Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-10

"A
La Cumbre is no place for an honest
Christian"
The colonel burst into a hooking
laugh. IAN honest Christian, You! or
all my vile ruffians. You are the vilest
Why. you're a thief. a liar and an as
sassin, You are lying to me now. Come
the truth for once, before l give you
the componte.'
LAS God is my judge. I'm telling you
the truth" protested the soldier "Flog
me if you will-rather the componte
than another night in those trenches.
You know that old quinta?'
Where Pancho Cueto made goat OF
himself? Perfectly. DO you mean to
say that you saw old Esteban Narona
walking with his head in his hands
NO, but | saw that she devil who
fell in the well and broke her neck.
Eth? When did you behold this
this narvel?'
Two nights ago. She was there be-
side the well and her face shone
Christ There was fire upon it She
came and went, like a moth in the
lamplight- 1 tell you 1 repented of my
sins. Some of the men laughed at me
at the others But last night two of
the doubters went up there.
Exactly. And they saw nothing"
Your pardon, my colonel They came
back in cold sweat, and they spent
the night their knees. The woman
was there again. You have seen the
salt sea at night? Well her face was
aglow, like that so they said They
heard the clanking of chains, TOO. and the
sound of hammers, coming from the
very bowels of the earth. It is all plain
enough, when you know the story But
it IS terrifying"
This is indeed amazing" Cobo ac-
knowledged, but, of course, there is
some simple explanation. Spirits, if in
deed there are such things. are made of
nothing-they are like thin air How.
then. could they rattle chains? You
probably saw some wretched paciticos
in search of food and imagined the
rest"
Indeed! Then what did 1 hear with
these very ears? Whispers. murmurs,
groans and the clinkety-clink of old
Sebastian's chisel. For his sins that
old slave is chained in some cavern of
the mountain. Soundless. I'm no baby!
1 know when I'm asleep, and know
when I'm awake. That place is ac-
cursed. and l want no more of it
Cobo fell into f.owning meditation,
allowing his cigarette to smolder down
until it burned his thick fingers he
was not a SuperstitiouS man, and he
put no faith in the supernatural. never
theleSS he was convinced that mis-
sergeant was not lying. and reference
to Pancho Cueto had set his mind TO
working along strange channels he
had known Cueto well. and the latters
stubborn belief in the existence Of that
Varona treasure had more than once
impressed him. He wondered now If
others shared that faith. or if by
chance they had discovered clue to
the whereabouts of the money and were
conducting a secret search 1t was a
fantastic idea, nevertheless Cobo told
himself that il people were prying
about those deserted premises it was
with some object, and their actions
would warrant observation The pres
ence of the woman-a woman-with
the glow of phosphorus upon her face
puzzling. He determined to 'invesu-
gate After a time he murmured, Il
should like to see this spirit
The sergeant shrugged. 1t was plain
from his expression that he could not
account for such a desire. Another
night is coming" said he.
Good. l shall visit the place, and if
1 see anything unusual I-well, l snail
believe what you have told me. Mean
while go see your priest. by all means.
1t will do you no harm.
XVI
HOW CoBo STOOD ON HIS HEAD
All that day. or during most of it.
at least, Rosa and O'Reilly sat hand in
hand, obvious of hunger and fatigue.
impatient for the coming of night,
keyed to the highest tension. Now
they would rejoice Historically, assur-
ing each other of their good fortune,
again they would grow Sick with the
fear of disappointment. Time after
time they stepped out of the hut and
stared apprehensiveiy up the slopes of
La Cumbre to assure themselves that
this was not all part of some fantas-
tic illusion: over and over, in minutest
detail, Johnnie described what he had
seen at the bottom of the we'll He
~ he
noon to sleep, but he could not, for the
moment he closed his eyes he found
himself back there in that pit upon the
ridges crest, straining at those stub
born rocks and slippery tirlbers. This
inaction was naddening. his fatigue
rendered him feveriSh and irritable.
Jacket, too. felt the stran, and after
several fruitless attempts to sleep he
rose and went out into the sunshine,
where he fell to whetting his knife. He
finished putting double edge upon
the blade, fitted a handle to it, and then
a cord with which to suspend 1t round
his neck. He showed it to O'Reilly.
and after receiving a word of praise he
crept outdoors again and tried to for
get how sick he was. Black spots
were dancing before Jackets eyes; he
experienced spells of dizziness and
nausea during which he dared not at
tempt to walk. He knew this must be
the result of starvation. and yet,
strangely enough, the thought of food
was distasteful to him. He 6evoutly
wished it were not necessary to climb
that hill again. for he feared he would
not have the strength to descend il.
Lucky for the sake of the secret,
Evangelina spent most of the day
searching for food, while Asensio lay
babbling upon his bed, too i'll to notice
the peculiar actions of his companions.
1t was with strange. nightmare
feeling of unreality that the trio drag
ged themseles upward to the ruined
quinta when darkness finally came.
They no longer talked, for conversation
was a drain upon their powers. and the
reaction from the days excitement had
set in. O'Reilly lurched as he walked,
his limbs were heavy, and his liveliest
sensa ton was one of dread at the hard
work in store for him. The forcing of
that door assumed the proportions OF a
Herculean task.
But orr e he was at the bottom of the
well and beheld the handiwork of Sc
baStian, the slave, just as he had left
il, his sense of reality returned and
with it a certain measure of determine
ton. Inasmuch as he had made no Wis
ible impression upon the bulkhead by
his direct attack. he changed his tao
ties now and undertook to loosen one of
the lambs where it was wedged into
the rock at top and bottom. After a
desperate struggle he succeeded in
loosening the entire structure so that
he could pry it out far enough to
squeeze his body through.
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