so?” “They have carbines, swords and lances, no pistols. We depend on the lance most.” ‘‘The lance? I do not think much of that for a weapon, general.” Ramirez flushed up in a moment. It was clear that Olaf had touched him on a sore spot. ‘* Not trust the lance! heavens, man, it is the queen of armas blancas (steel weapons), and our national arm. men could do noth- ing without the lance. me could beat any swordsman living with my lance.” Olaf smiled provokingly. ‘“* Any swo n living is quite a challenge. You may not know I am a master of the sword.” and try for it?” you see there are only a or no master, I can run you through,” cried the Mexican, hotly, and as he spoke he caught up his lance, ran to his horse and vaulted on without the aid of the ee Then he wheeled and galloped off a hundred yards, waved his lance and cried: **Come on, Don Olafo, or else own the lance is the queen of all weapons.”’ His tone was gay and courteous as might have become a knight cf old, challenging for a tournament. L 7a: Olaf smiled and said to himself: ‘That isa man aiter my own heart. Heisa born cavalie., but he does not know me.” He mounted his own fiery little horse with a deliberation in strong contrast to the fiery haste of the Mexican, drew his sword and galloped to meet Ramirez. The Mexican general rushed in with headlong haste, his lance couched and quivering, while the Dane kept his own horse ina hand-gailop. A moment later they came together, and the Mex- ican’s horse was seen to sway wide of Olaf’s body, while the swordmaster turned in toward Ram closed with him, and in a moment later emerged from the fray with Ramirez’s hat and lance in his hand. For a moment the Mexican seemed inclined to be furious, but as he looked at the other, calm and smiling, he exclaimed: ‘‘It is fair; you have beaten me, but by the gods, you’are the only man in the world who ean do it.” ae rode up to him and handed him his hat ance, ‘* You play the lance well, but I know a trick in that weapon worth more than yours. We will practice it. In the mean time I will admit that the lance is a good weapon in good hands, and I intend to use one before I leave this coun- El Rubio Bravo, King of the Swordsmen. try. And now which way shall we go, Don Jose?” ‘* Yonder. That is the way to the Lost City.” He pointed to the ridge over which Olaf had come when he entered the valley. CHAPTER XII. PADRE MIGUEL PADRE MIGUEL was the sole remains of the once powerful and fi ing Mission of San Miguel de Guatemala in the Cordilleras. He had been reared there from the time he was a baby, and had never known who was his mother. He had known the Mission in the old times of the ae occupation, when it received tithes from a large space of country below, and had a good two hundred monks when he was an acolyte, and he had seen it dwindle to a hundred when he was a deacon and aiek to fifty after he had become a full priest. After the numerous revolutions that shook the land round them, varied b and hurricanes, Padre Mi | owing white, with only two old monks to cme, company, and finally the off. en Padre eo was left alone in the huge, ruinous building, cracked by the innum- erable earthquakes but still fairly habitable variety of surrounded by a garden full of eve or his sole gg with two Indian servants ock, Nevertheless, he was too old to change, and he had lived there ever since, with plenty to eat and drink, and performing mass as regular- ly in the Mission chapel as if he had been in a wt full of people. adre Mi in his black cassock and huge hat, sat at of man. ' Before him, about three miles off across a broad and lovely valley, rose the foot-hills of a sea of mountains, and from where he was he could see the blue line of the Pacific over the top of another sea of woods. Thirty or forty miles off among the mountains rose a trio of lofty peaks crowned with snow, and it was at these that the old monk was gazing wistfully when he heard the clatter of hoofs. and saw a cavalcade of lancers coming toward the Mis- sion. Padre Miguel was all in a flutter. Such a sight had not been seen in San Mi for fifty ears. He remembered once in old Span- ish times having been visited by a party of ‘‘ patriots,” but the Mission was too lonely ever since to attract any one. He saw at the head of them all, three men with fair hair and blue eyes, One was dressed in the showy uniform of a Mexican gene with a gold-laced cocked hat; the second was likewise in uniform, but of a plainer cut; the third wore white clothes and a hat, such as the padre had never seen ore. Behind them rode at least a hundred men in velveteen jackets and bell-bottomed trowsers, with shiny hats on their heads, brass- sheathed sabers at their sides, carbines ped to their saddles and long lances in their hands. Padre Miguel got up, trembling. “Good-lay, gentlemen. What are you page to want to-day. We have no money eLt. The Mexican general laughed. . ** We want none, father. Nothing but peme blessing and permission to halt and pick-a little of your fruit for my men.” ‘* Certainly, certainly, my son. The blessing of the church is the right of her sons.” The Mexican dismounted and knelt down in the most respectful manner before the priest who extended his tremulous hands over his head with a fervent benediction. | Then the whole got. off their horses and spread about the Mission while the officers asked the good re if he would not honor them by taking dinner with them, as they had killed enough game in the forest to supply all, and it would A spoil if mgt The re was not loth, and the fires were soon lighted, before which sundry legs of pec- cary, anteater, monkey and other savory but peculiar game were roasting, while the chiefs entered into conversation with the old man asking a questions, ‘* You seem pretty lonely here, padre?” ‘Pretty lonely. Yes, my son. But few people come by here, except those that are run- ning from one State to another, in these terrible times of revolution. Ah, how different to the pers and quiet when Our Mother Spain ruled us ‘Aha! Padre, you remember the Spanish colonial times, then?’ ; ‘‘ Yes, my son, yes. Don’t tell any one, but I wish they were back. The church had her rights and respect, then. Now—you see how her Missions are decayed.” ‘‘ Any travelers passed pre Ra e door of the Mission and looked. over as fair a picture as ever gladdened the eye, ** Last week, my son; a sm party with two ladies in it. Paves help them. [ ‘* Ladies! here!” _ It was Olaf who spoke. ¥ 0)(0\(0) e€oim (S