Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1906-04-18

tAlnk you Will Ano tne otner Ioao
longer still!". the landlord answered
grim1y. But choose, and be quick
about it."
They were three to one, and they
had firearms. In effect had NO
choice. well, If 1 must T must!" !
cried, making up my mind with seem
Ing recklessness. Vogue la galere!
Spain be it. It will not be the first
time have; heard the dons talk"
The men nodded, as much as to say
That tney had known what the end
"ould De; tne landlord 1t t released my
rem ana ID "a trlce we were riding
oo"n tne mario" track, with our faces
set towards the mountains.
On one point myfmind was now more
easy: The men. near, meant fairly by me;
ana nad no longer to fear, as I had
leared, pistol shot In the back at the
lrst convenient raVlne: AS far as
that went i might ride in peace. On
the other hand, II / let them carry
me across the border my fate was
sealed: A man set down without cre-
dentiais or guards among the wild des-
peradoes who sWarmed in war time in
tho Asturian passes might consider
n1msel1 fortunate II an easy death fell
10 MS lot. In my case l could make
q snre"d guess what would happen.
"a single nod OF meaning, one NUT.
'efeo WORD, dropped among the saw
age men wlthHwhom should be left,
ana the diamonds hidden in my boot
woulo 60 neither to the cardinal nor
JACK TO Observation-Disclosures would it
matter to me whittier they went.
SO while the others talked in their
taciturn fashion, or sometimes pc;nnod
at my gloomy face, l looked ont over
the brown woods with eyes that saw
yet did not see. The red snuirrel
swarmlng up the trunk, the startled
pigs that rushed away granting from,
their feast of mast, the solitary rider
VINO met us, armed to the teeth and
passed northward after whispering with
the Iandlord-all these l saw. But NV
mind was not with them. It was eron.
ing and feeling about like a hunted
mole for some way of escare. For TINA
pressed. The slope we were nm wac
growing sleeper By-ard-bve wa foil
into a southwark valley and hogan tn
follow it steadily upwards. crossing
and recrossing swiftly rush;no
stream. The snow-peaks began tn he
hidden behind the rising b,ik of hin.
that oyerhung us: and sometimes ,,,o
could see nothing before mr. hob ~ h,,+
the wooded walls Of orr va1lnv r;s;n~
sheer and green a thousand naces on
either hand, with gray rocks hair
masked by fern and ivy getting hero
and there THROUGH tho f;rs 49,, 49,
It was a wild and somhre sceno evon
at that hour. with the m;ddav ,,n
shining on the rushing wator .nd
drawing the scent ont If the n;noe. h,,+
I knew that there was worse to oo,,.
and sought 'desneratelv for sonoa r,,ao
by which I might At 1eae+ eon,rato NV ~"
men. Three were too MAN.. n,;tS o .,.e
l might deal. At last wher hod o,,a
gelled nv brain for an hon. ~ o,n.as..
resiened myself to a sudden oh.rnn -"
the men sind,e-handod~a 49, Iss -.
ate resort thought Of = n1,n dsr-
gerous, toe, and almost desperate but
which still seemed to promise soro.
thing. 1t came Of nv fingers RESTING !,
my pocket on the fragments If tn.
orange sachet. which. without hav;nr
any particular design in NV MIND :
had taken care to bring with mo {
had torn the sachet into fcnr niecos-.
four corners. As D1aved ,nech,nic,1-
ly with them, one of NV fingers f;t+od
into one % ;n+o . o,o,o. $1,000,
finger into another. And the Man
came. ~.. -:
Still, before could move in it. I had
to wait until We stopped to ba the
tagging horses, which we did about
noon at the head of the valley. Then.
pretending to drink from the stream.
I 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 lars-
est scrap and made ready for the at
tempt.
The landlord rode on my left abreast
of nc: 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
sheep-track covered with short crisp
grass and running sometimes. on this
Dank OF the stream and sometimes on
tnat' '
/ Waite{l until the ruffisn haside mo