The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-01-14

l ga NoAiAOAo WdS tu0 pultSiuutlC Out O0-
termined paymaster, his physically
wrecked but devoted clerk, Sergeant
Feeny, raging at heart, but full of
fight, and a half breed packer named
Pedro. Tho two senseless and drunken
troopers were Of course of no use to any
body.
Even as the detachment mounted,
Latham with it, old Moreno appeared
ut the doorway shrouded in his serape.
Approaching Murphy by tho side fur
thest from Plummer and the sergeant,
he slipped fat canteen from under mis-
cloak and thrust it into the corporal 8
ready hand flush h-no words. i"
he whispered All is well. l keep
my promise. And so saying he had
skunk away, but Feeny was OH tho off
side quick as a shot, quicker than the
corporal could stow the bulky vessel
in his saddle bags. Wrestling it from
the nerveless hand of his junior, Feeny
hurled it with all his force after the
Mexican's retreating form. 1t struck
Moreno square i'll the back of the neck
and sent him pitching heavily forward.
Only by catching at horse post did
he save himself from fall but, us he
Strengthened up, his face was one not to
be looked at without n shudder; grind
ing teeth, swapping, flashing eyes, venge-
full contortions of brow and jaw, hate,
fury and revenge, all were quivering
with the muscles under that swarthy
skin, and tho cleaning knife was
| clasped i'll his appraised hand as driv-
ing into tho ranch and out of sight of
the hated "gringos, he burst into
I,n L..
daughter, and raging aloud, through
that he leaped like IL panther to another
door, fastened on the farther side
| where one instant he stood before ad-
mission could be gained, and through
panel in which there warily peered
| bearded face, swarthy as his own. And
then Sonora Moreno hurriedly banged
the shutter and took up her guitar
| Something had to be done to hush the
uproar of blasphemy and imprecation
mingling with the shout of exultation
that instantly followed her lords adj
mission to the den.
Nine o'clock came. Murphy and his
| party were gone. The beacon still
blazed at the westward pass. The twang
OF the guitar had ceased. Silence
reigned about the ranch. Old Plummer
with anxious face plodded slowly up
and down the open space in front of
the deserted bar Feeny, with three
loaded carbines close at hand and his
belt bristling with revolvers, was di-
| viding his attention between the safe
and tho still sleeping troopers. Every
once iii a while he would station tho
major at the safe, which had been
hauled into the casternmost of the
rooms that opened to the front instead
of on the corral, and, revolver in hand.
would patrol the premises, never fail
ing to stop ut a certain window behind
! which he believed Moreno to be lurking
to warn that impulsive greaser not to
show his head outside his room if he
didn't want it blown off his shoulders;
never failing on his return to stir up
| both recumbent forms with angry foot,
and then to shower in equal portions
cold water and hot imprecatons upon
| them.
To Pedro he had intrusted the duty
| of caring for the horses of his PROSTATE
comrades Every faculty he possessed
was on the alert, watchin" for the
faintest sign of treachcry OF hostility
from within, listening with dread but
stern determination for the first sound
of hoof beats from without. 1t must
have been about % o'clock when, leav-
ing Mr.. Dawes, the clerk, seated in the
dark interior beside the safe. Feeny
stepped forth to make another round,
stepped 10 lool; at Mullan and his part
ner, now beginning TO twitch uncasily
and moan and toss III their drunken
sleep, and then turned TO seek the paw
master.
Whatever lights Moreno had been
accustomed to burn ly way Of lure or
encouragement TO bclatcd travellers, all
was gloom tonight. The bar was ST
lence and darkness. The bare east room
adjoining the corral was tenantcd now
only by the clerk and the precious iron
box of 'greenbacks. No glnnmcr Of
lamp showed there. The westward
apartments opening only one into
another and thence into the corral. were
| still us the night and even when il
shutter was slowly pushed from within,
as though the occupants cravcd more
air, no CLEAN OF light came through.
! Don't show your ugly mug out
here, Moreno, cautioned Fcely for the
fourth or fifth time, land warn any
Id cutthroat with you to keep in
| hiding. The man who attempts TO
! come out gets Il bullet through him. "
There had been shrill protestation III
| Mexican Spanish and Sonora Morcno's
stridcnt tones when first he conveyed his
orders to the master of the ranch, but
Moreno himself had made no audible
reply, and, as WAS conjcctured. had