El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-26
TContinued from last Saturday.
CHAPTER TX.
Dangerous Company.

Behind us stood eight fellows, hve
Of whom had muskets, and three heavy
bludgeons. They were apparently
Spanish seafaring men; but whether
contrabandistas of the lowest class.
q portion of q slaver's crew. or mere
1y drunken brawlers, we could not at
first determine. However, they soon
made us aware that robbery was their
object, and that they were in no way
averse to a little homicide if we inter-
fered with their plans in the least.
Some had their coarse, but glossy
and intensely black hair confined by
nets or cauls; others had only Bar
celona handkerchiefs round their
heads. The spots of blood upon these,
together with several patches and dis
colored eyes, showed us that these
modern IberianS had been fighting
among themselves. Their attire, which
consisted OF of red or blue shirts
and dirty canvas trousers, was rather
dilapidated; but something of the pic
turesque was impaired to it by the
sashes of glazing red and yellow wor-
sted which girt their waists, and in
which they had long knives stuck con-
spicuously.
By their bearing, their dark glazing
eyes, their muscular figures, their bare
arms, chest and feet, their bronzed,
sallow and ugly visages-and more
than all by their rags, which were red
olent of garlic and coarse tobacco,
it was evident that we had fallen into
unpleasant society. Several had silver
rings in their ears, and on the bare
chest of one I saw a crucifix marked
either with ink or gunpowder
These fellows had come from the in
ner or back part of the cavern, where
they had evidently been observing US
for some time before they so suddenly
appeared.
"Acqu'ardfente," said one, approx
ingly, as he applied his fierce, hooked
nose to my empty fack, and then plac
ed it in his pocket. A second snatched
away my courier-bag, and a third ap-
propriated my telescope, which he
stuck in his sash.
Taking up stone which lay at
hand, I was about to hurl it at the
head of the latter when the muzzle
Of a cooked musket pointed to my
breast, and the butt of another ap-
piled roughly to my back, admonished
me that discretion was the better part
of va1or.
Ell page de escoba-ha, hal" (the
cabin boy), said one contemptuously.
as he examined my attire-a smart
blue jacket, with gilt anchor buttons.
which Hislop had given me. My porte
monnaie, which contained only few
shillings, and my gold watch, pres
ent given to me by my mother when I
went to Elton, were soon taken from
me. AS for poor Tom, he possessed
only brass tobacco-bax, short,
black pipe, and one shilling and six
pence; yet he was speedily deprived
of them by one who seemed to be the
leader Of the gang.
you rascally Jack Spaniard!" said
Tom, shaking his clenched fist in the
robbers face, elf ever I haul alongside
of you elsewhere, look out for squalls!"
At this they all laughed, and seized
us by the arms, dragged us into the
back part Of the cavern or fissure in
the rocks, leaving one of their num-
ber armed with a musket, as sentinel
at the entrance. where he lit paper
cigar, and stretching himself on the
grassy bank, placed his hands under
his head, and proceeded to leisurely
smoke in the sunshine.
These proceedings filled us with
great alarm; now that they had rob-
bed us of everything save our
One of them produced two pieces of
rope, with which our hands were
tied. Dragged by some, and receiving
severe blows and bruises from the
clenched hands and musket-butts Of
others accompanied by the impreca-
lions and coarse laughter of alive
were conveyed through a 1ow-roofed
grotto, or natural gallery in the rocks,
the echoes of which repeated their
voices with a thousand reverberations.
The only light here was by the re-
Election of the sunshine at the en-
trance, where the basalt was coated by
a white substance, the debris of some
old volcanic eruption; for the slope
I'D which we had been ascending all
the morning formed a portion of the
great Peak And now we became SEN
sible of a strange sound and a strange
odor pervading all the place.
Through rent in the rocky roof of
the grotto there fell clear, bright
stream of sunlight, that revealed the
terrors Of the place toward which our
captors dragged us.
On one side there yawned a vast
black assure or chasm, in the somber
masses of obsidian and red blocks OF
lava which composed the floor OF that
horrid cavern; and from this assure |
there assembled, and doubtless still as
cends at times, hot, sulphurous
steam, which rendered breathing diff |
ficult and induced an inclination to |
sneeze.
From the depth of that hideous
chasm, the profundity of which no !