Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1915-01-15
The Devil S Inn
By NJ QUAD
Copyright. 1914 by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate
BY M. QUAD

ZacatecaS, Mexico. you have heard the
story Of 1.-The Devils Inn" and have
been mystified over it. Ii you have not
heard the story 10y word of mouth you
will he interested in it,
On thu highway to San Lu'-. about
four miles out of Zacatecas are the
ruins Of the inn. They have been ruins
since 1884
The landlord and most of his Gus
toners were hard lot. and during
the four OF five years the place -four
ished it had bad name. The au.
thorities had about determined to close
the inn when it was suddenly aban-
doned by the owner. The most that
could be learned from the servants
was that stranger came there one
night and had long and confidential
next morning both were missing. The
place was overhauled. but no traces
of murder were found. The servants
scattered. the doors were nailed up.
and the Holy Rest was left to darkness
and the bats OF course it soon had
the reputation of being haunted. and
after IL couple of years an incident oc-
A young man belonging to one of the
best families of Monterey. who hap
pened to he in Zacatecls on visit,
made wager that he would pass Il
night alone In the inn. He rode out
before dark. well armed and provided
with lights. and was seen to enter the
place by window. Next day his
naked body was found ON the highway
In front of the house. He had been
dead for hours. and it was the opinion
OF the doctors that he had been at
tackled by wild beast.
company of fifty soldiers went ont
and searched the inn. The search WAS
thorough one. but no trace Of man
or animal could be found.
was one of the four American civil
engineers employed by the local gov
eminent Of Zncatecas IN the years
named to make surveys for drainage
canal. and. Of course, | heard of the
devils inn, as it had long been called.
That the people were earnest and sin
cere in their talk made no difference
to Inc. | had no belief In haunted
houses, and my sarcastic reflections
made me enemies. Perhaps things
would not have gone rs far as they
did but for the chief of police of Ia
catecas. He called on me one day in
serious mood and said:
Il want to warn you against making
any foolish move in connection with
the devils inn. The place is surely
haunted and dangerous to life, no mat
ter what you think. Don't be silly
enough to pay 1t u nights visit. as
hear you contemplate doing"
| had contemplated nothing Of the
kind, but the chief had scarcely finish
ed when | was resolved to take that
very step. My chum was named Clark
young man from Chicago. and | hal
no sooner preached the subject to him
than he was ready for the adventure
For fear that the authorities might
stop us we let only Il few people into
our plan. and one Saturday afternoon
equipped with everything deemed nee
essary. we were driven out to the inn
Our first step was to carefully i'll
spect every room and the cellar. and
We did not find so much as rat. We
had brought our pipes, wine and lunch
con. with pack of cards to divert
ourselves. and neither one of us bad
the slightest idea of anything coming
to alarm us. AS we sat down to the
cards our revolvers were laid OH the
table. and we laughed and joked with
out restraint. We had braced the
doors shut with stout boards. and our
first alarm came when one of these
boards fell down and the door swung
wide open. so that we could look into
the kitchen.
This incident happened about 10
O'Clock. Threequarters of an hour
later the door leading to the office was
tried from the far side We not only
heard it creak and give. but we could
see the brace culver under the strain
There was no sound of footsteps or
whispering. Rising with the utmost
caution. we grasped our revolvers and
tiptoed to the door. When we reach
ed it we suddenly jerked- the brace
away anu sprung UaCk. ue uoOT new
back with great violence, bat there
was nobody on the other side
When the door had been secured as
before We returned to our game and
spoke in whispers and kept very quiet.
After half an hour we abandoned the
cards and sat listening. ! think it was
half an hour after midnight and we
were both probably nodding in sleep
when both doors We're suddenly burst
open with crash, our candles were
blown out by what seemed strong
wind. and the next instant | was seiZ-
ed. lifted off my feet and carried to
the broken window of the office and
flung out While | lay on the ground
Clark folio we'd me. and we heard Il
queer sort of chuckling from the win
dow above We both scrambled up
and ran for our lives and in time reach
ed the city Neither of us was much
hurt. but we had received great
fright. What had attacked US we could
not say.
We went at once to the police. but
even as we told our story we saw
red glare on the sky and knew the
devils inn was on fire. Next day we
visited thp Dlace with n SfroDU lpto.,h