The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-03-07
troopers were of course of no use to any

IAOOHSA0 W sNAS VI SN~~~ -
body.
Even as the detachment mounted,
Latham with it, old Moreno appeared
at the doorway shrouded in his serare.
Approaching Murphy by the side far
thest from Plunmer and the sergeant.
he slipped /, fat canteen from under his
cloak and thrust it into the corporal's s
ready hand. ''Hush-h-ro words, %
he whispered. AL is well. l keep
my promise. And so saying he had
skunk away, but Feeny was on the OF
side quick as 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. It struck
Moreno square in the back of the neck
and sent him pitching heavily forward.
Only by catching at horse post did
he save himself from fall, but, as he
Strengthened up. his face was one not to
be looked at without a 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 the cleaning knife was
clasped in his upraised hand as, driv-
ing into the ranch and out Of sight of
the hated 'gringos, . he burst into
the room where sat his wife and
daughter, and raging aloud, through
that he leaped like 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 a
! 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
cproar of blasphemy and imprecation
mingling with the shout of ezultation
that instantly followed her lords ad-
mission to the den.
Nine O'Clock came. Murphy and his
; party were gone. The beacon still
blazed at the westward pass. The twaEg
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 brist1ing with revolvers, was di-
viding his attention between the safe
and the still sleeping troopers. Every
once in a while he would station the
major at the safe, which had been
hauled into the easternmost of the
rooms that opened to the front instead
Of on the corral, and, revolver i'll hand.
would patrol the premises, never fail
ing to stop at 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' 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 imprecations upon
them.
To Pedro he had intrusted the duty
Of caring for the horses of his prostrate
comrades. Every faculty he possessed
was on the alert, watching for the
faintest sign of treachery OF. hostility
from within, listening with dread but
stern determination for the first sound
of hoof beats from without. It must
have been abort &c o'clock when, leav-
ing Mr.. Dawes, the clerk, seated in the
dark interior beside the safe, Feeny
stepped forth to make another round,
stopped to look at Mullan and his part
ner, now beginning to twitch uneasily
and moan and toss in their drunken
sleep, and then turned to seek the pay
master.
Whatever lights Moreno had been
accustomed to burn by way of lure or
encouragement to belated travellers, all
was gloom tonight. The bar was ST.
lence and darkness. The bare east room
adjoining the corral was tenanted now
only by the clerk and the precious iron
box of 'greenbacks. No glimmer of
lamp showed there. The westward
apartments, opening only one into
another and thence into the corral, We're
still as the night and even when a
shutter was slowly pushed from within,
as though the occupants craved more
air, no glea,n of light came through.
Don't show your ugly mug out
here, Moreno. cautioned Feeny for the
fourth or fifth time, and warn any
ID cutthroat with you to keep in
hiding. The man who attempts to
come out gets bullet through him.
There had been shrill protestation in
Mexican Spanish and Sonora Moreno's S
strident tones when first ne conveyed his
orders to the master of the ranch, but
Moreno himself had made no audible
reply, and, as was conjectured, had
enioined silence on his wife, for after
that outbreak she spoke no more.
I've got this approach covered any
how" muttered the veteran. ''Now if
only had men to watch those doors
into the corral, could pen Moreno and
whatever be has here at his back. It's
that gang cf hell hounds we passed at