Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-03-03
CHAPTER XVII.
OPEN DOOR.

lore UIlc SdlC, N1OAAOoAie
NV lifted his hand. Rubrlz at
once stepped up against the
wall. fattening himself
against it. There he waited while
Montana raped twice, paused, raped
twice again, and then three times,
rapidly and lightly
There was only moments pause,
and then a key was heard turning.
Great bolts slid back. one by one,
each making a light clanking sound
as it disengaged; and finally the
heavy door began to sag outwards. AS
it opened voices thrust out into the
night.
BE tender Andres"
BE kind, AndreS!"
BE STILL you fools!" painted quick,
harsh answer from close to the door.
1t yaWned wider until the lamplight
was glistening over the thick iron
plates which shod the inside of the
poStern. studded with the heads of a
hundred rivets big enough to have
been worked into the side OF the
mightiest of liners.
He who was thrusting the door open
could be seen at the same time. one OF
those men who are big from the waist
up and bowlegged beneath, the legs
bending as though to support and bal
ance more easily the top-heavy bulk
above.
He wore wrinkled cotton trousers,
but above the waist, where his body
became more important, his uniform
grew splendid, also, and wound up in
epauletted shoulders fit to have graced
a major. at the least. He wore at his
belt long sheathed knife and re-
volver, and he carried a rife slung
over his shoulder, for that was the
constant rule with all the men of that
wary old fox, Gen. Estrada
"Senorita-Rosita-my dear!" whis-
pered the painting voice of the SER
geant as he thrust himself at last
through the gap of the opening door
into the dark of the night outside.
''Where are you, my sacred beauty?"
The blow that fell on him made a
dull sound, because it struck on the
padding Of muscles just over the
juncture OF head and neck. Even
then, only the extraordinary flesh of
Sergt. Andres prevented him from sus-
tanning a fracture of the spinal COL
umn or the neck vertebrate, because
Rubriz had struck from the side and
with much enthusiasm.
Montana, gliding forward from the
opposite side, received the topping
weight In his arms and laid it in a
heap upon the ground.
We'll. close the door, at least" said
a voice inside the door, "or we'll have
to come and look out, Andres!"
We've counted to 10. and the door
Is still not closed. Poor Andres, is
this our fault or yours?"
The two began to laugh.
"Let me go first!" said one.
Keep back, you fool! I've started
already"
They came, Scuffling, and struck
their shoulders against the door, which
shuddered open with slight groan-
ing of the hinges. Into the widening
shaft of light which was allowed to
escape into the night in this manner,
stepped the masked face Of Montana,
with Rubriz scarcely behind him.
Their leveled revolvers drove the
soldiers back in confusion. But they
did not actually flee. Rubriz was
cursing them by all the names of his
favorite saints.
Run, you rats! Run, dog stealers!
Run, brindled sWine-and give me a
chance to Jump on you behind and
pull back your heads to cut your
Threats the better! Ay, run, fools!
Don't stand waiting!"
But they could not rum The husky
sobbing of his breath paralyzed them,
for he seemed like a man already
drinking blood.
Montana, unaided, lifted UP the
bulk of the fallen sergeant, dragged
him inside the door, and let his loos-
ened weight spill down on the floor.
Staring at him, he pulled the door
shut again to keep in the telltale,
broadening arm of light that advanced
into the darkness.
Montana stepped over him and
saw that Rubriz had turned his men
against the wall and had taken away
their weapons. He was rapidly tying
their wrists together.
One of the soldiers was only a boy
He began to weep in a small, weak
voice, getting out the name of a saint
or of Heaven every now and then.
Soldiers? I could make a better
soldier out of wet cornmeal!" said
RubriZ. Such men as these to be in
the uniforms of soldiers"
Gag EN-" said Montana, and set
to work.
The second soldier began to scream
He got out one half-breath of sound
before Rubriz beat out the voice with a
stroke of his fist and then began to
thrust a wadded piece of cloth be-
tween the teeth of the guard.
mot too deep and not too hard"
cautioned Montana. I'VE don't want
to have dead men behind us, amigo"
will you tell me how to gag a
man?" exclaimed Rubriz, angrily
Remember, Montana, that was gag
ging men while you were still in the
cradle, and have gagged them ever
since. If any man in the world has
the touch, I am he"
He finished trusting his man as he
spoke. They turned to the sergeant.
He was barely breathing. And because
of that, Montana took charge of the
gagging, making sure that the wad of
cloth was worked well inside the
mouth, but the tongue was not thrust
back into the throat, with a chance of
strangling poor Andres.
Now three soldiers Of Gen. Estrada
lay on their faces side by side, each
tied to the other. so that movement
H. R<-