The Opelousas courier., 1899-02-11
A MEXICAN'S REVENGE,

l have spent, in all, three years !
Central America. l went there Writ
a surveying party which was runnin
the line Of a projected railroad, on
, of those railroads which are built O
paper alone. 1t has never yet mater
allied. While the line was being III
| made the acquaintance of an Amer
} can citizen who vas the owner Of
large coffee plantation, and he invite
me to spend some time with him.
accepted, and in a little while a mu
tual friendship sprang up between us
The result was that before the tim,
came for my departure he told me tina
it was necessary for him to pay a visi
to his old home in Ohio with his wife
to settle up some legal business, ant
he had been trying to find some on
who could take charge of his planta
ton during his absence. He urged M
to take the position, and / accepted
Another week found me at the hea(
Of n Of the finest plantations in Mic
aragua.
My duties were light enough. Blanc
had a competent general manager, anl
about all l had to do was to act as the
power behind the throne in the masters
absence. l had but one difficulty dur
ing this time. The manager, a Cuban
named Carlinos, was popular with the
laborers, and all went smoothly until
n day a Mexican, Michael Ferrara,
positively refused to obey some order
that Carlinos had given him, and Car
limos appealed to me. Upon inyestiga-
ton l calmly told the Mexican either
to obey orders or leave the place. With
a side-long glance at Carlinos and my
self he did what the manager had CON-
manded, and the storm seemed to have
blown over, but l did not feel quite
confident about it. The Mexican's
look troubled me and I mentioned it to
Carlinos, but he treated the matter
lightly and was inclined to be scorn-
full in regard to Ferrara. "He is a
coward" he said, struggling his Shout
ders, and 80 dismissed the matter. I
let the subject drop, ashamed of SEEM
ing afraid of a man whom this slen.
der Cuban regarded with such dis
dain, and yet l could have sworn that
when l walked that night, startled at
some slight noise on the terrace out
side my window, it was Ferrara's dark
face l saw in the moonlight peering in
at me. In an instant it was gone, and
l was out Of the room, running along
the terrace, searching here and there.
But no, though l gave the terrace a
thorough search and even went around
to the end of the house and the grove
of banana trees beyond, I saw nothing
moving anywhere, save an owl that
hitted out Of the trees. l went back
to my room, concluding that I had
dreamed the whole affair.
The next morning 1 felt quite sure
of it. l met Ferrara several times dur
ing the course of the day, and he was
especially pleasant. He was better ed.
ucated than the majority of his class,
and his position on the plantation gave
him a kind Of precedence over the 9th
ers. l was near him several times be-
fore the day was over, and l. noticed
that on each occasion he took pains 10
speak pleasantly and greet me with
his most courteous smile. I thought
he was sorry for the bad temper he
had shown the day before. 1 didn't
know him as we'll then as I do now.
! The next day Carlinos and l had de.
cided upon a hunt in the mountains
that made a jagged outline against the
off to the south. While we were
getting the guns and cartridges into
for use, Ferrara approached
and said in his smoothest tones:
IF the senors went to. the valley,
down below the Contadino pass, they
would find where a great panther
rodms, and has been seen many times.
1 myself saw 1t but two days ago, but
| was unarmed, so l put spurs to my
horse and galloped away"
Carlinos turned to ME with q look
Of interest. That's a good idea," he
said. "We'n look for the panther first.
and if we fail to find him we can try
the mountains"
We were about to turn away When
stopped us, with many apollo
gies. Beyond the Contadino pass
be said, you will find a narrow trail
off eastward down the valley.
that trail half a mile, until
you see a huge white cliff, a hundred
yards to the right. At the foot of that
cliff the panther has been seer again
and again. Adios, senors!"
And SO Carlinos and l went walking
of, with swinging stride, toward the
pass, glad of a day in the woods, and
ready for any adventure that came
along.
Except the one that actually did ]
come. For within the next hour We
passed through the most horrible ex.
p%erience that ever fell to the lot of
nortals I am sure.
We found the pass-a mere gap i'll
the mountains, not used for ira vel. as
another pass, q few miles further
south. furnished the nearest road to
he town. The pass was strewn with
'ough powders and jagged masses of