The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-26

AFuItIesS search Tor the mine, had dis
covered my horse, bearing the recent
marks OF saddle, and guessing my iden-
tlty, had pursued me, hoping to wrest
from me the information they coveted.
They had taken short cut across the
mountains, and when l heard them first
were within 200 hundred feet of me. |
drew back into a dense grove of young
oaks and saw them gallop by, and then,
AFRAID to venture out, stayed there for
the rest of the day. Then, when the
moon rose, full and bright IN its harvest
glory, l at last plucked up courage to
g on, and struck obliquely across
the country, but still aiming for the Rio
Grande.
GAS luck would have 1t, 1 ran fairly
into the robbers camp, for, knowing I
was abroad somewhere IN that part of the
country, they had resolved to capture me
at any price. The moon showed them
my figure plainly, and in moment they
were up, busily saddling their horses. 1
did not wait to see them start, but, spur
ring the mare, was away like the wind.
Presently l could hear them coming on,
and then a wild chase began. The
branches of trees swung back and cut me
across the face, the mare slipped again
and again on the stones, the wind seemed
to grow spiteful and to fairly beat me
back; but if these causes served to delay
me, they also kept my pursuers back as
well, and l would have distanced them
had it not been that, all at once, the
mares fore foot was broken as she went
down in the hole of some burrowing ami
NAL, and / shot over her head on to my
own. But was on my feet again in a
second, and seeing just ahead Of me a
wooded cliff where might hope to hide,
and as all else was open country for a
hundred or two yards about, resolved to
scale this if the wolves behind me would
delay long enough. So up went hoping
that might manage to reach the top, and
so disappear from their view, or at any
rate to gain the time it would take them to
diSmount, secure their horses and climb
after me But no, here they came burst
ing out of the woods, pointing excitedly
to me clinging to the side of the eminence
One tall fellow, nearly as black as a negro,
threw up his carbiue and, aiming, fred
The shot whistled over my head and
splintered the rock just above, and in
voluntarily shrank against the viue-cov-
cred cliff.
SUDDENLY DISAPPEARED.
"All at once so mething gave way and
I fell back back into profound darkness
l suppose it was only a sense of my danger
that kept me from giving way to the
faintness that stole over me. But sprang
up anu llSb6ubu 10 bL6 6AC1bGu anu WOu-
dering conversation going on below.
Where could the American have gone
tor 1 suppose the smoke of the gun
fired at me had obscured the manner of
my sudden exit, and some Contended that
| must have managed by one Superhuman
effort to have scaled the rest of the cliff
These finally convinced the others that
this was the way of 1t, and the band
climbed over few feet from my place of
al Ilxv% hnZ IT,
of some hard work / reached the opening
through which l had fallen and found it
to be an artiticially cut hole in the soft
rock of the cliff, we'll covered with vines,
that had fallen back into their place after
had shot in, which, with the blackness
within, had served to conceal the window
from the keen eyes of the men without.
After satisfying myself that they were
really gone l struck match and found
myself In as remarkable a chamber as
ever a man In this century beheld. A nat
ural cavern in the rock has been hol-
lowed out into sort of temple. The
walls were covered with giant figures,
which even my slight knowledge of Aztec
mythology enable me to recognize as those
of gods. An altar of carved stone was at
one end, and before this lay something
from which recoiled as my foot trod on
it; it was the skeleton of man! On Athe
altar itself also lay the bones of
some animal, evidently the sac
rifce. A row of clay vessels
closely sealed were ranged back of
this, while an incense burner of pure sill
yer stood before. In a moment the mean
ing of the thing flashed upon me: ! was in
a temple made by some Aztec priest fee
ing from the Spanlards and their hated
Christian religion, which they had en-
deavored to force upon him. Here l
stayed all night, and the next morning,
when the sun rose and | saw long bright
ray of light fall full into the eyes of the
god carved above the altar, / knew / was
right in my idea of the place. The open
ing up there was not merely for air, but
was intended to admit the sun god S
smile into the temple dedicated to him.
THE ROBBERS RETURN.
"Pretty soon the robbers came back
and bivouacked just beneath the cliff. An
American would never have rested until
he had investigated every foot of the
rock, but these gentry had no idea of
doing that, but waited until hunger
should drive the victim out of his hole.
And 1 began to fear that that would
faint for lack of food, when it occurred
to me to break open one of the clay YES
sells spoke of. 1t was full of sweet
scented oil, now as thick as paste, but
still nutritious, as soon found This eaten,
began to think. Surely the man who
built this place did not enter and emerge
by that hole up there So 1 made a
thorough examination of the cavern and
finally discovered under the altar, which
was movable, tunnel, worn evidently
by some small stream that once cut its
way through this rock and which had
been utilized by the discoverer of this
subterranean cavern to go and come to
his secret rites. Taking with me two of
the large clay vessels l followed this tun-
mel, often having to get down and crawl,
but steadily moving away from the Next
cans lying in wait on the other side of
that cliff,
81 emerged finally in little plateau
overlooking the Rio Grande flowing
grandly down to the gulf. Here waited
for an hour, until my lucky star brought
in view line of horsemen riding along
the Texas side Of the river. l recognized
them as rangers, headed by my old friend
Col. George Baylor, and hailing them was
soon once more in the land of the free.
1.-The minel Oh, before | could inform
them of the hidden value of the land,
Ripperdan's heirs sold the ranch to
New York syndicate, who were not long