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Show firaiiii"w'ftftttlaitiilwaiiftaiiflftaaaaiifiaajifcai III " I'lj Dice of Destiny ! By JACKSON GREGORY j I Copyright I I I ' CHAPTER VIII Continued. "A word in your ear, senor," he said, his voice and manner gnyly impudent, im-pudent, his words low so that they reached no ears but those he intended to hear. "Twenty thousand dollars now, immediately, or I give you my word as a gentleman that when the sun Is up you will rush to m, trying to make terms, and I shall then answer you by demanding fifty thousand !" The threat in the man's voice again disturbed Stanway. He had a feeling which he could not entirely reason down that Torre meant what he was saying. Then he looked at the half dozen stern-featured, faithful servants, who served the De la Guerra as old subjects served a beloved sovereign; saw them watchful, armed, eager for an excuse to fling themselves upon their two captives ; and, frowning at his own fears, he went to his room. His windows faced westward and to the south. He stood before one of them which looked to the border, half ready to expect ex-pect a rush of cavalry through the olive trees. He saw the olive trees sway to the little, warm wind from the south; watched his window curtains pulsing slowly like one breathing; noted how the moonlight gilded the ripe fruit upon the orange trees, and, with a last look toward the eastern Wing of the house, where' a little balcony jutted out among roses, he jerked down his shade, fastened his window, placed a revolver upon the chair at his side, and went to bed. A low, insistent rapping at his doorway door-way awakened him. Stanway sat up in bed, a sudden shiver of uneasiness upon him. "Who it is?" he called sharply. "It is Lugo, senor. Senor Torre sends me with a message. It is to come to the drawing-room immediately. immediate-ly. He has something to say to you. He says it is very important. He insists in-sists you come to him before it is three o'clock within fifteen minutes." "He has his nerve," muttered Stanway. Stan-way. "Tell him to be more explicit or to go to the devil." "Si, senor." Lugo chuckled his approval, and hurried away through the still house. Stanway lay back upon his bed and closed his eyes, only to open them quickly to stare into the darkness of his room. He was remembering those forebodings forebod-ings which had come to him with Torre's Tor-re's veiled threats ; he was feeling an uneasiness which he could not drive out. Torre had sent for him in the middle of the night Again he sat up, groping for matches and a candlestick. In the little yellow glow he saw that it lacked but ten minutes of three. He sprang out of bed, drew on his clothes hurriedly, and hastened to the drawing-room. "Ah, senor, you are very kind." Torre's Tor-re's smile was full of mock-politeness. "To trouble yourself so at the lightest wish of a guest is " "Get down to business if you have any," Stanway interrupted bluntly. "What is It?" "I want a word with you in private," pri-vate," Torre answered quietly. The man was fully dressed and now rose from the couch upon which he had been lying. "There is no objection to the others being in the room, but at least let us stand at the far side of the chamber so that they may not hear." "If you have anything to say, say it aloud," Stanway retorted. "I am tired of your way of doing business, Torre. Now, what is it?" Torre shrugged. "Then I shall be silent," he said carelessly. "I think that you are making mak-ing a mistake, senor." Was he? Stanway didn't know. He looked about the room. Juarez seemed to be sleeping heavily upon his couch ; the vaquei'os, seven of them, sat along the walls or lounged about the room, each man of them as watchful, his eyes as keen and suspicious sus-picious as at the beginning of their vigil at dusk. And yet, in spite of all this secur-10, secur-10, in spite of the fact that Stanway and the De la Guerra servants were armed and their two prisoners unarmed, un-armed, the rancher had the odd feeling feel-ing that there was a weakness in his position which he could not see, but which was very plain to the smiling Torre. And then his curiosity decided de-cided him. "Come," he said after a brief moment. mo-ment. And then again : "Now, what is it?" He had stepped to the far corner of the room, motioning two of the lounging loung-ing cowboys out of earshot. Torre, debonair, his manner gracefully indifferent, in-different, stopped at the big mahogany mahog-any table to light his cigarette at one of the candles and came to Stanway's side. "Thank you, senor," he said, his voice very low now, his words guarded guard-ed so that none hut the rancher might hear them. "For this is in the wi.y of a kindness to me. although your thanks," returned Stanway. "I am waiting." "Bueno. Now first I want you to remember this; I am In the position to be the key to the situation, and you must see that. If for any reason the vnqueros In some sudden fit of rage should seek to put a violent end to my gay little existence " He shrugged. "It would be like a man iu a prison cell destroying the key to his liberty, senor." "Go on. Needless to- say I don't understand." "Y'ou will In a moment." He glanced at his watch. "It is almost three. This you must understand: if such a thought should come into the vnqueros' bloody minds I shall look to you as my protector. "Now" his air, his smile, his very carriage eloquent of a laughing impudence, im-pudence, he stepped close to the shuttered window "now something is going to happen." Suddenly his hand shot out and a pane fell from the window, brokeu into many pieces, tinkling upon the carpet. Torre put his face to tne opening he had so rudely made and called out sharply, aloud : "Ahora, companeros! Strike!" A revolver flashed into sight in Stanway's hand ; a revolver was in the hand of each vaquero in the room. The air was charged with expectancy. ex-pectancy. "Watch him !" called out Stanway. "Jerk him back from the window !" While he was speaking he had struck one of the candlesticks from the table; Gaucho had understood and had put out the other lights. The room sank into swift, Impenetrable darkness. Three of the cowboys had throw'.i themselves upon Torre, dragging him back, holding his arms pinioned at his sides. Stanway, with no minute lost, threw open the shutters, raised the wiudow and peered out Into the night. It was very still. He could see little enough, but his straining eyes ran back and forth along the wall of the house and were certain that there were no lurking forms there. His ears told him of the heavy breathing of the men behind him, but brought him no sound of men without. "Kemember, senor," culled Torr his panting voice telling of the treatment treat-ment he was being accorded by men who hungered to take justice into their own hands. "Remember about the key !" Stanway closed the window and the shutters, calling to Gaucho for a light. The flicker of the match showed him Torre in the grip of the three men, his face looking a little pale, his eyes very bright. "If we are attacked," cried the rancher sharply, "it is Torre who has given the signal. Kemember he is not to go free." Fierce fires leaped up in the savage sav-age eyes of the vaqueros, and the big, brown, muscular hands corded ominously. A clock somewhere in the house struck one, two, three. Stanway counted, every sense on the alert, his mind expecting, his heart dreading he knew not what. And then came the (hlng lie had not looked for. It was a scream a woman's scream, rising sharp through the sudden silence, telling of sudden, rude awakening, of blind, gripping terror. "The senorita !" shouted Gaucho. "5Iadre de Dios I They are killing the senorita !" CHAPTER IX. The Key. Stanway had already recognized the voice coming to them faintly from the far eastern end of the building; a great fear for Teresa had already leaped out upon him, and he had flung open the door, running toward her rooms. "Remember !" shouted Torre after him, "If I die" "Gaucho, Estehan, come with me!" called Stanway, his voice cutting through Torre's swift words. "The rest of you stay with your prisoners. Do not harm them until I comeback. They alone can help us save your master and mistress. But if they try-to try-to escape then shoot them like dogs!" And he was gone, running swiftly through the long hall, his words ! floating back across his shoulder, the heavy boots of Gaucho and F.slehan pounding just behind him. Door after door he flung open as he raced on through the darkness, waiting for no candle. He came at last to the broad stairway leading up to Teresa's rooms, Gaucho and F.ste-ban F.ste-ban at his heels. Here there was light, a candle burning burn-ing low upon the floor at the side of Pedro's couch. And Pedro "They have killed him !" It was Gaucho's voice In a little expressionless expression-less grunt. Pedro lay upon the floor at the side of his couch, his body half covered with the blankets which laid fallen t, , . ' , . .........................it Celestino.the vaquero who had spent the night at Pedro's side, was not to be seen. Stanway, rushing up the stairs, his revolver in his hand, bestowed only one look upon the unconscious Pedro and rushed at the door of Teresa's room. The door was locked. He called. There was no answer. Kverythina was perfectly still. He knocked at fhe door loudly, calling again. And now, when silence answered him, a great fury swept through him, his brain seemed to be on tire, his voice seemed to him to come from a great distance as he shouted for an ax. The ax came, but he had not waited for it. A heavy chair had splintered against the oak panels, but the panels themselves were no obstacle to the fury of his attack. They burst at hist, his hand found the key in the lock upon ihe other side of the door, the door was flung open. Nothing, nothing but emptiness and a wild disorder which told, had 1 e needed the telling, of the girl's abduction ab-duction ! That cry of hers had bespoken a struggle, brief and Ineffectual. And Teresa was gone with nothing behind to show whither. Stanway run through all Ihe rooms of her dainty suite, calling. Silence and emptiness were his answers. He threw open the windows to her balcony. bal-cony. "Horses." he shouted. "Gaucho, run to the stables. They are taking her across the border!" The vaquero, too, heard the thud of running hoofs out there In the darkness beyond the oranges, understood, under-stood, aud sped upon his errand. "Here is poor Celestlna, senor," said Estehan. He was kneeling on the little landing a few paces removed from the spot where Pedro lay. "I think that he is dead. They have struck him on the head. Jesus 51a-ria 51a-ria ! but it is a nasty blow, and from behind." Stanway scarcely beard the man. lie was looking for a ladder, seeking to see how Teresa had been carried from the house. There was nothing. lie thought that there had been many men here; that a man below had caught the girl In his arms as she was dropped down to him ; he shuddered at the thought, and onco more was running, now down the stairs, which he took almost at a bound, through the dim corridors, and toward the drawing room. "The senorita?" several voices were clamoring at him. "Have they banned her? Blood of the Savior, have they dared lay hand upon her?" "She is gone," he answered crisply. "Listen, companeros. This Is the work of Torre yonder. You know that. Rut you must not harm him yet ! There Is time. See that he does not escape. If he does not bring the senorita se-norita back to us safe, unharmed then we shall know what to do, shall we not, companeros?" They answered him by silence and the quick turning of black, fierce eyes upon the man who had this second thing to answer to (hem for. Torre summoned his old bravado and the smile which went with It. Torre did not speak, but, turning away, made a cigarette, Captain Juarez, Ju-arez, seemingly just awakened, threw his blanket aside and sat up on his couch, his eyes roving from face to face, coming to rest at last upon Torre's Tor-re's as though he were awaiting a lender's move. His eyes were as grave as Torre's, his sense of a crisis as clear. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |