The Grit-advocate., 1905-12-01

'hs hoiuIIS UP Will
peared to be half a silver coin. "Well.
chum of mine in the Navy has the
other half and it saved his life once.
Its coin of Colombia. We We're do
ing duty Oh the lsthmus of Panama
and stopped in at n little fruit shop.
The coin is only worth about Il fifth of
cent, but what we bought did not
come to that, and the old woman i'll
charge of the shop took out knife
and cut the coin in two. 1t struck us
as so absurd that we gave her another
coin and kept that as a souvenir. We
punched holes i'll the halves and strung
them on our watch chains.
about a year after that We were
cruising i'll the Canary Islands, and
some of the Spanish dons at Las
Paimas invited the officers to n grand
ball. When we landed we saw Curl
Gus procession making its way out of
the town. What struck lis as particu-
larry peculiar was that the Captain of
| the company walked in the rear of his
soldiers. AS soon as we met some of
the natives they explained that he was
the head cXecutioner and that the job
was hereditary one. Although he is
in command of a company, he has to
walk in the rear. and whenever he
goes into cafe to eat the proprietor
smashes the plates as soon as lie has
finished.
I'VE followed. the procession to wit
ness the peculiar execution. Finally
we came to a deserted place and found
hat {I,D IS 40,
place the victim in a chair, where
steel band is placed around his neck.
With the turn of a screw the band is
tightened.
After the execution We thought 1t
would be good chance to take Il pic
ture of one of the fellows, and my
chum got into the chair. We tightened
up the band a little bit and took the
picture. Somebody decided that we
had better leave him there little
longer. and we strolled away to the
grand ball. 1t was so interesting that
we forgot the poor fellow for Il couple
of hours, and when we hurried back
he was gone.
1--WE did not worry any, supposlng
that lie had gone back to the ship.
The next morning, however, he was
nowhere to be found. and We went OIL
shore to search for him. To make
long story short, We spent all morning
and most of the afternoon in trying
to get clue. Just as we were giving
up in despair noticed an old native
~sittng on the roadside. Around his
leck was a string and on the string
was the half coin.
You can imagine that grabbed the
native and sent one of the boys for
somebody that could talk the lingo.
1t seems that the natives who live in
the Atalayan caves are supposed to
take away the victims of the execution
and bury them in caves. They get
whatever is Oh the person.
1--WE started the old fellow up on the
Jump and pushed him up the hills on
the end of our walking sticks. He led
lis by little paths and lanes through
the mysterious caves. and finally came
to one that had great stone rolled up
against its mouth. Lying oil a heap of
bones was the Lieutenant in dead
faint. He was stripped and his hair
nau turned WnltP. we SHOOK nlm up
and gave him some stimulant, and in 4
little while he came around.
"That fellow had an awful lot of
nerve. He declared that he knew we
would get him out but that we were
an awful long time doing it. He
thought the whole thing was n joke.
AS he had been one of the rngleaders
in all the stunts on board ship. he took
the whole thing in good part. 1t
seems that lie had dOZcd off. and. be-
in. one of the sleepers that you can't
wake up with an AK. never quivered
until the natives had left him in the
cave for some hours. Minneapolis
journal.
1