Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-01-02

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4 They were three to one, and they
had firearms In effect had no
choice Well, if must must!" I
cried, making UP my mind with seem
Ing recklessness. Vogue la galere!
Spain be it, 1t will not be the first
time have heard the dons talk"
The men nodded, as much as to say
that they had known what the end
would be; the landlord released my
rein; and in trice we were riding
down the narrow track. with our faces
set towards the mountains.
On one point my mind was now more
easy. The men meant fairly by me;
and had no longer to fear, as had
feared, pistol shot in the back at the
first convenient ravine. AS far as
that went might ride in peace. On
the other hand, if let them carry
me across the border my fate was
sealed. A man set down without Gre
dentlals or guards among the wild des-
peradoes who swarmed in war time in
the Asturian passes might consider
himself fortunate if an easy death fell
to his lot In my case could make
shrewd guess what would happen.
a single nod of meaning, one nut
Tered word, dropped among the saw
age men with whom | should be left
and the diamonds hidden in nv boot
"ouid go neither to the cardinal nor
back to MISUNDERSTANDING would il
matter to me whittier they went.
i yphi IL
'aclturn fashion, or sometimes grinned
| at my gloomy face, | looked out over
tne brown woods with eyes that saw.
] yet did not see. The red squirrel
/ sWafmlng up the trunk, the startled
pigs that rushed away granting from
tnelr feast OF mast. the solitary rider
VINO met u.s. armed TO the teeth and
passed northward after whispering with
4 the 5landlord-all these 1 saw. But nv
| mind was not with them. 1t. was crop
ing and feeling about like a hunted
mole ror some way of escape. For time
| pressed. The slope we were on was
1 growing sleeper. By-aEd-bye, we fell
into a southwark valley and began r.
follow 1t steadily upwards, crossing
ana recrossing a swiftly rushing
stream. The snow-peaks began to be
Ridden behind the rising bulk of hills
4 that overhung us; and sometimes wa
could see nothing before or behind but
the wooded walls of our valley rising
sheer and green thousand PAGES on
either hand, with gray rocks, half
masked by fern and ivy getting here
and there through the frs and alders
II was wild and somhre scene even
at mat hour, With the midday sun
Shining on the rushing water and
drawing the scent out of the pines: hut
knew that there was worse to come
and sought desperately for some ruse
| by which might at least separate the
men. Three were too many: with oae
might deal. AT last, wflen had cud-
gelled my brain for an hour and almost
resigned myself to sudden charge on
the men single-handed- last desper-
ate resort thought of plan. dan
gerous, toe, and almost desperate, but
which still seemed to promise some
/ thing. 1T came Of my fingers resting In
my pocket on the fragments Of the
orange sachet, which, without. having
any particular design in my mind I
had taken care to bring with me. 1
/ had torn the 'sachet into four pieces :
four corners. As played mechanical
ly with them, one of my fingers fitted
into one, as into glove; a second
finger into another. And the plan
came.
Still, before could move in it, had
to wait until We stopped to bait the
tagging horses. which we did about
noon at the head Of the valley. Then,
| pretending to drink from the stream
/ managed to secure unseen handful
Of pebbles, slipping them into the same
pocket with the morsels of stuff. On
getting to horse again. carefully fitted
a pebble. not too tightly, into the larg-
est scrap and made ready for the at
tempt.
1 The landlord rode on my left, abreast
| of me; the other two knaves behind.
The road at this stage favored me, for
the valley, which drained the bare up
lands that lay between the lower spurs
and the base Of the real mountains,
had become wide and shallow. Here
were no trees and the path was mere
| sheeD-track covered with short crisp
grass and running sometimes on this
bank of the stream and sometimes on
that.
| waited until the ruffian beside me
turned to speak TO the men behind. TIE
moment lie did so and his eyes were
averted, ] slipped out the scrap Of
satin in which had placed the pebble
and balancing it carefully ON my righ5
thigh as rode, Tipped it forward
with all the strength of my thumb ard
finger. meant it to fall a few PAGES
before us in the path, where it could be
seen. But alas for my hopes! At the
critical moment my horse started, my
finger struck the scrap aslant the peb-
bic flew out, and the bit of stuff flut-
. ~ ct;