The age-herald., 1897-10-13

 house immediately adjoinlng the jail on the north side of o1Farriia street
 By this time No. 1 OFarrill street Is better known and more famed in Ha- vana than the palace itself. By the end of the next day the house vas in our possession As La Lucha naiveIy remarks today: '+The lessees could find no one to become responsible for them, so paid two months in advance"
 Our gold pieces made this O'Fauill palace ours for the space of two months should we care to occupy 1t that long. Next day the deal was closed. A col ored Habanero was sent to the house to whitewash, and, besides the lime brush, he carried a light ladder about twelve feet long. The possession of the ladder was all that brought him on the scene. When he went away in the even- in& he forgot it and 1t remained in the house.
 Last Tuesday night we went into the squaIld little den at No. 1. fully pre- pared, as we believed, for all possible contingencies.
 Having the key, I went first and reached and entered the house without being noticed. Hernandon and Mallory followed about an hour later, but were so fortunate IS to. find the door of No. 3, the adjoining house, standing open. with two of the occupants gaping idly at the moon, waiting for the arrival of the last of their household. As our two men passed them and disappeared into the house theysS became very much alarmed, seeming to imagine the visit of the strange men to the house next door forebod'ed some pending calamity to themselves.
 Although 1t was now 12:30, the cccu- pants of No. remained awake, busy ing themselves at first with barricading themselves in. Finally. however. the tardy member of that household ar rived and with much noise and clamor they barred themselves in and went to bed.
 It was fully 1 80 o'clock before the noises of the nelghberhood quiated down and the evil place fell into a. semblance of repose. At this tima the moon was high in the heavens and as bright as the midday sun. Down toward the cor ner of the front of the Reeojidas a large gas-lighted bracket against the side of one of the hous made visible the smallest object in the dirty thor oughfare.
 Notwithstanding these disadvantages, however, we mounted the roof and pro- ceedsd to business. The front of Re cojidas lay at right angles to our house, but the prison building ran back of our building so that the walls were to- gether At this point, however the guard wall of the Recojidas rose sheer twenty feet above our heads and was protected on the top by a thick sprlnk- ling of broken glass bottles
 This guard wall extended out from the front of our wall to a point ten or twelve feet distant, where it joined the azotea. To reach this latter point, therefore, 1t was necessary to throw the ladder diagonafly across the right angle separating our roof from the azotea. This was the most ticklish part of the business, as the ladder was frail and thrillingly short.
 Finally the ladder was in position and the trip across began. No man engaged in that enterprise that night will ever forget that twelve foot walk across that sagging, decrepit ladder At one time it swayed from the wall. Hernandon was only saved from a terrible fall by the promptnsss with which the two men at the ends of the ladder acted.
 As it was a large piece of the weak cornice on which the ladder was rest ing went clattering down into the street, waking the alcalde. who came hastily to the door. By this time the ladder had been withdrawn. Two men were left on the azotea of the jail, while the third was left on the roof of the house to handle cur drawbridge and guard our retreat.
 A great gap opened in the face of the massive building as old Don Jose looked out into the quiet street. He stood there for a few minutes with an absolutely unnecessary candle in his hand staring out at the moon and apparently greatly pleased with the beautiful aspect of the soft Cuban night. Then, apparently, convinced that all was safe, he turned and passed back into Rscojidas, and thus passed unharmed through the most dang srous moment of his life, for every second that he remained in the street was second fraught with death. ',
 Three forty-four calibre revolvers cov- ersd him and his discovery of our posi- tion on the roof would have called for his immediate execution. Time was then allowed for the natural quiet to drift back upon the scene, and when finally everything had become normal the work of getting the Journals protege out of her loathsome dungeon was begun.
 We crept softly across the roof to the window she had indicated. As we reached it we saw her standing before 1t. She was dressed in a dark coIored dress and not easily ssen in the gloom inside. She gave one glad little cry and clasped our hands through the bars, calling upon us to liberate her at once She had besn standing there for over two hours and a half, but her patience never deserted her, and she knew that aid was coming as she could see us ron the roof of No. 1.
 Bidding her be quiet, we started at work cutting through the iron bar bo- tween her and liberty. We selected the third bar on the left side of the window, q