The Pulaskian., 1921-03-03
Good. senor I will go.n

Good. senor; will gO."
 She drew her hand away. and he knew she was gone, although no move ment of her figure could be distin- guished Shelby swung the bag of provisions again to his shoulder. and began feeling his way blindly forward. He had retained the knife, with which he had effected escape from the cabin, and although the point of the blade had been broken, he did not feel entirely unarmed There was no pos sibilfty for him to lose the way, the unbr0ken walls shutting him tightly in, so that even the star-decked sky was invisible, while the path he must follow led almost dizzily upward. It was boulder-strewn. and he fell twice. yet toiled steadily on. never permit ting his hand to leave the guidance of the wall to the right, and carefully testing the placing of each foot in fear of some pitfall. He could neither judge time nor distance. yet it was long before light came into the sky. when ne finally clambered over a rock barrier across the path, and came upon a shelf of stone the left wall of this strange cavern abruptly disap- bearing. Fearful of what precipice might yawn there, as soon as he again attained his feet Shelby flattened him self against the one rock front remain ing, scarcely daring to venture for ward more than an inch or SO at a time 4 few feet brought him to the caves mouth. mere hole, scarcely wide or high enough to receive his body He explored the black interior to the length of his arms, finding if larger within than at the entrance She Insisted there was no danger and the silence seemed 10 prove the place contained no inhabitant. Doubtless the open shelf of rock would be ex- posed to view from the valley below with the first flush of day To avoid discovery he must creep in out of sight
 This was accomplished without diff ffculty. the floor being fairly level and the roof rising so that he could almost stand erect. Shelby explored every inch of the space knife i'll hand, and not entirely satisfied until the task was completed Ii was only box of & place less than fifteen feet long, rnd perhaps half as wide, narrowing at the fop as though in some great cataclysm of past ages two masses of rock had been hurled together leaving this little jog between. IL was hot in there, and Shelby, dragging after him the bag of provisions. removed his coat. A few moments later he rolled it into the form of a pillow and lay down, staring up at the black vault.
 He could think now, recall all that had occurred so swiftly, and weave this and that together. He had acted recllesSy there was no doubt of that. No one but a blind fool would have ever ventured alone into this place to free a prisoner. He should have ridden to Ponca and called upon his friends for help perhaps he might even have been able to obtain the services of a troop of cavalrymen from the fort down below-the major knew him and would believe his story. Why hadn't he done this? Why had he been so rash, and bull-headed? The an- swer flashed into his mind as though some voice had spoken-it was love of Olga Carlyn! He knew it instant ly; made no further effort to deceive himself. Lying there in that black silence, staring blndly upward he saw the woman again as plainly as though in the fesh-saw her, and knew that he loved her. Her eyes smiled at him, with such wistfulnesss in their depths; there was nothing sullen about her ex- pression any longer; she was all wom- an, and-he loved her.
 He covered his eyes with an arm, and rolled over. God wasn't there anything he could do but wait? He felt wild to act; to accomplish some thing: to strike some definite blow in her behalf. His wife She was his wife-Olga Carlyn It meant much to him now. How deathly still it was; how terribly dark. He felt hot and stifled there in the cave. yet did not move. or change his position, and so he finally fell asleep.