El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-19
A MATTER OF JUSTICE.
Continued from Ninth Page.)

Quired But these were the only inter
ruptions, and between whites they
smoked on in massive silence.
At the end of that hour the man
slave who had been sent out with the
message re-entered the room and de-
livered his tidings. Rad ell Moussa. in
his turn. passed it on. Murray was
even then waiting in the justice cham
Der, so he said, at the farther side Of
the house, and could be taken away at
once. Kettle rose to his feet. and the
Arab stood before him with bowed
head and folded arms.
Captain Kettle began to feel asham-
ed for having pressed this man too
hard. 1t seemed that he had intended
to act honestly all along, and the sus-
piciousness of his behavior doubtless
arose from some difficulty of custom or
language. So the sailor took RAIDS
limp hand in his own and shook 1t
cordially and at the same time made q
handsome apology for his own share
Of the misunderstanding. Your wor-
ship must excuse me-" he said, but I'm
always apt to be a bit suspicious about
lawyers What dealings I've had with
them have nearly always turned out
for me unfortunately. And now, II
you don't mind, We'll. go into your
courthouse, and you can hand me
over my mate, and I'll take him back
to the ship. Enough times been vast
ed already by both of u.s."
The Arab, still bowed and submis-
sive, signed toward the doorway, and
Kettle ma Iched briskly out along the
narrow dark passage beyond. with
RAIDS sandals shutting in escort close
At his rear. The house seemed a large
one and rambling. Three times RAIDS
respectful fingers on his visitors sleeve
signed him n change of route. The
corridors, too, as is the custom in Ara
bia, where GOODNESS is the first consid-
Grafton. We're dimly lit, and with the
caution which had grown to be his sec
Ond nature Kettle instinctively kept all
his senses on the alert for iDconvenient
surprises He had no desire that Rad !
Ell Moussa should forget his submis- |
siveness and stab him suddenly from |
behind; neither did he especially wish |
to be noosed or knitted from round any /,
of the dusky. sudden corners.
In fact, he was as much on the qui |
vive as he ever had been in all his !
long. wild. adventurous life, and yet !
Rad ell Moussa, who meaut treachery |
all along. took him captive by the most /
vulgar of time worn strata gems. OF |
sudden the boarding of the floor sank
beneath Kettles feet. He turned and
with a desperate effort tried to throw
himself backward whence he had come,
but the boarding behind reared up and
hit him violent blow on the hands !
and head. and he fell into pit below.
For an instant he saw through the
Il IL
denly turned virulent. splitting at him
in hate, and then the swing floor slam
med up into place again. and all view
of anything but inky blackness was
completely shut away.
Now. the fall into the pit where Rad
ell Moussa had caught Captain Kettle,
besides being disconcerting. was toler-
ably deep. and. but for the fact that
the final blow from the flooring had
shot him against the opposite side of
the pit and SO broken his descent at
the expense of his elbows and heels.
he might very well have landed awk-
wardly and broken limb or his back
In the process. But Captain Owen Ket-
tie was not the man to waste time over
useless Iamentation or rubbing of
bruises He was on fire with fury at
thirstiDg to get loose and be revenged.
He had his pistol still in it's proper
pocket and unchanged, and if the willy
Rad had shown himself anywhere
within range just then it is a certain
thing that he would have been shot
dead to square the account
But Kettle was. as l have said, wedg-
ed in with darkness, and for the pres
emf revenge must wait till he cOull see |
the man he wanted to shoot at. He
scrambled to his feet and fumbled in
his pocket for n match. He found one,
struck it on the sole Of his trim white
shoe and recOnnOitered quickly
The place he was in was round and
bottle shaped. measuring some ten feet
across it's floor and tapering to a small
square where the trap gave it entrance
above 1t was a prison clearly. and
there was evidence that it had been re-
Gently used. 1t was clear also that the
only official way of removing a prison
err was to get him up by ladder or rope
through the small opening to which
the sides converGed overhead. More p
over. to all common seeming, the place
was simply unbreakable. at least to
any creature who had not either wings
or the power of crawling up the under
side of n slant like fly.
But all these things flashed through
Kettles brain in far less time than it
takes to read them here He had only
two matches in his possession. and he
wished to make all possible use of the
first. so as to keep the second for emer-
gencies. And so he made his survey !
with the best Of his intelligence and
ursood