Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-07-10

~ 1elt tnQC ne was rascal. lie n4Q
furtive eye and a bad mouth. and
thought 1 caught signals between the
pair. Such q thing as fear. however,
had no place In my heart. l had no
weapon aside from my stout stick, but
1 was afraid of no man by daylight on
a public highway.
was ready to move on when the wo-
man spoke Of the castle ruins. They
were only step away. she said, and If
I missed them would be sorry forever
after. The man at once added his per-
suasion. but as was ready to 60 with
them he claimed to have left his knife
O hundred rods away and set out after
it and left the two of us to walk on to-
gether. From the moment we started
I noticed change In her. She looked
about apprehensively, her laughter was
forced, and her demeanor put me on
my guard. 1t was as II she expected
fne to be shot down from ambush. Had
I not been able to see the old ruins al
most as soon as we started l should
have doubted that they existed. AS 1t
was l found myself wondering If this
pair was In any manner connected
with the disappearance Of the tourists.
was on my guard for what might
happen. and yet did not betray my.
self. l kept up the conversation as we
walked along, and am sure she took
me for an easy victim. rather ex-
pected to be fired on from behind some
rock as soon as we were Off the road,
but by and by we heard the man call
ing from the ruins, and realized that
the ambush would be there If any
where. AS we halted on the plateau 1t
was easy to make out that vast
building had stood there once. should
have said a monastery, but the woman
insisted that 1t was a great castle be-
longing to some mighty prince and that
1t had been destroyed by an earth
quake. We wandered among the acre
of ruins as we talked. AS we neared
what must have been the rear Of the
building I found that the walls stood
almost on the brink of a precipice. Be.
fore us was what had been q large
room, with three Of the walls yet
standing. There were no less than five
window openings. and as advanced
to one Of them the woman said:
"No; take this one. My brother has
built a platform from which you can
look up and down the valley for miles"
A peculiar something in her voice
caused me to glance at her face. and |
found 1t pale and her features working
In nervous way. 1t was the window,
then, which was the ambush. My
heart beat against my ribs. but
meant to see the thing to finish. The
man had called to us. but we had not
seen him since arriving at the ruins.
With a laugh which sounded more like
croak the woman pulled herself to-
gether and preceded me to the window.
To reach the opening we had to climb
up three stone steps, and she stood for
a moment looking out and clinging to
the wall for support.
"You will see fine view-a fine
view," she said as she made room for
me. "Step out and look ur and down."
did not step out. There wae some.
thing so modern about tha, platform
and 1t had been built so deftly that |
feared it. simply clung to the wall
and thrust my head out. and was
looking up the valley when the woman
gave me a push with all her strength.
Her hands did not strike me fair or
my hold would have been broken. l
was whirled half way round and part.
ly thrown down, but as l recovered my
footing swept her aside with my arm,
and she went to the ground, with q
scream. Next instant the man came
dashlng through the doorway In the
wall. He had q knife In his hand, and
he meant murder. leaped down to
meet him that l might have free play
for my staff, and believe we battled
for ten minutes. Still lying on the
ground. the woman seized my legs and
tried to pull me down, but kicked her
away and gave all my attention to the
man. Aye, but that fellow was crafty
and villainous and determined. Had
fought him with knife he would soon
have settled me. 1t was the stout staff
which kept him of, and 1t was the
staff which finally dealt him blow
that laid him out unconscious. I look.
ed for the woman as stopped t.
breathe, but she had disappeared. l
went over to the window and examln-
ed the platform and found that 1t was
sustained by a lever which could be
pulled out and allow the bottom to
drop. AS the man began to return to
life 1 lifted up my staff and beat him
till was weary, and then I went my
way up the mountain road. That am.
bush had gathered at least three vic.
Tins, but it was not for me to carry q
mystery to the police and be detained
in a filthy jail for months or years
while they took their time to solve It.