, 1889-09-07

heard among the bushes, and before he
could draw his revolver he was sur
rounded by a gang of fierce looking men,
whose grim, ruffianly faces and scowl-
ing eyes BODIED him no good.
A smart stroke from the butt of Harry
Whites heavy whip felled the foremost
man, but the rest at once dragged him
from his horse, and, in spite of his furi-
Gus struggles, bound him hand and foot.
Let me kill the dogI' roared the in
jured robber, whose head was bleeding
freely. "He shall never strike a Spaniard
againf"
mot so fast, Brother JUAN" said an
other. HE looks like an Englishman,
and the English are all rich. Wen
make him pay a fat ransom"
"And if he don't pay it quickly" put
in a third, with a significant whisk of
his knife close to the prisoners ear, ''his
friends Won't find him quite so hand
some the mex time they see him."
Harry's blood ran cold at the horrible
threat and the roar of brutal laughter
that followed it. He was now completely
Disseminated, for the brilliant and chiv-
alrous bandits of his boyish dreams were
utterly different from these ragged, hang
dog r%uffians, who almost choked him
with the sitting odor of garlic and bad
tobacco.
Then his horror turned to rage at the
thought of being plundered and insulted
by these brutal ~rascals, and he inwardly
vowed that when he did get free he
would spend all the money he had in
hunting them down. But, as we shall
see, he never got the chance of doing so.
The robbers laid their prisoner on the
horse and led him up a steep, zigzag path
to a kind of rocky platform, walled in
on three sides by unscalable cliffs, while
OF the fourth lay a precipice of several
hundred feet.
Here about twenty more brigands were
encamped; and Harry White, suddenly
remembering his silver cross, looked
eagerly to see if the man who had given
it to him was one of the band; but he
could see no one in the least like him.
Has Capt. Oensalvez come back YETI"
asked n of his conductors.
mo" was the reply; 'but we are ex-
pecting him every moment"
Just then a hasty step was heard be-
low, and a tall, dark figure, springing up
the rocks as nimbly as a mountain goat,
univ OOdAAhAAA6 III " NhO BAhbLOALhs
"Up with you, comradesl' shouted
the new conner, who was nc other than
the formidable Pedro Gonsalvez himself.
1--WE have been betrayed, and all the
soldiers from La Redonda are upon our
trail. We must retreat at once. Hal
who is this-a prisoner
"We took him in the valley yonder,
and have kept him for ransom, " replied
one of the bandits.
"There is no time to think of ransoms
now, when our very lives are at stake"
said the robber chief, sternly. "Take
what money he has on him, and then
fling him over the precipice."
Instantly a dozen eager hands were
rifling Harry's pockets, and the brave
lad, giving himself up for lost, prepared
to die like a man. But, as his watch
was dragged forth by the robbers, the
silver cross that hung to its chain caught
the eye of Gonsalvez, who sprang for
ward and asked hurriedly:
Where did you get that CROSSE
ut was given to me five years ago by
a smuggler of these parts, whom l
helped to escape when he was crippled
by a fall, " replied Harry, looking fxedly
at him.
"And 1 am the man who gave it" said
G~onsalvez, g~rasping his hand warmly;
land for that good deed you shall de-
part free and unframed. Comrades,
give him back all that you have taken.
Follow that path, Senior Americana,
which will lead you to the village of San
Tomas; and when you tell this story to
your friends, tell them also that kindness
is never thrown away, even upon a bri-
gand. David Kerr in Golden Days.