HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1922-04-21, Page 7• APRIL P., 1922.
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... (Continued from last week.)
Mile Hope,' he answered, with
an effort to speak lightly, "I wish I
ould believe you, but I know myself
better than anyone else can, and I
know that .while my bridges may
stand examination—I Can't.'
Hope turned and looked at him With
eyes full of such sweet meaning that
be Was forced to turn ie own away.
"1 could trust both, 1 think," the
girl said.
Clay drew a quick, deep breath, and
started to hia feet, as though he had
throstn off the restraint under which
be had held himself.
It was not a girl, but a woman who
had spoken then, but, thougn he
turned eagerly toward her, he stood
with his head bowed, and did not dare
to read the verdict in her eyes.
The clatter of horses' hoofs coming
toward them at a gallop broke in rude-
ly upon the tense stillness of the mo-
ment, but neither noticed it. "How the men come, he would go out and
far," Clay began, in a strained voice, fetch them in himself."
"how far," he asked, more steadily, , "Indeed!" growled Clay. "Kirk -
'could you trust me?"
Hope's eyes had dosed for an in-
stant, and opened again, and she smil-
ed upon him with a look of perfect
confidence and content. The beat of
the horses' hoofs came now from the
end of the driveway, and they could
„hear the men at the rear of the house
pushing baok their chairs and hurry-
ing toward them. Hope raised her
41ea1, and Clay moved toward her eag-
erly. The horses were within a hun-
• dred yards. Before Hope could speak,
the sentry's voice rang out in a
hoarse, sharp challenge, like an alarm
of fire on the silent night. "Halt!"
they heard him cry. And as the
`horses tore past him, and their riders
did not turn to look, be shouted again
"Halt, damn you!" and fired. The
flash Showed a splash of red and yel-
low in the moonlight, and the report
started into life hundreds of echoes before him.
which carried lit far out over the wt- "Come inside," he said. "That is
ers of the harbor, and tossed it into why we are here. MacWilliams has
sharp angles, and distant corners, and found out where Burke hid bis ship -
in an instant a myriad of sounds an- ment of arms. We are going to try
swered it; the frightened cry of night- and get them to -night." He hurried
birds, the barking of dogs in the vil- into the dining -room, and the others
lage below, and the footsteps of men vouped themselves about the table.
running. "Tell them about ttc, MacWilliams,"
Clay glanced angrily down tlhe ave- Stuart commanded. "I will see that
nue, and turned beseechingly to Hope. no one overhears you."
"Go," she said. "See what is MacWilliams was pushed into Mr.
wrong," and moved away as though. Langham's place at the head of the
she alread felt that be could act more long table, and the others dragged
freely when she was not near him. their chairs up close around him.
The two *horses fell back on their King put the candles at the opposite
'haunches before the steps, and Mac- end of the table, and set some de -
Williams and Stuart tumbled out of canters and glasses in the centre.
their saddles, and started, running "To look as though we were just en -
back on foot in the direction from joying ourselves," he maplained, pleas -
which the shot had come, tugging antly.
at their revolvers. Mr. Langham, with his fine, deli -
"Came back,' Clay shouted to them. cate fingers beating nervously on the
"That's all right. He was only obey- table, observed the scene as an on-
ing orders. That's one of King's sen- looker, rather than as the tper4i-n
tries." chiefly interested. He smiled as he
"Oh, is that it?" said Stuart, in appreciated the incongruity a the
matter-of-fact tones, as he turned a- tableau, and the contrast which the
gain to the house "Good idea. Tell actors presented to the situation. He
hint to fire lower next time. And, I imagined how much it would amuse
say,'" he went on, as he bowed curtly his contemporaries of the Union
to the assembled company on the Club, at home, if they could see him
veranda, "since }au have got a pick- then, with the still, tropical night
et out, you had better double it. And, outside, the candles reflected on the
Clay, see that no one heaves here polished table and on the angles of
without permission—no one. That's the decanters, and showing the in -
more important, even, than keeping tent faces of the young girls and the
them out.' men leaning eagerly forward around
"King, will you—" Clay began. MaoWilliams, who sat conscious and
"All right, General," laughed King, embarrassed, his hair dishevelled,and
and walked away to 'meet his safilons, his face covered with dust, while
who came running up the kiln in Stuart paced up and down in the
great „enxiety. shadow, his sabre clanking as he
MacWilliams had not opened his walked,
lips, but be was bristling with im- "Well, it happened like this," Mac-
partance, and his effort to appear Williams began, nervously, ,and ad -
calm and soldierly, like Stuart, told dressing himself to Clay. "Stuart
more plainly than speech that he was and I put Burke safely in a cell by
the bearer of same invaluable secret. himself. It was one of the old ones
The sight filled young Langham with that face the street. There was a
a disquieting fear that he had miss- narrow window in It, about eight feet
ed something. above the floor, and no means of his
Stuart looked about him, and pull- reaching 'it, even if he stood on a
ed -briskly at his gauntlet.. King chair. We stationed two troopers
and his sailors were grouped together before the door, and sent out to a
on se grass before the 'house. Mr.
Laugh= and hia daughters, and Clay
were standing on the steps, and the
servants were peering around the
COI/10119 of the house.
Stuart saluted Mr. Langham, es
though to attract his especial atten-
tion, and then addressed himself in a
tow tone to Clay.
"It's come;" he said. "We've been
in it since dinner -time, and we've got
a whole night's work cut out for
you." He was laughing with excite-
ment, and paused for a moment to
gain breath. "IT tell you the worst
of it first. Mendoza has sent word
to Alvarez that he wants the men at
the mines to be present at the re-
view to -morrow. He says they must
take part He wrote a most insolent
letter. Alvarez got out of it by say-
ing that the men were under con-
tract to you, and that you must give
your permission first. Mendoza sent
me word that if you would not let
land needs those men to -morrow to
load ore -ears for Thursday's steam-
er. He can't spare them. That is
our answer, and it happens to be a
true one, but if it weren't true, if
to -morrow was All Saints' Day, and
the men 'had nothing to do but to lie
in the sun and sleep, Mendoza couldn't
get them. And be comes to take
them to -morrow, 'hell have to bring
his army with him to do it. And he
couldn't do at then, Mr. Langham,"
Clay cried, turning to that gentleman
"if I had bebter weapons. The five
thousand .dollars I wanted elm to
spend on rifles, air, two :months ago,
might have saved you several mil-
lions to -morrow."
.Clay's words seemed to bear some
special significance to Stuart and
MacWilliams, for they both 'laughed,
and Stuart pushed Clay up the steps
" Stuart intermitted himself I must eels you tor 00010 room mon
"Stake adds," be wwit on, from the yacht liowmany We, The Only Nifty
a' 'they ere -to make no effort to you?"
rescue him, as it• is quite comfort- King *powered that there were 4
Able, and le witlinfl-ta remain the fifteen T130* kill 04 board, ten 14
To Test Tea is to Taste it.
cereal tuitS they ere established whom 'would be of envies.
power'" ed that they were ell well equipped
emeLeire.d Clay' "There are no c4°- "I believe King's a pirate to
trains' but ours. It must be along neon hours," Clay said, smiling. "All
the line of the rOsid." r ht, that's good. /Now go telt ten
"MacWilliams won he knows every
foot of land Wang the railroad," said
Stuart, and he is sure the place
Burke means de the old fortress on
the ‘Piatta inlet, because --.""11 is the only place," interrupted
MacWilliams, "where there is 130
surf. They could run small boats up
the inlet and unload in smooth wa-
ter within twenty feet of the ram-
parts; and another Shing, that is the
only point on the line with a wagon
ad direct front it to the
fiwithi4 gig* of the ore-trainel" for fighting.
cafe across the street for our dinners.
I finished mine about nine o'clock,
and said `Good -night' to Stuart, and
started to come out here. I went
aeroes' the street first, however, to
give the restaurant man some orders
about Burke's breakfast. It is a
narrow street, you know, with a long
garden -wall and a row of little Shops
on one side, and with the jail -wall
taking up all of the other aide. The
street was empty when I left the jail
except for the sentry on guard in -
front of it, but just as I was leaving
the restaurant I saw one of Stuart's
police come out and peer up and down
the street and over at the shops. He
looked frightened and anxious, and
as I wasn't taking chances on any-
thing, I stepped back into the res-
taurant and watched him through the
window. Be waited until the sentry
lied turned his back, and started a-
way from him on his post, and Oxen
I saw him drop his sabre so that
it rang on the sidewalk. He was
standing, I noticed then, directly un-
der the third window from the door
of the jail. That was the window
of Burke's cell. When I grasped that
fact I got out my gun and walked
to the door af the restaurant. Just
as I reached it a piece of paper shot
out through the bars of Burke's cell
and fell at the policeman's feet, and
he stamped 'his boot down on it and
looked all around again to see if any
one had noticed him. I thought that
was my cue, and I ran across the
street with my gam pointed, and
shouted to him to give me the paver.
He jumped about a foot when he first
saw me, but, he was game, for 'he
grabbed up the paper and stuck it
in his mouth and began to dhew on
it. was right up on -him then, and
I hit him on the chin with my left
fist and knocked him down against
the wofil, and dropped on him with
both knees and choked him till I
made him spit out tlhe paper—and
two teeth," M-acWilliams added, with
a conscientious regard for details.
"The sentry turned just then and
came at me with his bayonet, but 1
put my finger to my lips, and that
surprised him, so that he didn't know
just what to do, and hesitated. You
see, I didn't want Burke to hear the
row outside, so I grabbed -my police-
man by the collar and pointed to the
jail -door, and the sentry fan back
and brought out Stuart and the
guard. Stuart was pretty mad when
he saw his policeman all bloody. He
thought it would prejudice his other
men against us, but I explained out
loud that the man had been insoleryt,
and I asked Stuart to take us both
to his private ropm for a hearing,
and, of course, when 1 told him what
had happened, he wanted to punch
the chap, too. We put him ourselves
into a cell where he could not com-
municate with any one, and then we
read the paper. Stuart has it," said
MacWilliams, pushing back his chair,
"and he'll tell you the rest." There
was a pause, in which every one
seemed to take time to breathe, and
then a chorus of questions and ex-
planat'ions. King lifted his glass to
MacWillienis, and nodded.
"'Well done, Condor,'" -he quoted
smiling.
"Yes," said Clay, tapping the
younger man on the -shoulder as he
passed him. "That's good work.
Now show us the paper, Stuart"
Stuart pulled the candles toward
him, and spread a slip of paper on
the table.
"Burke did this up in one of those
paper boxes for wax matches," he
explained, "and weighed it with a
twenty -dollar gold piece. MacWil-
liams kept the gold piece, I believe."
"Going to use it for a scarf -pin,"
explained MacWilliams, in paren-
thesis. "Sort of war -medal, like the
Chief's," he added, sm.iling.
"This is in Spanish," Stuart ex-
plained. "I will translate it. It is
not addressed to any one, and it is
not signed, but it was evidently writ-
ten to Mendoza, and we know it is
in Burke's handwriting, for we com-
pared it with some notes of his that
we took from him before he was
lacked up. He says, 'I cannot keep
the appointment, as I have been ar-
rested.' The line that follows here,''
Stuart explained, raising his head,
"has -been scratched nut, but we spent
some -time over it, and we made out
that it read: 'It was Mr. Clay who
recognized me, and ordered my ar-
rest. He is the best man the others
have. Watch him.' We think he
rubbed that out through good feeling
toward Clay. There seems to be no
other reason. He's a very good sort,
this old Burke, I think."
"Well, never mind him; it was
very decent of -him, anyway," said
Clay. "Go on. Get to Hecuba."
"'I cannot keep the appointment,
AS I have been arrested,' repeated
Stuart. "'1 landed the goods last
night in safety. I could not come in
when first signalled, as the wind and
tido were both off shore. But we
got all the stuff -stored away by
morning. Your agent paid me in
full and got my receipt. 1Please
consider this as the same thing—as
the equivalent'—it is difficult to
translate it exactly," commented
Stuart—" 'as the equivalent of the
receipt I was to have given when I
made my report tonight. I sent
three of your guards away on my
own responsibility, for I think more
than that number might attract at-
tention to the spot, and they might
be seen from time wt. -trains.' That
la the point of the -note for us, of
;re running
Capital. It's an old road, and hasn't
been travelled over ,for years, but It
could be used. No," he added, aa
though answering the doubt in Clay's
mind, "there is no other place. 1f I
had a map here 1 could show you in
a minute; where the beach is level
there is a jungle between it and the
road, and whereverthere is itopen
country, there is a limestone forma-
tion and rocks between it and the
sea, where no -boat could touch."
"But the fortress is so conspicu-
ous," Clay demurred; "the nearest
rampart is within twenty feet of the
road Don't you retruunher we mea-
AIMMI=E•M•IEM.
sured it when we thought of laying
the double track?"
"That is just -what Burke says,"
urged Stuart. "That is the reason
he gives for leaving only three men
on guard—'I think more than that
iumber might attract attention :to the
spot, as they might 10 seen from the
ore -trains.'"
"Have you told any one of thi ?"
Clay asked. "What have you d e
so far?"
"We've done nothing," said Stuar
"We lost our nerve when we foun
out how much we knew, and we de-
cided we'd better leave it to you."
"Whatever we do must be done at
once," said Clay. "They will come
for the arms to -night, most likely,
and we must be there first_ I agree
with you entirely about the place. It
is only a question now of our being
on time. There are two things to do.
The first thing is, to keep them from
getting the arms, and the second is,
if we are lucky, to secure them for
ourselves. If we can pull it off
properly, we .ought to have those
rifles in the -mines before midnight.
If we are hurried or ..urprised, we
must dump thein off the fort into
the sea." Clay laughel and looked
about him at the men. "We are only
following out General Bolivar's say-
ing 'When you want arms take them
from the enemy.' 'Now, there are
three places we must cover. This
house, first of all," he went on, in-
clining his head 'quickly toward the
two sisters, "then the city, and the
mines. Stuart's place, of course, is
at the Palace. King roust take care
of this house and those in it, and
MacWilliams and Langham ,and I
must look after the arms. We must
organize two parties, and they bad
better approach the fort from here
and from the mines at the same
time. I will need you to do some
o thero to meet me at the rou -
house in halt an hour. I will get
MacWilliams to telegraph Kirkland
to run an engine and at tars to
within a half mile of the fort on the
north, and we will Come .up on it
with the sailors and Ted, here, from
the south. You •must run the en -
pine yourself, MacWilliams, and per-
haps it would he better, King, if
your inen joined us at the foot of
the grounds here and not at the
round -house. None of the workmen
must see our party start. Iio you
agree with me?" he asked, turning
to those in the group about him.
"Has anybody any 'criticism to
'make?"
Stuart and King looked at one
another ruefully and laughed. "I
don't see what good I am doing in
town," proteeted• Stuart. "Yes, and
I don't see where 1 come in, either,"
growled King, in aggrieved tones.
'"These youngsters can't do it all ;
besides I ought to have charge of
my awn men."
"Mutiny," said Clay, in some
plexity, "rank mutiny. Why,
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WINNIPEG SASKATOON PRINCE RUPERT
BRANDON CALGARY VANCOUVER
REGINA EDMONTON VICTORIA
AND ALL WESTERN POINTS
CHOICE OF • ROUTES
Leave Toronto 845 pm. daily, Standard Sleeping car Toronto to
Winnipeg via North Bay and Cochrane. Through Tourist Sleeping
car Toronto to Winnipeg on Tuesdays. Thursdays, Saturdays and
Sundays.
Leave Toronto 10.35 p.m, "The National" Mondays. Wednesdays
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with Standard and Tourist Sleeping cars, Coaches. Colonist car and
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C. ABERHART, Agent, Seaforth, Ont.
Canadian National Railways
telegraphing for me, Mac; and, King,
per -
it's
Natural Loaf Green rem is proving
users of japans. , 144
TRY IT-YOIJ LIKE IT -
rsvelphtion to those who Immo been
only a picnic. There are but three
men there. We don't need sixteen
white men to frighten off three
Olanclioans."
tell you what to do," cried
Hope, with the air of having discov-
ered a plan which would be accept-
able to every one, "let's all go."
"Well, I certainly mean to go," said
Mr. Langham, decidedly. "So some
one else must stay here. Ted, you
will have to look after your sisters."
The son and heir smiled upon his
parent with a look of affectionate
wonder, and shook his head at him
in fond and pitying disapproval.
said "Ins, or bove
never seen such ungallant tiondont.
Ladies," he said, MI will protect yOnr
lives and property. and well invent
something exciting to do ourselves,
even if we have to .bonsbard the Cs*
tal."
The men bade the women good.
night, and left them with King anil
Mr. Langham, who had bean penmell.
ed to remain overnight, while Btu.
art rode off toacquaint Alvarez and
General Rojas with what was going
on.
Continued next week.
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