Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-06-18

TO his coffee pot. An hour afterward
he stopped his horse at the fringe of
the timber-line of the Chirachaua
range and swept the arid hills be-
meath with his binoculars.
There was no sign of the Hindu nor
of any other living human being. With
a grunt of relief he spurred up the
trail
Nine days later, unutterably weary,
astride a horse whose painful amble
and emaciated ribs signified an exhaus-
ton prOpOrtionate to that Of his rider,
Buchanan Williams drew rein in the
thick group Of pines overlooking Ell
Tigre camp, where it chung to the side
of a precipitous ravine in the majes-
tic mountains of the coast range.
The pack burro had long since been
an abandoned luxury.
A few hundred feet below was the
treasure which had been hidden in
natures safe-depOsit vault since the
dawn of creatiOn-undreamed of, until
his supreme engineering knowledge
and superb energy had reached down
to drag it to the light of day.
"H'm!' muttered Williams, as he
carefully scanned the camp through
his glass for signs of hidden enemies.
Manuel and his friends seem to have
other business than running Eel Tigre
just now, at least. Wonder if ScOtty
was wrong?"
He gave a little chortle of satisfac-
tiOn as the glass focused on the door
to the underground bullion house and
supply chamber. 1t was married and
battered, but evidently it had resisted
the efforts of the pillagers to enter it.
"Not so easy to bore through steel
reinforced concrete" laughed the
weary man. Lucky / followed my
bunch and stuck those WORKOUT mine
rails into the cement mixture when |
hung that door. Well, I've got to take
a chance, suppose, and I'd better take
it in daylight than after dark. There's
some canned stuff inside my cellar, and
I guess it won't taste so awful bad
after diet of frijOles and berries. Ii
PachecO and his gang do sWOop down
on me, / might make stand in the
bullion-vault until they starve me out,
anyway
He rode fearlessly down the narrow
path with the quiet pOise Of man who
is willing to risk all for the thing his
brain has built and his hands secured.
The cluster of misunderstanding min
ers cabins on both sides of the road
up which supplies were brought from
Culiacan, fifty odd miles to the west,
almost unnerved him.
His horse SHE'D violently; something
quivered in the bushes on his right.
Williams glimpsed at the half-naked
brown body and covered it with his
pistol while he steadied the fright
ened animal with his other hand.
The bushes parted.
Out upon the fiat rock, within
dozen feet of the alarmed American,
poked a turbaned head, beneath which
a thin, worn, ascetic face smiled into
the muzzle of the ready weapon.
"Good morning, Sahib Buck piped
the diminutive figure as it squatted
weakly upon the slab of fire-bitten
granite, gazing into the amazed and
plying eyes of Ell Tigre's owner.
Buck Williams could not at once re-
ply.
He was fascinated by the rapt look
upon Jitendra's features-an ecstatic
CLEAN, such as a follower of Moham-
med might wear when he at last be-
holds the shimmering minarets Of
Mecca shining brightly across the hot
sands, signifying the end of his pill
grimage.
Continued next week.