Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-06-25

The intensely hot, humid day made
the walls reek with stencil from the
insanitary conditions which always
prevail in prisons, no matter how we'll
cleaned.
The food was unspeakable; the wa.
ter insufficient and unpalatable.
Buck Williams and Jitendra jointly
occupied black, fetid hole on the
level of the street. 1t opened on the
corridor. not far from the main gate.
A soldier in the passage guarded
them, Notwithstanding the thick earth
en- walls, with oak doors, traversed by
heavy bars of wrought iron, which, Of
themselves, were certainly capable Of
OBTAINING two men without tools to
burrow or gnaw through them.
The American had not willingly en-
tered the cell.
In fact, he had strenuOusly objected.
In terse Spanish idiom he demanded
to be first taken before the jefe po-
litico, an official corresponding to a
circuit judge in his own country.
His demand was ignored. Then the
tiger in him boned up. His hands had
been unbound after the main gate Of
the prison closed behind him. With
characteristic, desperate courage, Buck
hurled himself on a soldier and seized
his weapon.
But the others, with sinister de-
liberation, considering the mine own
er's preconceived theory that some
mysterious and malign influence was
behind his seizure, covered him-and
they were twelve to one.
For a moment the foul atmosphere
of the carcel was surcharged with an
impending tragedy.
Buck, glazing with malevolent eyes
into the faces of his guards, knew that
he could never hope to leave that hor-
rible hole alive if he persisted in his
frantic impulse to force his way out
against such odds.
A curious sense of helplessness over"
whelmed him; his strength seemed to
be ebbing away. He paused, irreso-
lutely, unheeding the sharp command
of the captain of the guard to surren-
der.
Jitendra, impressive as a sphinx,
stood aside, but the glitter of his shy,
brown eyes showed that no detail Of
the scene before him was unnoticed.
The rifle ratified to the earth at Bucks
feet.
He turned at the imperative gesture
Of the commanding officer and meekly
entered the cell toward which he and
Jitendra had been walking. Inside the
cell, once the door closed behind them,
the light was dim.
Jitendra submissively seated himself
cross-legged in one corner and re-
NAMED utterly silent. The American,
inwardly raging at his own unaccount-
able surrender and the memory of the
injustice to which he had been subject
ed, paced up and down, true to his
designation Of "El Tigre."
The Hindu looked at him calmly.
"Sahib Buck wishes to leave this
placer"
Leave it?' roared the American.
did try to break into it?"
He loOsened the collar of his shirt
and mopped the perspiration from his
neck. The foul apology for air was
Suffocating.
"See here, Jitendra, do you want to
help me get out?"
"AssUredly, sahib.'
"Then get up, go to the door. and
demand that the British ambassador
be notified of your arrest. When you
get out, as you surely will, send tele-
gram to William Scott, International
hotel, Nogales, Arizona, u. S. A., tell
ing him I'm here. That may help lit
tie. There's something going on here
that don't understand at all, Jitendra.
/ didn't ask you to come with mel
did the best could to get you to go on
about your own business. So there's
no reason at all for you to be locked
up, and if there's any why / should
be. / want to know it J"
"Do you, indeed?"
Buck leaped toward the sound and
peered through the tiny, grated orifce
in the iron-bound oak door. The query
was in English, but it carried a mock
ing sneer which worked the mine own
err into a new frenzy.
Continued next week.