, 1889-09-07
THE ROBBERS CROSS.

ulhLItitd IldIIN hulNty Us ne blTOlltu
before breakfast around the outskirts of
a small Spanish town on the southern
slope of the Sierra Morena; land I've
been in it three weeks, and not had one
adventure yet. A man gets no show at
all in travelling nowadays. Hellol here
comes somebody in a hurryl'
Very much in a hurry, certainly,
seemed the sturdy Spanish peasant who
had just appeared on the top of the steep
ridge above the boys head, for he was
leaping from crag to crag as recklessly
as a wild cat, and at times ever swing
ing himself over some deep cleft by the
bough of a tree, as if in such haste that
he had no time to think of such a trihe
as the chance of a broken neck.
But in this case it was most haste,
worst speed" for all at once a large stone
gave way beneath the Spaniard's feet,
and he came tumbling headlong down
into the road amid a whirlwind of dust.
Harry, whose sympathies were already
enlisted in favor of a man capable of
such feats OF. strength and daring, flew
to the spot, feeling as if he had really
met with something like an adventure"
at last. But when he reached the fallen
man he stopped short in sheer amaze
ment.
And well he might. The man whom
he had seen bounding along the ridge
had had long gray hair and beard; he
was quite sure of that, for he remem-
bered wondering hat an old man should
be so active. The hair of the man be-
fore him was short, thick and black as
night, and he had no beard at all.
Meanwhile, the stranger had managed
to sit up, and was wiping the blood from
a bad cut oil his forehead. In doing so
he discovered the loss of his false hair
and beard, and met Harry's eyes fixed
wonderingly upon him.
"Well," asked he, fiercely, answering
the boys glance with a defiant stare, "do
you know me!'
"No, and l don't want to know you"
said Harry, in broken Spanish, rather
nettle1 at the mans imperious tone. 81
suppose you're a smuggler by your dis
guising yourself that way"
Eyes, 1 am" replied the other, with a
strange smile. Are you going to give
me up to the p%olice3"
mot IT. cried Harry. Its not the
style of us Americans to give away a
man who can't stand up for himself"
"Ah, you're an American then?' said
the smuggler, looking curiously at him.
well, if you are willing to help me, I'll
tell you how you can do it. Give me
your arm as far as the chapel of st.
James, about half n mile down the road
for l find Nv sprained my ankle too
badly to walk alone-and then I'm all
right"
Come along, then" rcjoined Harry,
offering his arm.
And the strangely assorted pair set
forth.
On the way our hero told his new
friend, who seemed in too much pain
to talk himself, that he was travelling
through Spain with his father, that he
had picked upin Mexico what little Span
ish he knew, that his tour had hitherto
been p~rovokingly bare of adventures, and
that the one thing in the world which he
most desired was to fall in with a gang
of real Spanish brigands.
At last they reached the chapel, and
then, at a peculiar whistle from the
smuggler, five wild looking horsemen,
with long guns on their shoulders, start
ed out of the encircling thickets, one of
whom led by the bride a fine black horse,
on which they at once mounted the Grip
pied Spaniard, not without casting more
than one puzzled and suspicious look at
the wondering boy.
Take this for your good deed" said
the tall smuggler, taking a small silver
cross from his neck and giving it to
Harry. at may be of use to you if we
ever meet again. And, as you seem anx-
ious to meet with some Spanish brigands,
it may please you to learn that you have
seen half a dozen of them today"
So saying, he spurred his horse and
vanished into the forest with his grim
comrades, while Harry turned slowly
back to the town, hardly knowing
whether he was awake or only dream
ing.
"Just like my luck! I've lost my way,
sure enough! And this strikes me as the
very place to fall in with that nice man,
Pedro Gonsalvez, the brigand captain,
who seems to be terrorizing the whole
country at this time"
The speaker was no other than our
friend, Harry White, now grown into a
tall young man, and revisiting, after a
five years absence beyond the Atlantic,
his, former haunts in southern Spain.
He had certainly good cause to feel
uncomfortable just then. To lose ones
way in a gloomy forest among the Span
ish mountains, with night at hand and a
storm coming on, is not a pleasant expe-
rience in any case; but when to all this
is added a very strong probability of
falling in with a band of robbers, whose
usual mode of demanding ransom for a
captive is to mail his ears or nose to his
a~nxious friends as a hint that fEsDaedv
payment is requested, " he must indeed
be "a brave man who can face the situa-
ton without flinching.
What Harry feared came only too
soon. A hoarse shout was suddenly