Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 150 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

a 5 Se ——— — El] Rubio _~— = — - S_—— SL A ee ee ee Se Bravo, King of the Swor damen. 13 o +’ a dashing scamp for a lieutenant called , who is said to be out even now scour- the country.” Heaven grant we do not meet him,” groaned eens. in great tribulation. ‘Oh my mules! 0 think I should have—” ‘‘Hush! no need of telling our Don Carlos. It is enough we know the amount of our savings, without telling the servants.” Don Ramon looked round cautiously, and then went on in a low voice: - { don’t know but we might do well if we met “Why, oy 8 friend?” ‘* Because he is said to be a good fellow, who will listen to reason.” ‘‘To reason? How?” ‘‘T mean that it will be better to give him half our savings if he will convoy us to Vera Cruz, than to lose all to some band of guerrilleros, who would cut our throats and carry off our daughters into the bargain.” Don Carlos turned pale, and trembled. ‘Is that possible, Don Ramon?” ‘Tt is what the Gomez brothers did to a friend of mine only three years ago.” Don Carlos made no answer, but rode on, look- nerv to right and left. resently the ground be to rise, and they came to avery tty little savanna, where the mules, tired and hungry, refused to proceed further, and be to hie down. When a loaded mule lies down itis a sign that he is determined to have rest, and the muleteers suggested that this was a place SS ee te ee evening, and let the heasts feed. The two old men, though loth to halt, were persuaded, and in a few minutes the animals were unsaddled and the little party began to eat what dinner they had, with the foot of the mountain a few hundred yards off. Pedrillo, the vaquero, who was one of the armed attendants, sat smoking his pipe after dinner, and sie Sag at the grim face of th mountain so long that Don Ramon asked him: ** What do you see, Pedrillo?” The old Indian started as if ashamed. ** Nothing, master, nothing.” He moved away to another spot, but his mas- ter observed bim pretty soon after in the same reflective pose, looking up. He said nothing, but watched him till he found that the vaquero’s gaze was fixed ona ridge of rocks about a thousand feet above, look- ing like a natural fort or at least a breastwork. on Ramon's eyes were not very good, so he went to his saddle-bags and brought out a dou- ble glass, with which he examined the breast- wor He thought he detected a movement above it, and presently was convinced that he did so, by seeing several plumed heads moving about and evidently watching them as they lay below. Don Ramon, usually cool and impassivé, ut- tered a slight cry of alarm, and as he took the lass from his eye, became conscious that Pe- illo had seen him. The be te face wore a decided look of alarm, and he rose up and came to the side of his master, to whom he whispered: ‘*Show no signs, master, or we are lost. I wish the mules were saddled.” ‘Who are those people above, Pedrillo?” asked the Don gravely. ‘‘Doyouknow?” — Pedrillo turned away his eyes, **You have been a good master. Don’t make me lie. Let us saddle and pack and be off.” Convinced that some danger existed which Pedrillo would not divulge, the Don, his nerves in a sad tremor, gave the order to catch the mules and leave the place at once, an order quickly obeyed, so far as catching the mules was concerned, But when it came to saddling up, the case was different, for the mules did not like the idea of leaving so fine a pasture, and they began to roll and kick and behave as’ only mules can. Don Ramon, from under the shelter of a tree, furtively watched the rocks above, and saw a man come out open’y and signal to some one be seemed to own in the forest behind em. Now seriously alarmed, he hurried on the a operation, and had almost succeeded— hanks to liberal beating—when the whole party was appalled oy a tremendous yell that seemed to come from the forest all round them, and the next moment more than a hundred men poured n= Mena savanna, some on horseback, some 00 CHAPTER XVL. THE CAPTURE, Tue effect produeed by the appearance of these men was immediate and terrifying. The five Indians of the party instantly let fali their weapons and occupations and stood with their arms folded and heads bowed, as if await- ing death. e two girls, who had been sleeping in the shade of a tree, sprung up, screaming, and ran to their fathers, while the old men, with bands that trembled violently, shielded them in their arms and waited their fate. Of the oncoming men none of the , least the whites—had ever seen their like, That they were Indians their dark faces ar but they were by no means the naked, squal Indian brutal by three centuries of slavery. These men were all dressed the most gorgeous raiment of feather work and wore cotton-padded armor, while their heads were cove with wooden helmets of strange de- vice in imitation of the heads of jaguars, They Gaevied tipped dl ey carried copper-ti spears, and long, oodien swords se with sharp flints, such as had not been seen since the days of the conquest of Mexico. They came running in with frightful cries and began to question the Indian servants in the Maya tongue, of which Don Ramon under- stood a little, Don Carlos, nothing. ‘“Who are these men, and why are they here?” asked a horseman, who rode hago tacked on dn ro. a we re oy a _— S ** They are velers, m chief, going the City of Chiapas,” replied 1 Pedrillo. “Why are they spyirig on us? ‘Do they know who we are?” pursued the chief, fiercely. “No, mighty chief.” “What have they on those mules?” * Nothing but merchandise, not worth tak- ‘You lie, slave of the white man.” ‘Yes, mighty chief. As you please.” ‘‘They have gold stolen from our land. Isee it in those little The men of I[ximaya are not blind. The gold is ours.” ‘Yes, mighty chief.” “You are one of our race. Why do you serve the white devils?” ** Because my father did before me.” “That is no reason. I am Quahotl, the son of a man who was a slave, but he slew his mas- ter and fled to I[ximaya.” Pedrillo made no answer, and the chief called out to his men: ** Drive the beasts off up the mountain. They Kill the old men have Se in their loads. where they stand, and take the girls up to the A a be offered to the Mother of the Gods. to ‘ e turned to Pedrillo. ‘* Are they married, these women?” * No. ey are virgins.” ‘Take them away then.” The ae warriors were already raisin their spears to kill the two old men when Ped- rillo ventured to ‘*Mighty chief, spare the old men and make them slaves. It is better than to kill them, and we will go with you then.” Quahotl smiled as one well pleased. He was a handsome young chief and sat his black borse like a centaur. “Be it so,” he said. ‘‘Take them all away. Who knows. The priests may like them, even if they are too tough to be eaten.” In a moment the two old men were torn from their children and fastened on mules while the irls, too frightened now even to scream, were orced away and taken to a couple of stalwart warriors who put them before them on their horses and then set off at a rapid pace up the mountain side. They did not seem to mind tiring out their animals, perhaps because these last were so fresh, but tore away at full speed til) they gained the rocky breastwork where they for awhile. Then Don Ramon saw that the place was in- deed a natural fortification but much improved internally by art. A shelf of rock jutted out from the mountain- side in such a way as to form a sort of parapet inclosing a space of twenty or thirty acres, and then came a sheer wall of rock of deep wee and crevices blackened with smoke be- ow. Behind that parapet from below a thousand men might have lain hidden, and the smoke of their camp-tires be all swallowed up in the bowels of the mountain. By night any glare of fire would be a. hidden, for every blaze was evidently built deep in a cavern. And from the parapet what a view was con- manded, for a space of a good bundred miles or more to the north and west, the white towers of the cathedral at Chipas in plain sight, and miles of dark forest up to the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico! Even Don Carlos Ximenes in his miserable plight could not restrain a cry of wonder and admiration at the view, and Quahotl said to Pedrillo: ‘Tell the old white thief that my ancestors once owned that country till his fathers came and robbed them of it, but that the men of the city of Iximaya will yet take it back again.” edrillo gave the message in Spanish and Don Carlos said, piteously: ‘*Please tell the gentleman, Pedrillo, that I am not a Mexican, but from Cuba. Surely he has no quarrel with me, What have I done?” Pedrillo grinned a little sarcastically. ** You'll find that no defense with the men of the Lost City of Iximaya. They believe that the blood of white men is the sweetest of all to the i of Iximaya. But be easy. I have saved your life for the present and who knows what may happen?” -_-e: \ QQ\QXQXQFeQre LT Ss ae ‘** You don’t care,” ed Ximenes. “ Why don’t they threaten to kill you?’ ** Because I am one of them t enough to save a S d’s life w no thanks for it,” growled the vaquero, Then Don Carlos began to be afraid and to implore the peon. Dear Pedrillo, sweet Pedrillo,don’t be angry. Get us out of this scrape and I'll make you a rich man for life.” “You'll have naught to do it with if you get out alive,” quoth Pedrillo dryly. ‘‘ No white man ever escaped from Iximaya.”’ Then they heard the sharp tones of Quahotl calling out: ‘Silence the white thief. Cut his tongue out if he says another word.” You may be sure that after that, for Pedrillo took a malicious pleasure in putting the com- mand into , Don Carlos Ximenes kept very still. whole of the little plateau was strewed with huts of straw and leaves in streets, and there were signs that the place had ey ae for man tare wn Pepita Garcia, who, having been ht up like most aod Americans by nurse, underst ya eo pretty thoroughly, took occasion to try and ingratiate a by remarking on the appearance of vs ortress. “The white girl is right. Jt is a castle that was first found out by a woman ee we Prin- cess Tlahoma, and we have never it empty since. From it we can pounce on the town of Chiapas when our time comes, like a condor on a carcass.” “But why should you hurt us, who never harmed you?” asked Pepita insinuatingly. The Indian’s Ne — “* Had our fa urt yours that they came across the sea with thunder and fire to kill them? Youare their child. All is fair in war.” ** But if — could a my father and me to escape,” whispered Pepita, ‘‘ you might be very happy, for we should love you.” n her fears of what was com she was willing to do anything to save from be- 7 into the midst oe the Indians. Iam fool es me er dian shrugged shoulders. ll be happy as it is,” he said. “IfI ask the chief to give me you fora wife he will do it, but you cannot go our You are pretty, and if you behave well I will ask for ou. It is better than to be killed for the other of the Gods.” Pepita shuddered. She did not fancy either horn of the dilemma, and bad got alkshe wanted in the way of information. Quahotl soon afterward ordered out a party of men to take the prisoners and the treasure mules away to the city, still leaving a strong guard behind. They filed away to the end of the plateau, to where a vast cave mouth opened, the whole mountain seeming to be honeycombed with these excavations, and very soon all disappeared in the bowels of the hills, while the sentries of the Lost City resumed ir lonely watch for fresh victims of the race they bad learned to hate so bitterly. | CHAPTER XVII. OMINOUS SOUNDS. THE sun bad sunk to the bosom of the blue, distant Pacific when the last lancer in the party of Ramirez and El] Rubio Bravo led his horse out of the narrow passage in the rocks down which fell the stream that rendered the ascent ‘ble, “There!” quoth the Don, as he stood on the table land and looked over toward the Mission, ‘*the padre did not dream this, at least. So niuch is certain.” ’ They were on a broad plateau, with a cavern- pierced wall of rock at one side, and a grand view on the other, very like the fortress GF Ixi- maya on the other side the mountain, bad they only known it. wenty men could have defended the passage against an army, and it would have taken a heavy bombardment of shells to have cleared the plateau of its defenses, in any event. ‘** Now let us find the padre’s , with the tortoises,” observed Ramirez. “ my part Il am no faster, and I love the taste of a stew terrapin. Even frogs are not bad in their way, well cooked.” They led their horses on, as the old priest had directed, and found the plateau of rock, strewn with bowlders fallen from the mountain above, and very rough for near two miles along. When at last they turned the spur of the mountain be had mentioned, they came into a valley so deliciously green and beautifnl that it charmed them all, and there in the midst was a most lovely little pond, about a hundred feet across, into which they saw hundreds o of all sizes, scuttering from the banks in great alarm at the noise of the horsemen. ‘* There are the turtles, sure enough.” ‘Good place for a camp.” ** Hurrah for roast terrapin.” The onomic enthusiasm of the party was Sever 3 at fever heat, and it was not long before the horses were picketed and feeding on JOO Gomme cS ene ta aS rn RL ts f turtles — (E(o)| - atti dna a - _ — am — — i . . ae