The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-25

| ture or cold-blooded butchery could be
! invented equal to the fiendish skill of
+ the butchers from that craftiest of ma
tons, the Spaniards
ia ph and his friends, recognizing the
! harbor of Manila, Surmised that the
/ plan was to turn them over to the ten
/ der mercies of the constituencies tor
mentors of the island prison.
The old Neptune soon sprung proudly
up TO the dock. There was the usual
! puStle and confusion attending the
varying up to the wharf of a great
vessel. Ralph and his friends awaited
with blanched faces what they felt
! would surely happen. They had guessed
right. squad of Spanish soldiers
came to the vessel, the six guilty men
We're heavily ironed, the commanding
officer of the soldiers was paid by the
captain for the butchery which thew
were TO do, and the miserable fellows
were hustled away to their doom. Soon
they were at the entrance of the di
lapidated old castle, lofty iron gates
on rusty hinges slowly opened to re-
ceive them. and the doomed sailors
were lodged in narrow cells behind iron
bars.
For two days. although in adjoining
cells, they had no courage to sneak to
each other. The guard who paced laz
lily back and forth in the damp CORR
dor had brought them a little old bread
and jar Of stale water.
All that Ralph could discover in his
cell deepened his despondency and con-.
flrmed him in the hopelessness of their
situation. There was plenty of evil
dence that other unfortunates had oc-
cupied his cell before for in words. dug
out OF the plaster with fingernails or
written in blood with sharpened finger
mans, were stories Of suffering and tor
ture- All the tales expressed homeless
ness. There was one which told of an
escape from the cell and of recapture
ralph knw 1T was unfinished, for fin
gers stiff in death cannot write tha
news. So passed several days in doJeful
misery. Ralph had studied the walls
carefully, but had failed at first to at
tach any Importance to a string of LET
tiers on the. wall They were in this or
der:
L p w r r 1 TT OHM MORO
G r n e G N P X K e D r o ES
At hrSt he paid but little attention RI
them, thinking that they meant some
thing IN a foreign language But see
ing also the figure scratched in tbe
walls a number of times he began TO
think that there might be some key in.
tended by the figures for the solution
OF the meaningless letters After man
Attempts he began with the eighth let.
ter and by taking each. eighth letter
gradually and TO his great surprise
there came put the word tip" then
stone" and finally the phrase. tin
stone in corner, find wire pick Iocl, 3
The floor of his cell seemed even h,,t !
ON trying one of the corner stones he
found that it tipped little-he lifted |
II. more and found beneath it. hardly
observable at first, rusty wire with |
a peculiar curve at one end. When the |
guard was at the other end of the cor |
ridore he thrust his hand through the |
bars of his door, pushed the wire into |
the lock. worked it his way and then |
that finally felt the catch: then usirg |
all his strength as he turned the wire
be felt the bolt turning with it. He |
pushed his door open. went quickly to |
The cells of his friends, and told them