El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-07

Iy weapon; and armed with it l sat
on a grassy slope midway between the
hut and sea gazing anXiously inland,
listening for any passing sound; but
all remained still, save the chafing of
the waves on one hand, and the loud
huzz OF tropical insect life in the thick
cts or among the long grass on the
)ther.
What, l asked myself, if savages
we're actually lurking in the woods,
and, on seeing that all my companions
were gone, they should come tumultu-
ously down upon the hut and boat?
l would at cnce become their victim.
Or what would be my fate if my
friends fell into an ambush, or per-
ished in detail?
Could any human beings be lurking
in the two adjacent isles? was my next
surmise.
We had never seen anything alive
on them-not even wild goats or boars,
and if there were other Inhabitants,
the steepness of the rocks, which rose
sheer from the water, and the fury
of the surf that rolled between, for
babe any attempt to cross.
So in such painful surmises, and in
keen watching, 1 passed the most OF
the day alone.
In the afternoon, one by one, all my
shinmates returned to our little head.
quarters on the shore, weary and
jaded-torn by briers and brambles in
the thickets-and all had the same
tale to tell. They had seen and heard
of nothing save wild bears, wild goats
and sea birds.
Hislop now directed that one of our
number should guard the hut by night,
and a second the boat, swith orders to
hail each other in this fashion:
Boat, ahoy!"
Hut, ahoy!'
This was to insure watchful look
out; but with all these precautions,
wise and necessary though they we're,
our feeling of security, and even Of
reliance on each other, was gone for
the time
AS these occurrences excited the i'm
agination of our companions, some OF
those who watched the hut and boat
by night asserted that when all our
party, save themselves, were safely
lodged and asleep, something like the
figure of very tall man had appeared
for an instant on the bluffs that over
hung the sea, between them and the
moonlight.
But of this mysterious parsonage, if
such existed anywhere. except in the
overstrained Imagination of lonely
midnight watcher, we could discover
no trace during the day.
One night when Francis Probart
and Ned Carlton were on watch,
sound like the distant report of pistol
was heard by them, and at the same
instant both saw a flock of petrels
and storm finches rise up in the moon
light from the face of the bluff, where
they revolved above the breakers, like
a swarm of knats in a sunbeam
So if Ned and the carpenter were
mistaken in the sound, the birds were
also reused and alarmed.
Mark Hislop ridiculed their story but
he was considerably bewildered, and
so were we all when two days after
ward a seaman named Hugh Chute.
when rambling in the woods, found
one of our goats, which we knew by
the fragment of rope still tied round
its neck, lying dead, with a bullet in its
throat.
He brought it to the hut, where the
wound was cut open ana the bullet
extracted. 1t was small. and had evil
IDENTIFY been fired from a pistol; this
event caused the most exciting specu-
lations, amid which the carcass was
hastily buried, as none of us would ear
of it.
What or who could this person be?
were the prevailing questions; and
what was his reason for concealing
himself from us, in the thick woods of
the island?
In the thorough exploration of the
latter, caused by these episodes, our
people fortunately discovered a fine
grove of banana trees, and returned
laden with their yellow and luscious
fruit
At the same time Tattooed Tom
found some letters Tin foreign lingo"
as he said, cut on the face of steep
rock, overhanging the river. which
formed the cascade at the beach To
this rock he conducted Hislop and me
the next day, and after tearing aside
some masses Of creepers and scraping
off rich coating of moss, we found
this old legend on the smoothed face of
the basalt:
eel Noble Caballero, D. Alphonso de
Albuquerque;
a. ID. 1906.
Rvgven Dios por ell
"The year of the discovery of the is
land!" said Hislop.
Have other eyes ever seen this in