The Adair County news., 1919-07-16

rnetspOt IN the panenng where announce
thumb had pressed.
There was little click, and the pan
ell slid back into the wall, showing
narrow doorway, narrow passageway
beyond. There were candles burning
there, their steady flames casting
clear, yellow light.
each man keep three feet behind
the man in front of him." whispered
Stairway. 1--WE must have room.
Vidal, GauchO, come just behind me-"
He stepped through the door into
the twO-foot wide hallway which ran
along inside the wall, it's trend east
ward and downward. There were ne
steps, but the slant led quickly under
the foundations of the great adobe
building.
Stairway passed the first candle set
into a .liche in the rough wood wall.
Already he felt that he must be below
the level of the floor when he came to
the second candle. Here the flame
was less steady, little breath of air
playing with it.
He turned a corner, the hallway
opened up suddenly into a small,
rOugh-walled room some eight or ten
feet square.
Across the room was heavy barred
door; in the center of the floor was a
couch. and on the couch man was
lying upon his back, his hands clasped
behind his head, a cigarette between
his lips.
Stairway was in the room, nOiseless
in his stOckinged feet, Vidal at his
side. GauchO was entering when the
man heard, turned quickly, and saw
them. He sprang to his feet.
But the cry rising to his lips was
choked back in his throat by the hard
hands of the rancher. The struggle
ended almost as soon as it began.
But some sound of the brief scuffle
must have penetrated to the other side
of the oak door. Before the rest of
tie room the door had been jerked
open, a dark, bearded face showed at
the crack.
There was a snarled curse, the door
slammed shut, and there was the sound
of other bars lifted across it upon the
other side.
"Your axes I" shouted Stairway,
leaping to one side to make room.
"Vidal, you take one. Get it down.
| quick!"
Bul, even to the attack of the great
arms of Vidal and another of the cow
boys, the great thick door stood defiant
as the swift seconds fled by. From
| the other side came the sound of quick,
swapping voices, of scurrying feet, the
sound of a cry which tingled through
| Stanway's blood and sent Vidal with
redOubled vigOr to the onslaught on
| the door.
At last the door fell. Stairway and
Vidal side by side, leaped through.
| There was another hall, wider than
the first. shorter. AT the end of the
he'll another door, studded with nails,
barred upon the farther side.
Evidently there had been a second
&u2rd here, evidently in the next room
were the prisoners.
''De la GuerraI" shouted Stairway.
Teresa ~
There was no answer, no sound.
Smash in the door, he yelled.
Quick! GauchO, go upstairs. Tell
them what has happened. Let them
watch out. Order the first man who
appears to be shot if he makes move
toward a gun or to escape. Run.
| GauchO"
Before GauchO had turned to obey,
before StanWay's echoing words sank
into silence, there came from beyond
the door an exclamation of terror, a
sudden cry, and the reverberating
crack of q revolver.
Then brief silence again for mo-
ment which seemed 10, z, and the blows
of two axes, ripping and tearing at the
oak planks of the door.