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Show Dice of gj Jacksprv6 JfM 1 OlMOtW J COPYRIGHT J CJi-J CHAPTER X Continued. 9 It seeemed to him that suddenly it had grown cold there in De la Guer-ra's Guer-ra's bedroom. He shivered, and, taking up his candle, went his way back through the drawing room, with no word to Torre, with no glance even, for he feared that now he could not let his eyes go to the handsome, evil face and keep his hand back, and at last to Pedro's bedside. Pedro, waiting for him Impatiently, tried to lift himself upon an elbow, and falling in that turned his bright black eyes upon thet American. "What did she say, Josefa?" he asked quickly. "It is the master's key?" "Yes, Pedro," answered Stanway dispiritedly. "But what Is the use? She does not know what door It opens." "But I know !" said Pedro brightly. "You know !" Stanway laid his hand on the wounded man's arm. "Tell me. Quick !" "When the master was young he lived in Spain, where the old master, his father, sent him to go to school. In the home there, builded of stones like an old castle, senor, was a room where many times he was locked up by his tutor because he was wild and did not fall in love with his books. I have heard him laugh and tell about it to the padre from La Panza. When he came away he brought the key to that prison room with him. That is the key you have, senor!" Stanway looked at the man with swift suspicion. Pedro seemed excited ex-cited over the key ; a look of great shrewdness was in his eyes, and the key unlocked a door in Spain! If he "V . was becoming delirious "I am not In a fever, senor," said Pedro quickly, seeing the thought in the American's eyes. "But that key tells me something. Every night before be-fore going to my bed I go to the master's mas-ter's room to see if he wishes anything, any-thing, to take any commands for the next day. I went last night after it was late, Just before I went to the senorlta's door. It was habit, senor. I could not have gone to, sleep unless I went there." "Well?" sharply. "I heard a little sound. It was the scratching of a window shade. I went, closed the window, and locked it tightly. And while looking for the sound I saw the key in its place. It ' V was there at eleven o'clock last night, Ysenor." "You are sure, Pedro? You are very certain that this key was in the master's room at eleven o'clock?" "Very certain, senor." "Then But it is impossible, Pedro Pe-dro I You say that you locked the windows? All of them?" "All, senor." "And the door as you came out?" "I locked, senor. The key was under un-der my bed. I gave it to you just now. And there is only one key upon the rancho only one in the world which will unlock it !" "But then It is impossible!" Stanway, restless, upon his feet, strode back and forth, frowning. If the key had been there last night, if door and windows had been locked, if they had been locked when he went to the room then how could one of the men who attacked Pedro have had it In his hand at three o'clock In the morning? "You mean," he said slowly, coming com-ing back to the bedside, "that the attack at-tack upon you and Celestino was made by men who are among the house servants or the De la Guerra vaqueros?" "No, senor." There was no hesitation hesi-tation the voice was confident. "The men wore handkerchiefs about their faces, but I know that they were not of our men. They were strangers to me." "But," cried Stanway, "how could such a thing be? How could they have gotten into the master's room? Then how could they have gotten to the sonorlta's room without some one of our men seeing them? And why should they have brought the key?" "The key Is heavy, good to strike a hard blow," replied Pedro. "If a man had lost his knife and needed a weapon he might take it. No, senor." "But how " Stanway broke off, his eyes ran from Pedro's face to sweep the room, a sudden light came into them, and the blood ran Into his face. "My God." he cried, "I see it !" "You are wiser than T. senor." Te-dro Te-dro smiled contentedly and closed his eyes, looking very pale and weak. "You will let me have news when there is anything, senor? I could get well quickly with good news." Stanway promised, toek Pedro's hand qi'' turned :r,iu lu;r. ed cu; of the room. His step was quick, his eyes very bright. "I understand now Torre's signal on the window,".he- muttered as he went. "And by heaven, how blind I was ! I know what he meant when he said he was taunting a man whom he did not like! It's the boldest game a man ever played!" CHAPTER XI. "You Have Overplayed Your Hand." "I am afraid that I have been indiscreet, indis-creet, Senor Stanway." Torre, with his old smile charged now with something some-thing of mockery and much of triumph, held out a little piece of white paper to Stamway, who, key in hand, had just come from Pedro on his way to the master's room. "But I think that I can plead an altogether unusual position po-sition as my excuse. You will pardon me, senor?" Stanway took the paper, guessing what it was, and read it swiftly : Mi Querido Senor Billy: To save papa grande, to save me from all that is horrible, there is no way but to do what Torre asks. In grandfather's room, behind the great mahogany bed. there is a painting on the wall. There is a spot in the woodwork, three feet from the floor, ten from the northwest corner, where you must press with your finger. It will disclose the banco. Give him the money for the sake of Your Teresa. "You will pardon my having read it?" again smilingly from Torre. "Where did you get this thing?" cried Stanway. Torre pointed to the window, whose panes he had broken just before three o'clock. "There. On the floor. Some one threw it in on the floor while you were running so giddily across the border. You see this is very well planned, senor. Is it not? Even my lieutenants lieuten-ants " j "If I do not do as she asks?" cut In Stanway, his low-lidded eyes sharp upon up-on Torre's. Torre shrugged. "Who knows? Perhaps they will take the trouble, to find a priest to give the senorlta iri holy matrimony to " In sudden rage Stanway, his nerves jangling, his rage reddening his face, leaped at the man, and as he leaped struck, struck hard his hard, clenched fist smashing into the evil smile, cutting cut-ting the lips so that the blood ran from them, sending Torre reeling backward across the roam. "Shut up!" he cried hoarsely. "You mention the senorita once more and " His teeth closed with a little ominous omi-nous click. Torre, wiping the blood from his Hps, glaredat him with a boundless, almost speechless, rage. "Coward !" he sneered. "Since I am a prisoner, with a haf dozen men ready to spring upon rue, you attack me " ' "Gaucho !" called Stanway. "Si, senor!" Gaucho's brown face brightening, his eyes looking happier than they had looked for two days. "Do not interfere. Do not let your men take hand, no matter what happens." hap-pens." Then he swung about upon Torre. "Do you want to finish it now?" he said curtly. But Torre was once more himself, smiling, at ease, only a fierce hatred in hl3 eyes. "Gracias, seuor I" he returned. "I shall merely make you pay for that blow in my own way. And now 1 ask another ten thousand dollars as ransom ran-som for the old man and the girl. Ten thousand dollars for a blow, senor! Do you care to strike again?" Stanway shrugged. "You have overplayed your hand, Torre," he said quietly. "This note from the senorita makes me sure of what I was beginning to suspect. Gaucho, come with me." With no further word, leaving Torre's mystified face looking after him, he went out, Gaucho at his heels. "Gaucho," he said, speaking swiftly from beyond the closed door, "I want you to come to the master's room. Bring some men with you six, ten I don't know how many we shall need. Let two of them bring axes. Let all carry side arms. Bring the picked men. Gaucho; the hardest men on the rancho. I think that there is going to be fighting this time." "The master?" cried Gaucho. "The senorita? You know " "I know nothing. But I think that they have never for a second left the house! Hurry, Gaucho!" And Gaucho hurried, his own face as mystified as Torre's. Stanway wont quickly to the bedroom. "Somewhere in these great thick walls there is a passageway." he whispered whis-pered to himself. "It runs from this room throughout the house and to the east wing where Teresa's rooms are. "Somewhere, down below perhaps, there is a remi, a dungeon. I tiiink tit.;; it is je.; under the dre.wir room; I think that that is where De la Guerra Is; that many of the things which Torre said were meant to be heard by the old man that they might taunt and mock hira ; I think that Torre's men down there heard the crashing glass, the words which went with it. I think that we are going to find De la Guerra and Teresa there." He studied the walls. There was nothing to hint at a secret door. He moved out the bed, found the spot which Teresa's note told of, set his thumb to it, and saw a panel drop down, shelfwise, showing a great Iron safe set in the wall. The safe was locked, the key missing. But he knew that he had found De la Guerra's bank. He closed the panel swiftly as Gaucho and his men came to the door. "Que es, senor?" Gaucho asked quickly. And the black eyes of the dark-faced men thronging behind him eager, expectant told as well as words that Gaucho had whispered to his men that the Americano had a plan, that hope lay behind it. "Come in, Gaucho. Shut the door. How many men?" They entered as he spoke. He counted count-ed as the last man closed the door behind be-hind him. "Ten, senor. Five more are coming." com-ing." "And" sternly "you can vouch for them, for all of them? You can trust every man to the uttermost, Gaucho?" "To the uttermost, senor," as sternly. stern-ly. "To the death In the service of the master and" his voice breaking a little "the senorita." "And the other five?" "The same." "Good ! This Is my plan. Come close, all of you." , He addressed them in Spanish, speaking swiftly, his voice lowered so that the men must crane their necks and lean forward to hear. He told them of his hope that those they sought had never been taken out of the hacienda. "Now," he ended, "there is no doubt a passageway running from here to the senorita's rooms. If we find this end of it and attack they may escape at the other end. So we must be ready. "Gaucho, send two men into the senorita's rooms. Let them be ready. armed and watchful. Send two more to the stairway. Let Torre and Juarez lie bound and watched over by one man only, a man whom you can trust and who will blow their brains out before be-fore he lets them escape." "Let every other man in the housj be armed and ready. Then " "Then, senor?" eagerly. "Then" with quiet determination "we shall find where the passage is if we have to tear down the walls. Hurry, Gaucho!" Gaucho ran upon his errand, calling by name the men he wished to go with him. Stanway, bidding those with him to be very silent, not knowing what means the men he sought might have of overhearing what happened in the room, began a silent search for some sign of a passageway In the thick walls. And now at last fate and the quick eyes of a vaquero aided him. There was a little scratch on th? redwood of the wall just opposite the door through which they had entered, a fresh white scratch. . It was Mendoz, a young Mexican, who saw it ; it was Mendoz who found a mark of a greasy thumb upon the same panel, some four feet from the floor. "Aqui, esta 1" he muttered. "Senor, look !" Stanway's heart beat wildly when he saw what Mendoz had found. "The door of the passageway!" he whispered. "Sh! Be still! Even take off your boots, companeros. We are going to give them no warning. But first, Mendoz, bring Dempton here, quick ! I think he is going to talk now." Mendoz hurried, and presently came back, he and the immense Vidal, walking walk-ing at Dempton's right and left. "Dempton," whispered Stanway, meeting him, "make no sound. If he cries out" to Vidal and Mendoz "if he makes a sound choke the life out of him. Do you understand, Dempton?" (TO BE CONTINUED.) |