The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-08-29

dering boy.
Take this for your good deed"
said the tall smuggler, taking small
silver cross from his neck and giving
it to Harry. at may be eff use to you
if ever we meet again. And, as you
seem anxious to meet with some Span
ish brigands, it may please you to
learn that you have seen half dozen
of them to-day"
So saying, he spurred his horse and
vanished into the forest with his grim
comrades, while Harry turned slowly
back to the town, hardly knowing
whether he was awake or only dream
ing.
Just like my luck! I've lost my
way, sure enough! And this strikes
me as the very place to fall in with
that nice man, Pedro Gonsalvez, the
brigand captain, who seems to be ter
rorizing the whole country at this
time"
The speaker was no other than our
friend, Harry White, now grown into a
y
a fve-years' absence beyond the At
lantic, his former haunts in southern
Spain.
He had certainly good cause to feel
uncomfortable just then. To lose
ones way in a gloomy forest, among
the Spanish mountains, with night at
hand and a storm coming on, is not a
pleasant experience in any case; but
when to all this is added a very strong
probability of falling in with band
of robbers, whose usual mode of de-
handing ransom for a captive is to
mail his ears or nose to his anxious
friends as a hint that speedy pay
ment is requested" he must indeed be
brave man who can face the situa-
ton without flinching.
What Harry feared came only too
soon. A hoarse shout was suddenly
heard among the bushes, and before
he could draw his revolver he was sur
rounded by a gang of fierce-looking
men, whose grim, ruffianly faces and
scowling eyes BODIED him no good.
A smart stroke from the butt of
Harry Whites heavy whip felled the
foremost man, but the rest at once
dragged him from his horse, and, in
spite of his furious struggles, bound
him hand and foot.
"Let me kill the dog!" roared the
injured robber, whose head was bleed
ing freely. 'He shall never strike a
Spaniard again!'
'Not so fast, Brother JUAN" said
another. 'He looks like an English
man, and the English are all rich.
Well make him pay a fat ransom"
"And if he don't pay it quickly" put
in third, with a significant whisk of
his knife, close to the prisoners ear,
Ibis friends won't find him quite so
handsome the next time they see
him"
Harry shuddered at the horrible
threat and the roar of brutal laughter
that followed. He was not complete
ly disenchanted, for the brilliant and
chivalrous bandits of his boyish
dreams were utterly different from
these ragged, hangdog rufiians, who
almost choked him with the sitting
odor of garlic and bad tobacco.
Then his horror turned to rage at
the thought of being plundered and in
suited by these brutal rascals, and he
inwardly vowed that when he did get
free he would spend all the money he
had in hunting them down. But, as we
shall see, he never got the chance of
doing so.
The robbers laid their prisoner on
the horse and led him up a steep, zig
gag path to kind of rocky platform,
walled in on three sides by unscalable
cliffs, while on the fourth lay a preci-
pice of several hundred feet
Here about 20 more brigands were
encamped; and Harry White, sudden
ly remembering his silver cross,
looked eagerly to see if the man who
had given it to him was one of the
band; but he could see 70 one in the
least like him.
"Has Capt. Gonsalvez come back
yet?' asked one of his conductors.
&"No,' was the reply, but we are ex-
pecting him every moment"
Just then a hasty step was heard
below, and tall, dark figure, spring.
ing up the rocks as nimbly as a noun
tain goat, came bounding on to the
platform.
up with you, ccmrades." shouted
the newcomer, who was no other than
the formidable Pedro Gonsalvez him
self. eve have been betrayed, and all
the soldiers from La Redonda are
upon our trail. We must retreat at
once. Ha! who is this-a prisoner?"
eve took him in the valley yonder,
and have kept him for ransom" re-
piled one of the bandits.
"There is no time to think of ran
SONS now, when our very lives are at
stake" said the robber chief, sternly
Take what money he has on him, and
then fling him over the precipice."
Instantly a dozen eager hands were
rifing Harry's pockets, and the brave
youth, giving himself up for lost, pre-
pared to die like man. But, as his
watch was dragged forth by the rob-
bers, the silver cross that hung to its
chain caught the eye of Gonsalvez,
who sprang forward and asked, hur-