Fame And Fortune Weekly (no. 1061) (1926 01 29)
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ayy Yy Liyiih Hy MN ett tO 3, CY = [eget YY la x A ‘ 3 =a Ms es es Pepita stamped her foot angrily and utte: Ls 7 =% "hand, followed by two sppeared ovér the brow of the ee 9) “Seize th D Mi Sins hth alae hae: tes
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Issned weekly—Subscription price, $4.00 per yea fe West 23d Street, New the Post-Office at New York, N. wie i © FAME AND EORTUNE WEEKLY r} York, N. Y._ Entered as Second-Class Matter, October 4, 1911, Y., under the Act of March 38, 1879. . No. 1061 NEW YORK, JANUARY 29, 1926 Price 8 Cents. tr é e ; / a? ‘ DICK HADLEY’S MINE OR, THE BOY GOLD DIGGERS OF MEXICO _ By A SELF-MADE MAN @ ~ *s CHAPTER I.—Senorita Pepita Gonzales. fully noted its general aspect before walking “T’m afraid we’re in a bad fix, fellows,” said » Dick Hadley, as he stopped and looked around. . P “Looks as if we’re lost, for fair,’ rémarked *. Sam Swift. “That’s what it does,” chimed in Charley Ross. Dick, Sam and Charley were three good-looking _/ and uncommonly bright American boys. But it is a strange place we find them in on this hot July afternoon. They were on the soil of northern Mexico, in the western part of the State of Chi- huahua, hundreds of miles away from their native stamping-grounds—good old New York, where _ sthey were born and brought up. Two weeks be- ~ fore, the high school they attended closed for the long summer vacation, and the three boys pro- sphyeceeded to carry out a plan already cut and dried ~~ between them. This was to join Sam Swift’s father, who was a civil engineer and railroad . contractor in Chihuahua, Mexico, where he was __ superintending the construction of a branch line of the Mexican Central, the most important rail- “ye road company in the republic. This branch was surveyed from the capital of the State westward _ into the Sierra Madre Range, and beyond. About fifty miles of the road had already been built, ~_ and it was proceeding as fast as circumstances would permit. s Work was going on through a break in the _ Yange when the boys arrived on the scene, after a ' few days of sightseeing in*the city of Chihuahua: + Mr. Swift was duly cognizant of their coming, ~~ and had prepared for their stay, the length of -.which, within the scope of their vacation, de- ~ pended on themselves. After spending several days in the immediate vicinity of the’ railroad tracks, the boys began to make short excursions ‘into the neighborhood. On the present occasion Fc they had wandered into a rather romantic-looking defile which brought them out into a valley of some extent As the afternoon was young, they had started northward up-the valley, taking fre- quent rests under the shade of isolated trees 3 long their route. After a couple of hours’ reste they decided they had gone far enough, and be- gan to retrace their steps. When they judged Fiat they were approaching the defile, they began to keep a sharp lookout for it. They expected to _ have ‘no difficulty in finding it, as they had care- RESP Ny cock- 5 : . DE ae AS iy Sa self into condition for winter football. away from it. Although the defile was still in the same place, the boys failed to see when they came near it, and actually passed it without rec-_ ognizing the landmarks they had taken note of. After walking half a mile to the southwest of it they began to grow uneasy. After spending an- other hour looking in vain for the defile, Dick Hadley, the most manly-looking of the three boys, made the remark with which our story opens. “We must have passed the blamed Be place,” said Sam. “Then we’d better go back and look more ca fully,” said Dick. : “T don’t see how we could have missed it,” growled Charley. “Well, I do,” replied Sam. “We have come across half a dozen blind breaks in the range that look exactly like the entrance to the ravine. If we're going to get out of here before dark we’ll have to hustle.” “Nice kind of weather to hustle in,” said Char- ley, mopping the perspiration from his forehead. “Tt’s as hot as blue blazes.” i “It’s hot enough, all right,” grinned Dick, who seemed the least affected by the, sun, “but you must expect that in Mexico.” : “T ain’t kicking so much about the heat itself as at the idea of hustling,’ grunted Charley. “I simply can’t hustle. I’m going to take a rest under this tree, if we never get out of the range.” “The trouble with you, Charley,” said Sam, “is that you were born lazy.” é “I deny it,” protested Ross. “I’m no lazier than you are, but I’ve got more fat on my bones. I expect by the time we’re ready to go home there’ll be nothing but a grease spot left of me.” “Don’t worry, Charley. You are getting your- You'll be ff, Publisher, ine, 16@ - Joti, at able to run a hundred. yards in something like sei record time, which you’ve never been able to ac- complish before. This Mexican trip will make a man of you,” chuckled Sam. s “Say!—cut it out, will you? ‘Your remarks make me weary!” - The boys fanned themselves with their Lats, - and finally stretched themselves out onthe patch — e. Fifteen minutes passed, and the sultriness of the air was making 3 +f ¥ Seed 9 of green under the big tree.
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2: DICK HADLEY’S MINE the boys drowsy, when the tinkle, tinkle of a number of silvery-toned bells reached their ears. * “ello! What's that?” exclaimed Dick, sitting up and looking in the direction of the sound. Coming toward them, up the edge of the valley, were two burros. On the one in advance a dark, handsome Senorita, of about sixteen years, was perched with careless ease. On the burro behind her was mounted a long-limbed Mexican peon, in native attire. ; ’ “Gee! She’s a beaut!” said Sam, with not a little interest in his tones. epi “Yes, she’s aS pretty as a peach,” said Dick. “T must stop them, and see if I can find out where we are at.” The girl observed the three boys under the tree, and looked at them with considerable curiosity. ~~ Dick got on his feet and walked over to head off the burros. The senorita, seeing that he wanted , to address her, drew rein and waited for him to "come up, and the peon behind also came to a stop. -“Good afternoon, miss,” said Dick, raising his -hat politely. “Americano?” she replied, in silvery accents. “Ves, we’re Americans, al] right,” he answered. “Do you speak English?” | “Muy poco; pero lo entiendo bastante,” she re- plied in Spanish, which might be translated: “Very little; but I understand it pretty well.” However, her answer was pure Greek to Dick, and his countenance showed it. : “Ah, Senor, you ae understand?” she said, vith a captivating smile. : ow ONot S work. ened Dick, shaking his’ head. Whether she understood his words or not, she easily guessed their meaning, and smiled again. “What you do here, Senor?” she asked him. “We have lost our way, miss,” he replied, “Si! You have ‘lose yourselves? Where you come from?” eee “Railroad,” responded the boy, thinking she might understand the word. Evidently she did, for she repeated the word and pointed south. . ; “We want to find the ravine that will take us out of this valley,” said Dick. The senorita, although she had claimed to un- derstand English pretty well, did not ‘seem to grasp his meaning. = < eWhat is senor’s name?” she asked. at “My name is Dick Hadley.” The girl repeated the name twice, and then paid: “My name Senorita Pepita Gonzales.” Dick bowed, and said he was-pleased to make her acquaintance. She laughed gaily. oe “The senor and”—she waved her arm at Dick's companions—“friends wil] come to mi padre’s _ hacienda?” en eat we - Dick understood this to be an invitation to visit _ the home of her father. He decided to accept it, as anything was preferable to remaining where ~ they were, with a dubious chance of getting out of the valley before dark. So he nodded his head. “Come on, fellows! Fall in with the proces- gion!” said Dick to his friends. Sam and Charley rose to their feet. “Ts the young lady going to show us the way,to the ravine?” asked Sam. me No, She’s given us an invitation to visit her home,” replied Dick. i arte a . . again, and they threw themselves upomthe ground «_— ~ Ss “Where does he live?” ; “Blessed if I know; but we’ll soon find out, Where is your padre’s hacienda, senorita?” he | asked the girl. < She waved her arm toward the other side of » the valley. “If we go over there we'll never get back to the railroad without a guide,” said Sam. “And not before long after dark, anyway.” : 3 “Well, I-don’t see how we can help going with © this young lady. She understands that we’ve lost our way, and that we came from the railroad, but I can’t make her understand that we are ae for the ravine that leads out of the val- ey.” ? aed “Gee! It’s tough to be lost in a land where a — fellow has got to have an interpreter to make _ himself understood,” growled Sam. ; Le Dick brought his friends up to the senorita and ~ presented them to her. Me s “Senorita Gonzales, this.is my friend, Sam Swift.” x The girl smiled sweetly and nodded. Dick Bs through the same ceremony with Charley Oss. : “Senor, Dick Hadley, you will walk with me,”~ said Pepita, with a look that showed she pre- ferred his company. i She touched up her burro, and the party started across the valley, Dick walking by the girl’s side, while Sam. and Charley fell in behind between — her_and the mounted peon who acted as her at- — tendant. CHAPTER II.—At the Old Hacienda. The senorita started to chat in a vivacious way — with Dick, correcting herself when she lapsed into Spanish, as she frequently did, in moments ~ of forgetfulness. The valley was not so very ~ wide at this point, and the party came to a stop © under a clump of trees among the foothills of the western spur of the range. Sam and Charley were glad of the chance to get out of the sun to take things easy. Dick did not desert the fair — senorita’s side, but remained talking with her. — The peon dismounted from his burro and let the ~— beast wander about, nibbling the grass, while he — seated himself under a tree, rolled a cigarette, » and began to.smoke, in the indolent way charac- ~~ teristic of his race. The sun disappeared behind ~ the range in the west, but that fact didn’t make — the air any less sultry. es “Dick seems to be stuck on Miss Gonzales,” — grinned Sam to Charley. } ‘cee “Well, she seems to be mashed on him, too,” ~~ replied Sam. es At that moment Pepita spoke to the peon in Spanish. Her attendant, whose name was Man- uel, got up, caught: and mounted his burro. = * “Come on, fellows!” cried Dick. ‘Get a move on! We’re going to start on!” \ : 3 Sam and Charley obeyed rather reluctantly, for the shade of the trees suited them best. The pro-— cession followed a well-beaten track in among the foothills, and the valley was soon lost sight of. After a while they came to a long defile which wound in and out through the range, and finally landed them in another valley, much smaller than the ‘one they had left, and full of vegetation anc
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yee t t 5 _trees. In the distance they saw a cluster of houses, chiefly built of cane, with sides not over four feet high, and roofs rising to an altitude of ~anywhere from ten to twenty feet. They were ome. 8°: etimes almost hidden amidst coffee bushes, “tall mango trees, and plants covered with flowers * of every hue. Towering above the houses rose the stone front of an ancient-looking church. It looked ‘quite imposing from a distance, with its belfry rising above the entrance. The boys sub- sequently discovered that the church itself was but a miserable adobe edifice, roofed in with the same materia] with which the roofs of the cot- tages were composed. The stone front _was merely a bluff to catch the eye, but in that re- “spect did not greatly, differ from hundreds of similar religious buildings scattered throughout _ Mexico, many of which are several hundred years old. Half a mile to the right was a long cactus grove, and toward it Pepita turned her burro. “My father’s hacienda,” said the senorita, wav- ing her hand toward the grove. As they passed along the boys saw brown wo- men busy with their household tasks, and brown ~~ children playing around the straggling cottages. +e. Brown men were working in the coffee grove, amd in the other fields, or driving burros laden with bags filled with some kind of produce. , As they -.. drew near the cactus grove One of the Mexican * priests suddenly appeared from behind the singu- - Jar-looking plants. He wore a broad-brimmed, _ _ low-crowned hat, much like, those worn by old- _ ” fashioned Quakers, and a long black gown. His walk was slow and sedate. Pepita, who had been chattering like a magpie, oblivious of the fact - that Dick could hardly keep track of the drift of » her talk, became silent and demure the moment . she caught sight’ of the reverend father. . The padre made a slight motion with his hand as he ES passed, at the same time regarding Dick and his ‘companions with a keen look, and Pepita and _ Manuel bowed their heads with deep ree : They were now close to the grove. It Was truly a formidable kind of wall that cut off the front __ view of the hacienda. The cactus bore a tree-like form, in which the thick stem sustained a head . from the ground. They were covered with thick, sharp spears, that were capable of inflicting an ugly wound on man or beast who monkeyed with - them. . a | | DICK HADLEY’S MINE ‘of branches, and reached between 30 ‘and 40 "eet , acquainted with Senora Gonzales, a stout ; 3 3 little woman, somewhat resembling her daughter. Dick explained how they came to. be in.Mexico, . as guests of Engineer®Swift, who was building the Mexican Central branch, and how they had entered the long valley early that afternoon and couldn’t get out again. Senor Gonzales smiled, and said he was glad his daughter had brought. - them to the hacienda, as it would give him much ~ pleasure to offer them the freedom of his home for as long a time as they cared to stay. Se “Oh, we'll have to get back as soon as possible,” replied Dick, after thanking him for his generous offer, ‘for Mr. Swift has no idea where we are, and will be worried over our absence.” ie “Make yourselves easy on that score,” ‘said Senor Gonzales. “I will send one of my mien right away to the place where the railroad is. being built, to tell Senor Swift that you will remain. « here as my guests, for a week at least.” te “A week!” exclaimed Dick. “Do you want us | to stay so long as that?” a “You are welcome to remain a month, if you choose,” replied the Mexiean, in so hearty a tone that the lads were willing to believe that he was | in earnest. The boys found that, outside of the furniture, which was plain and substantial, there was little in the way of ornamentation to the rooms. The first meal they were treated to was supper, with a few extra dishes for their benefit, dinner being” served in the middle of the day. After supper all hands adjournd’to the best room in the house, the floor of which was covered by shiny white tiles. Here, again, Pepita managed to have Dick by her side. When the moon arose above’ the range the senorita enticed Dick for a walk im the courtyard, or garden, and, as far as actions could go, she made love to him. When the hour for re- tiring came around the three boys were shown to a large bedroom on the second floor, at the end of the hacierida. nearest the village. A cot had been provided in addition to the bed, and Charley Ross ~ > elected to use it while Dick, and Sam selected the bed. The boys, not feeling sleepy. sat by the open window, in the rays of the moonlight, talk- | ing about old times as well as the novelty of their present position. : e : Zz CHAPTER III.—The Ghostly Bellringer., The night was very quiet? not a sound of any ~ kind breaking the stillness of the air. The vil- lagers had gone to rest*more than two hours be- fore, and the family and servants of the hacienda were already asleep. As a matter of fact, there was hardly anyone awake but the three boys. “Eleven o'clock,” said Dick, after consulting his watch. “Let’s turn in.” & : His suggestion was about to be followed when suddenly, through the calm air, rang out the clang! clang! of the bell in the belfry of the church. i “Hello!” exclaimed Sam, ‘“That’s the,church bell! Do they have religious services ‘at this om hour?” They stood by the windgw and listened to the sound, which was very irregular—sometimes a dozen strokes in rapid succession, then a pause of uncertain duration, after which the bell would toll slowly and mournfully, as if for a funeral. ; a a a es
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“That’s the oddest bell-ringing I.ever listened to,” said Charley Ross. 5 Seo “pd ‘like to eonee to. the village and see what’s going on,” said Sam. : “So would I,” answered Dick. ; “Pd like to go, too. Couldn’t we manage it some way?” said Charley. “There’s a ladder standing over yonder. One of us could jump down into the yard and place that ladder under this window; then, when we got back, we could return .to the room without any trouble.” z - The idea appealed to Sam and Dick, but the latter hesitated about adopting it, as he had ‘doubts as to the propriety of their leaying the room in that fashion since they were guests of the house. Before the boys had decided whether to get out of the house or not, it became apparent to their ears that there was a commotion in and -} about the hacienda. Everybody in the house had : een aroused from their sleep by the bell, and the boys could see a number of the servants run- ning toward the cactus grove. J : “Tooks as if there might be something wrong, said Dick. « - a of: “T,ooks that way. Here comes Senor Gonzales. By Tid nein to ask him what is the’ matter,” said ick, fe ss eatiely he hailed the proprietor of the hacienda, and inquired what the bell was ringing for. Senor Gonzales answered that it was a mys- tery to him, but he was going to the village to inquire into the matter. : “May we go with you?” asked Dick, ~ Senor Gonzales said they could come, if they: wanted to. 5 a “We'll get out Se ibis window. © quickest way,” replie ick. may Pane Behe madkiier they dropped into the court- yard and joined the senor. Wher they reached the outside of the grove they found all the women ' servants gathered there, looking toward the church, which stood like a white specter in the - moonlight. Already 2 considerable crowd of the - yillagers were gathered in front of ‘the church — jooking up at the belfry. When Senor Gonzales and the boys reached the church they found the _ whole village assembled in the square in, front;of the building, ‘looking up at the belfry in an awe- - struck way. The padre was there, too, and he ‘seemed as much rattled as the crowd behind him, The bell, which had been’silent for a while, now - eommenced to peal solemnly forth once more. one -~ clang at a time, with an interval between, like a dirge for the dead. Never Within the memory of the oldest. inhabitant had such a remarkable cir- ~ eumstance happened before, and all were fearful - that it foreboded some great misfortune to the “village. Every time the ghostly - bellringer ‘clanged the bell*chills ran up and down the vil- lagers’ backs, and goose flesh rose on them. --While Senor Gonzales went to the -padre and talked with him, the boys pushed their way to the front of the crowd and gazed up at the belfry, like the rest. Although they did not comprehend the situation fully, they could easily see that io there was some mystery about the ringing of the mrgeltet 5 s ~ “Jet's go around to the rear of the building ‘and see if we can get in and find out what the trouble is,” suggested: Dick. ; Ra A It’s the Benth x DICK HADLEY’S MINE ———w ee is companions agreed to go around to the back ie oe - of the church, but were not quite sure that they wanted to enter the edifice. When they reached ~ the door of the sacristy and found it locked, they came back by the other Side.. Dick walked up to the main entrance and tried the door. It was ~ secure; all right. At that moment the bell clanged out again. In the meantime, Senor Gonzales had been trying to persuade the padre to unlock the front door. The priest finally mustered up cour- age enough to consent. He sent the sexton for a lantern. When that individual returned, with shaking steps, the’ priest walked up to the door,’ thrust the big iron key into the lock, and opened the door. _ The padre entered the building slowly and cau- tiously, followed by Senor Gonzales, and the sex- ~ ton, with: the lighted lantern. The three boys took the liberty of following them, for they werel eager to discover the solution of the mysterious bellringing, which they ascribed to some natural means. The padre opened a side door into a small room, where the bell-rope hung, and, taking the lantern from the trembling sexton’s hand, — flashed it in. The rope hung quite motionless, and the bell above was silent. A Jong ladder led upward through a hole in the ceiling. Suddenly the rope moved of itself, and the bell tolled out twice. The sexton uttered a yell of terror and ~— fled. The padre uttered a gasp, and looked livid, | while the lantern fell from his nerveless grasp. Dick stepped forward, picked up the lantern and ~~ entered the small room: Clearly no human being ~ was there; yet. the three boys had seen the rope shake and move up and down. ri _ “Whoever is ringing the bell is concealed in the _ loft or in the belfry,” said Dick to Sam, who had _ 3 followed him in. “I dare you to accompany me up there.” - > ca He put his foot on the first round. and starte up. Sam; ashamed to let him go alone, followed — on behind. Charley concluded to be one of*the procession, too. Up the three went, without hin- drance from the padré or.the senor, who watched —_ them disappear through the opening into the loft. When Dick poked the lantern, and then his head, - through the hole into the new loft, he saw at a glance that it was quite empty. “There’s no one in this place,” he said to Sam. “The intruder must be hiding in the belfry.” He stepped into the loft and waited till his’ companions joined him. A .short flight of steps pointed the way to the open belfry above. Dick##® laid hold of the hanging bell-rope. As he did so he felt it shiver in his grasp several times. Sud- — denly it was pulled upward a bit, then it slipped back, and the bell tolled. Dick immediately sprang up the steps, holding the lantern in front of him. As his head and shoulders rose in the belfry something white, armed with claws, flew at » the lantern, and the bell tolled again. Dick was ~ startled, and fell back against Sam. The latter et lost his balance, and toppled over upon Charley, - and with a crash the three boys landed on the floor of the loft in a heap. The noise reached the padre and Senor Gonzales, below, and they — looked upward in anxious suspense. They prob-— ably expected to see the three venturesome boys — - come tumbling’ down the laddey, but if so, they ; were disappointed. Poet stor “What did you upset me fer?” growled:S Dick. “What did You S66 one Mise . ¥ iat Sh tae ones
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“Something white flew at me,” replied Dick. _ “Something white?” said Sam. “Did it. look like a ghost?” Ses “AK ghost! Nonsense! Whatever it was, it hit .. the lantern a whack that-made the glass rattle. _ Ym going back to see what it is,” said Dick reso- ~*~ -lutely. , This time he did not rush up the steps, but made his way to the belfry, with some caution. When he poked the lantern and his head into the place nothing happened. The belfry was per- fectly still, and lit up the rays of the moon. Dick gilanced at the bell, and then he saw a white object hanging to a loose strand of the bell-rope. It looked to be about two feet long, and it dangled from the rope like a wet rag. The boy flashed the’ light on it, and saw that it was a huge condor. The bird had been caught by the strand of rope, frayed by long years of use. The strand was strong enough to hold the great bird captive, and in its struggles to free itself it had rung the bell. The condor was quite dead now.. In its attack on the lantern-it had burst a blood-vessel. Dick laughed when he saw the explanation of the mys- tery before him, and called to. Sam and Charley to come up and sée the spook that had rung the pell. They came, and were astonished at the sight of the huge dead bird. ; : - “So this is the mysterious bellringer?” said - Sam, as they examined the defunct bird with much interest. ‘ _ “That’s right,” replied Dick. “He was a power- ‘ful bird. Look at his wings and huge claws. _ Bvery time he made an effort to fly he pulled the - pell-rope down and clanged the bell, When I ; came.up here he was at his last gasp, but he had So strength enough left to make one final spring at the Jantern.” ‘ -- “Petter have the padre come up here and look ’ at him, before you cut him down, so he can ex- ‘plain to the villagers that the bell was not rung bi supernatural agency,” advised Sam. - 3 Dick agreed to that, and Charley was sent + downstairs to tell Senor Gonzales and the padre to come up. Charley’s story, translated to the b. priest by Senor Gonzales, inspired the padre with - eourage enough to venture up into the belfry with the hacienda proprietor. “The sight of the dead - ~ condor’s predicament satisfied the priest. He con- sented to Dick taking possession of the bird as a yeward for his courage. The party then returned to the ground, Dick bearing his prize in triumph, _ which, at the padre’s request, he exhibited to the villagers, who crowded. around him to gaze upon ‘the hacienda. CHAPTER IV.—A Strange Cry for Help. f ‘a as \ eye - Pepita and her mother were up, and waiting to hear the news from the village, when they got ack to the house. Senor Gonzales told the whole ory in Spanish to his wife and daughter, and 1e girl and her mother looked at Dick with con- iderable admiration, for he was regarded as the hero of the affair. When Dick and his friends sturned to their room they carried the condor “Senor Gon- ‘DICK HADLEY’S MINE. ae _ this was written.” sare -4t. Senor Gonzales and the boys then returned to - “ Breakfast was on the table, waiting for th ie zales says Manue] is something of a taxidermist, and will stuff him in good style for me. Get hold — of that wing, Sam, and we’ll see how big he is, spread out.” i: Sam grasped the bird, and they spread. his wings to their fullest extent. Soe “Hello!” exclaimed Dick. “What’s this? There’s © a paper tied under this wing!” “Somebody must have attached that paper to — his wing for a purpose,” said Sam. : ele “Probably it’s a joke,” replied Dick. 2S He got out his knife and cut the paper free. — Then he opened it and looked at it. It contained words -written in an uncertain kind of way. which — Diek saw were English, and he proceeded to try | and decipher the strange message. This was what he finally made out: Puen “Help! I am alone, and dying, in the heart of 4 the western spur of the Sierra Madre, about 100 ~~ miles north from the course of the new railroad line. Tf this should reach a friendly eye, I beg — that person to come to me without loss of time, — and he shall not regret it, for I have the means of rewarding him generously. It is one chance in a thousand I am taking, in intrusting this mes- sage to a wild condor, but perhaps a kindly Provi- dence will guide him in the right direction, and I may-then see a human being once more before I die. John Carden.” Dick was astonished at the contents of the note, © which appeared to be of the most urgent charac-- ter, He immediately read it out to his com- panions. * x “What do you thinkeof it?” he asked. ‘Ss “Looks as if the writer was in a pretty bad fix somewhere in the mountains,” said Sam. ; “He: 722 wants help at once. It’s*a question how long ago 2; kein “It’s a strange kind of a way to send such a note out, tied under the wing of a wild condor,” said Charley. “Doesn’t look as if there’d be one chance in a million of anybody getting it.’ : “The one chance in the million has ma. terialized,” said Dick, “for the note has come into. my hands.” it “Well, what are you going to do about it?” asked Sam.” ; sk = ee “Nothing tonight. In the morning I’l) show it — to Senor Gonzales, and see what he says’about it. He is probably familiar with the range, and may be able to locate the spot where this John Carden is: We can organize an expedition for the man’ ats. It will be quite an adventure for the three of us. “Tt will suit me, all right,” said Sam eagerly. — “And me, too,” chimed in Charley. ; ee The condor was set aside, the important note put carefully away in Dick’s wallet, and then th turned in “for the night, and were soon aslee when they walked downstairs next mornir Pepita had been dreaming about Dick all nigh and she welcomed him with a warmth that some- what embarrassed while it flattered him. Aft the mea] the girl wanted to take Dick off with hi somewhere, but he asked to be excused, as he ha business with her father. Dick showed John Cg den’s letter to Senor Gonzales, and told hi he had found it under the wing of the dea
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- = « Gs = bp DICK HADLEY’S MINE . dor. ®The senor could not make the writing out very well, so Dick read it to him. s ~ « “Looks like a serious matter, doesn’t it?” said the boy. Senor Gonzales admitted that it had that look. “Where is the western spur of the range?” asked Dick. The Mexican told him that the writer of the note probably referred to a certain spur of the mountain which projected from the western line of the Sierra Madre. He knew of such a spur about ninety miles to the north of the hacienda. “That must be the place, then,” said Dick. “Ton’t you think we had better get up a small expedition and go to this man’s assistance?” - Senor Gonzales considered a moment, and then © said he would send his overseer and another man to hunt Carden up, and see what help he needed. “We want to go along, too,” said Dick. “Tt would be a rough journey for you through the mountains,” said the senor. “I don’t think you would like it.” Dick insisted that he and his friends would like it first rate. “We came to Mexico to see all we could of the country,” he added, “and such a chance to explore the Sierra Madre Range we don’t want to miss.” Senor Gonzales shrugged his shoulders, and said they could go if they wanted to. “J will instruct Pedro to look out for you,” he said. Then he sent for his overseer, whom he intro- duced to the boys as Pedro Pacheco. He trans- lated the gist of John Carden’s letter to him, and said he was to make an effort to find the man. Preparations were made®at once for starting on - the journey. As soon as Pepita heard of the pro- posed expedition she tried to persuade Dick to remain at the hacienfa with her and let his * friends accompany Pedro. Dick couldn’t see it that way. Pepita and the hacienda were all right when there was nothing more exciting on the program, but the girl’s influence was not strong enough t8 make a slave of him.. Half an hour after the meal was over Dick and his friends bade ‘« Pepita ard her father and mother a temporary * good-by, got astride of the burros provided for em by the owner of the hacienda, and followed _ Pedro Pacheco and a peon, who were similarly «mounted, up through a pocket of the little valley, toward the rise of the Sierra Madre Range. _ CHAPTER V.—Searching for John Carden. They were soon in the mountains, the trail lead- ing upward through wild and picturesque ravines,. by the side of turbulent streams that flowed over rocky beds, passing under a cascade that looked like a sheet of shimmering glass, and anon. skirt- ing some projecting aca | by a narrow and venturesome path, where a misstep by one of the burros would have pitched his rider to certain death, hundreds of feet below. “That's enough to give a fellow the nightmare,” ~-gaid Sam, who was riding behind Dick, for they ‘were proceeding in single file, as they circled one of the promontories mentioned. “S’pose one of our burros stumbled anywhere along that place— just think what would happen!” 2 “Dop’telose your nerve, Sam,” said, Dick, over GS ‘2Ses his shoulder. “You may need it all before we reach the spur we’re going to.” “T’ll bet your nerves tingled jus? now when we were on that narrow path,” retorted Sam. “I can stand as much as you.” = “How did Charley get through the trip?” “Blessed if I know. I haven’t heard a squeal out of him. I guess he kept his eyes shut so he wouldn’t get rattled.” The trail they were follow- ing was perfectly familiar.to Pedro, who had often been over it, and he thought nothing of its perils, nor even of its beauties, They had ascended to a considerable elevation, and shad covered many miles from the hacienda, when the sky took on ‘a peculiar look. “Looks is if we were going to be caught in a eed Dick said to Sam, who was close behind im, “That’s what it does, and I don’t fancy the , idea of it. There seems to be thunder and light- ning in those clouds. It would be fierce to be caught in such a storm*up here, where there seems to be no shelter of any kind,” replied Sam. Fifteen minutes later the clouds had monuted as far ag the zenith, and the boys heard the rumbling of — the thunder quite clearly, and saw the opaque - masses streaked hére and there with zigzag flashes of electricity. The worst feature of the ~ approaching storm seemed to be the wind it was bringing with it. Judging from the speed of the ~ clouds, it was evidently a high velocity. : To be caught in such_a wind where they were, was one of the most perilous features of mountain _ traveling, for it was liable to sweep them, burros _ and all, down the slope that lay on one side of — them. None knew this. fact better than Pedro, and he was aiming for a certain cavern, where he intended to halt for the evening meal.and pass — the night. The steérm was swooping down upon - the party when a turn in the trail brought them in sight of the cavern, that looked like a black hole in the mountain side. The howling and shrieking of the onrusing wind was in the ears — of the boys as Pedro dismounted from his burro. _ outside the cave, and ordered the others to enter. — Two minutes later it seemed to the boys as if - all nature had broken loose and was whooping © things up like a party of cowboys on a rampage, While the storm was at its height Pedro produced some of the pa they had brought with them, arid with a lantern to partially illuminate — the back cf the cave, they made a satisfactory meal. The storm was over in about twa hours, and when the sky cleared and the moon rose over _ the summit of the eastern range, the party spread — blankets on the stony floor of the cavern and turn- ed in for the night. At the first blush of daylight Pedro aroused the boys, who found breakfast waiting for them. No time was lost in resuming — the journey, as it was desirable to cover'as much ground as possible in the cool of the early morn- ns ; : a es Travel that day. was much easier than during the preceding afternoon, and they met with no particularly dangerous places. When night over- took them once more they were within sight of the western spur alluded to in the appeaiaaee letter of John Carden. They reached the spur the next day, about noon, and then began the search for the particular spot ‘where the man ¥ persumed to be, either dead. or’ alive. Many dif- on wa
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A = DICK HADLEY’S MINE 6 15 ficulties were now encountered. Pedro had never - been through this spur, and he had to feel his way. “What do you suppose brought Carden out to such a Lord-forsaken place as these mountains?” asked Sam. : “T suppose he is a prospector, hunting for gold and silver,” replied Dick. ; “T should think that was a mighty risky and un- certain business,” interjected Charley. “Tt’s a paying business if you make a lucky strike,” said Dick. fhe party stopped for rest and dinner at a shady grove on the side of the mountain. A fire was built and some coffee pre- ared. A number of potatoes were baked in their jackets, in the hot ashes, and this, with cold meat * and a supply of fruit, constituted their al fresco meal. ‘Pedro and the peon rolled cigarettes and lighted them, while the’boys stretched themselves out on a patch of soft turf. An. hour passed and then Dick awoke from a cat nap. His com- panions were asleep; so, also, were Pedro and the _ brown man. “T ouess I’ll take a look around and see what I can see,” said Dick to himself. Pak e got up, lazily stretched himself, and walked a A hundred yards took him out of sight of ~ his sleeping companions, and then he found him- self quite alone. No matter where he looked, whether to the right or left, front, or back, or downward, there was nothing to be seen but Na- ture, in her most lonesome garb. Rocks, trees, shrubs, and mountainous elevations, there were ‘a-plenty, but a house, or even the rudest kind of g shack, was not to be seen. There wasn’t even an anima] or bird of any kind, much less the figure of aman. He stepped out to the edge of a narrow promontory, on which grew a lone tree, * the better to look down into a gully that ran at an acute angle toward a deep break in the moun- tains. As he grasped the trunk of the tree and “leaned forward the ground suddenly caved from under him, and he felt himself falling. He ut- tered an involuntary ery of terror, and threw: both arms around the tree to save himself. As his weight came upon the tree its roots be- . gan to yield, for they had been undermined by ‘years of rainstorms, Dick struggled desperately © to regain a footing on the top of the promontory ‘again. The more he exerted himself the lower the tree bent and shivered. Had the excited boy been a bit cooler he might have avoided the ca- - tastrophe which followed. But he bent all his - energies on the tree, like a drowning man grasp- ing at a small and unsubstantial board. The re- sult was the tree could not stand the strain, and gave way,-carrying Dick down with it into the gully. His voice ran out shrill and clear on the still air, and reached the ears of Pedro, who had just awakened from his siesta. But owing to the - way the rocks deflected the sound, it seemed to comé from a, different direction to what it really ~ did, Phe Mexican sprang to his feet and listened, but the cry was not repeated. Then he glanced over where the , aes lay, and saw that Dick Had- ley was missing. -- CHAPTER .VI.—John Carden’s Heir. Fortunately for Dick, the tree swung around, and fell under instead of on top of him; and the - _ branches helped, in a large way, to break his fall on striking the inclined gully. The shock, how- ever, dazed him, but did not shake off his con- Yulsive hold on the trunk. The tree slid down the smooth, side of the gully as if it was in a ~ chute, and the half-unconscious boy went with it, clinging to it desperately, like some wild ani- mal to its prey. The gully wound its circuitous way around the mountain side, and the tree and boy followed its course. At some points it was so steep that the tree attained considerable speed, which carried it over level places on its. route, In this way Dick was borne a long distance down the mountain, until at last the gully ended a short distance behind a good-sized log house which was -perched upon a low section of the range. There were signs of much broken ground near it, and a hole of some little depth. These excavations had evidently been made by the hand of a man, for the earth was thrown up in heaps about them. The tree slid out of the gully on to level ground and came to rest. It was soe moments before Dick seemed to be conscious tha’ he was no longer railroading it down the moun- tain side. Finally he let go of the tree and sat up. - “Gee! I wonder where I am?” he-asked him- self, as he began to look around. “It seems to” ~ me, after that fall, I had a mighty long slide down the mountain. I wonder how far I could have come? I’m afraid Ill never be able to find my way back to where I started from, in which case I’ll be in a bad pickle. Pedro and the others may never be able to find me, and I stand : a good chance of starving to death out here in the 3 wilderness.' That’s a fierce prospect. However, there is no use of moping over it. I must be up ~ and doing. I ought to be truly thankful that E am not injured in any way. If I had got a leg ~~ broken, or internal injuries, it would have been * all up with me, for fair, but as nothing seems to — be the matter with me, as far as I can see, I have a fighting chance to get out of my hole.” Fs Dick was a plucky chap, and never allowed himself to be cast down by adverse circumstances. He got on his feet, and then the first thing his eyes rested on was the house. Much to his as- tonishment, a small American flag was. waving™ in the breeze from a pole at the’ other end of the building. It looked rusty and weather-stained, as if it had been there some time. oe “IT guess I’ve lighted on my feet, after all!” . — ejaculated the boy, with a thrill of hope. . “A house, especially one with a flag flying ‘from it, looks like the presence of civilization. An Ameri- | can flag, tool—means that one or more of my 5 own countrymen are here. [I shall have no trou- ble in explaining my situation, and will get food — and shelter. This is ¢ertainly great. luck.” ee, Dick started toward the house. _Then he saw the piles of dirt, and the holes, with a shovel and a pickaxe thrown carelessly into one of them. “These people are miners, that.is clear. Per- haps they know som&thing about John Carden.” As Dick uttered the man’s name he stepped short, as if an idea had struck him. Fi eM “Maybe this is John Carden’s stamping-ground, — and I shall find him in the cabin,” he said. “It —~— must be so. As Pedro and the rest 0f our party ~ ‘are so near, they will probably find this spot —~ before long, and everything will be all right.” As Dick looked more carefully around, the si- cis ate Tt teA Dat: b
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é Beis DICK HADLEY’S MINE Pie lence and general air of desolation began to im- ; -press him with the idea that if this was Carden’ habitation he was either dead, or had so far ré- “covered as to strike out for help om his own ac- count. Dick walked around to the front of the house. The door stood slightly ajar. The pos- sibility that he might find a corpse inside was so unpleasant that for several moments he hesi- tated to enter the cabin. At length he mustered up courage to do so. ‘one xo6m only. It was quite bare of any real furniture. There was a rude kind of home-made table near the center of the room, beside which stood part of a thick log that had evidently been used for a stool. A wide fireplace, built of stones, cemented with clay or mud, with a chimney of the same mate- rial, stood at the back of the cabin. A charred log and a lot of partially burned tree limbs lay in it, amid a pile of dead ashes. A heap of what »appeared to be rock lay piled against one corner, In the opposite corner was a rude couch, covered with blankets, and on the blankets lay the form - of a man. As far as Dick could judge, as Le stood at- the open door, the man was either in a deep sleep or dead. “Phat must be John Carden,’ thought Dick, “and it looks as if the poor fellow was indeed dead. Well, I must make sure of it. It is pos- sible he may still haye some life in him.” He advanced slowly toward the couch. As he drew near; he saw the man’s hand move, and then his head, which was turned toward the wall, moved also. “He is not dead,” breathed Dick, thankfully. “JT have arrived here in time to be of some as- sistance to him.” be He reached the couch and looked down on the rostrate man. The man turned his eyes un at im and essayed to speak, but the words died away in a whisper. ’ “Are you John Carden?” Dick asked him. The man feebly nodded his head. “You sent a letter for help, tied under the wing of a wild condor. I got the bird, read your note, and induced the proprietor of the hacienda where I and two friends of mine were stopping to send out a search party to find you. I came with the party, which is now somewhere near the summit of the range, within a mile or two of this. spot.” Carden raised his hand and pointed to a shelf on which stood a demijohn. Dick saw that he wanted it, and hastened*to take it down. He re- moved the stopper, and the odor told him that it contained whisky. There was an overturned tin cup on the floor beside the bed. Dick picked it up, half filled it with whisky. and poured some of it down Carden’s throat. It greatly revived him. “Thank you, my boy,” he said, gratefully, in a tone loud enough for Dick to hear. “How long*have you beem ill?” Dick’ asked, “About three weeks,” Carden replied, “but I managed to keep on my feet Until the day before esterday, when I gave in completely. Nothing as passed my lips in eae Bgl hours.” “If there is anything in the house I can cook or prepare for you, let me know,” said Dick. “There are some canned goods on yonder shelf which may be of use to you and your friends, _ but I am past eating. I have only a few hours The building consisted of - to ‘for 1 was born in New York City, to live, at the outside, an occasional sup of oe the last.” “You may not be as bad as you think,” Dick, trying to encourage ies = “There is no hope for me at all, I am as good — as a dead man. But it is a satisfaction to me ; that some one has reached me before I died. - ae that log up and sit down. I want to talk Dick did as he requeste@® Piet Snes ae te Carden. ville, New Yor tate. I am a pros mining man. I came into’ these pitt 18 = months ago, to follow up a clue I got from an old peon. With my knowledge of ore outcrop- pings I succeeded in spotting a rich golden lode, I staked it out accordirig to the laws of Mexico, and took title to the richest part of this property on which this cabin stands. Give me another ase my a I feel faint.” _ Dick poured more whisky into the cup an it to his lips. His voice at once pea aoe er nr ghee brighter. r “The documents attesting my rights, and ; defining the area of the rate one filed ae foe proper office at Chihuahua, and no one can legal- and shall want nothing but whisky to keep my ateciath replied | I hail from Sack- “ly deprive me of the fruits of my discovery. Death, however, has a claim that no man can ~ ‘evade, and the gold that I expected to possess can never be mine now. Another-drink, boy.” Dick supplied him with it. mise “What is your name, my lad? American, I believe.” . “My name is Dick Hadley. I am You are an an American, 1 N and my home is there. | am spending my vacation down around _ the railroad with two of my friends and school- -_ mates. The father of one of them isthe engi- neer who is building the new branch line of the Mexican Central. We were at a hacienda among * the foothills of the Sierra Madre, spending a few days, when your letter asking for help came into my hands in the. most wonderful way.” ~ 5 Dick, in as few words as possible, rehearsed _ tie ee that bed overtaken the condor that car- ried the prospector’s note, and how he h ae possession of the bird. i ie -“Tt was the will of Heaven that I should die utterly alone in the wilderness,” said Cardone Dick then explained how the party had set out for that section of the Sierra. Madre two days perso ne how 4 had core to meet with the ac- cident that resu in his appearance on th re all by himself. ne. Bee “You had a remarkable escape from death,” ~~ said the prospector, “but it looks as if the hand of Providence had guided you here before I died. I shall probably be dead before your companions _ reach this place, sa what I have to do must be done now and through you. This mining prop erty is easily worth a million or more money. The only heir I have is a nephew, who i®a grea: scamp, and I have no wish that this discovery should revert to him. The only way I can avyoi his ultimately getting possession of it is to deed — it over to somebody else. The last time I was . in Chihuahua I had a presentiment that some-~ ~ thing might happen to me, and to query against s my property going to my nephew I had a de legally drawn up transferring. all my rights this property to any one I might deem worthy
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DICK HADLEY’S MINE , 9 of the gift. I signed it in the presence of a notary, Resear the name of the recipient blank, to be filled in subsequently, if circumstances ren- dered such a course necessary. That paper is “with the copies of my other papers, in those ‘saddlebags at the foot of my couch. Go to the bag, my lag, and get it out, with a fountain-pen you will also find there, and I will insert your name in the paper, and this property will then pecome legally yours after you have filed the doc- ' ument in Chihuahua.” ; “Do you mean to say that you actually intend making me a present of this gold mine you have discovered?” cried Dick in astonishment. --“¥ do. Lose no time, but get the paper, so I ut your name in it, for 1 am growing muc er, and,soon I will be unable to hold the ” can wea ‘pen. i : ~~ Pick, almost dazed by his great luck, hunted for the indicated document. As soon as he found it, and got the stylograp- ® ic penholder, he 4 a Carden up, an the prospector wrote Dick’s name in the blank space with a trembling hand, but sufficiently clear to avoid any error. ; vThere!-—the mine is your property—Dick Had- ki ley’s mine from this out, and no longer John Carden’s. I congratulate you, my lad, on the acquisition of such a valuable property. Heaven meant you should have it, or you had not been guided here in such a wonderful way.” Dick expressed his gratitude for the favor which the dying man had bestowed on him. “You are welcome to it, my boy. My message gent by the condgr came into your hands in a way that assures me that you were selected to be my heir, and I have merely carried out the will of a Supreme Intelligence who doubtless a js mine will ultimately yield you.” ~~ After disposing of his mining property John Carden grew weaker as the moments passed, aga after the lapse of an hour Dick saw that he - could not live much longer. The whisky ceased to have a of a reviving effect upon him, for ~@ his vitality was now at a low ebb. Finally he became unconscious, and Dick left his side and > went to the door to look out, in a faint hope that he might see the rest of his own party some- where in the neighborhood, looking for him. As he stood there, looking down the slope, the sun -wanished behind the distant mountain tops, and as it disappeared the breath left the body of John Carden, . 2 CHAPTER VII.—Trouble. ; yi “Tt’s over five hours since I fell down that gully,” thought Dick. “I think it is about time - _Bedto and the others made some pregress toward finding me. It isn’t the pleasantest thing in the ' world to have to remain all alone with a dead man in this lonesome spot, even if the dead man saaiies made your fortune for you. Death is some- os anceship with. It gives one a creepy feeling to It will soon be dark now, and unless my <s ; ee - ¢ = knows that you will make good use of the money . se es TET Sen: er ee ae ~ < party shows up pretty soon I’ll have to give up all hope of seeing any of them till to-morrow.” At that moment an idea struck Dick. If his friends failed to show up before dark he would build a bonfire to try and attract their attention. With this idea in his head, the boy began to gather a pile of dry brush and branches of trees. When the heap was ready for lighting he kept on at the work till he had secured a considerable extra supply of material to keep the fire going- for a couple of hours. By the time he had finished his labors he began to fee] the gnawings of a healthy appetite, so he entered the cabin and inspected thte supply of canned provisions the dead man had not used. They were all American brands of preserved meats and vegetables, which Carden had bought in Chihuahua and brought out to his mine. Dick selected a small tin of boned chicken, a couple gf handfuls of crackers, and, taking the tin cup? went outside to where a stream of pure. water flowed down the rocks. There he sat on the ground and made a hearty meal of the proven- der. -By the time he had finished the darkness of night fell on the face of the landscape. He lighted a lantern he found in the cabin and then started- his bonfire. The flames, after they got- well started, leaped heavenward in a way that could not escape notice for miles around. As the fire languished he fed it afresh, and kept up the work until the last of his reserve fuel was ex- hausted. Then he gathered some more, determined to make a strong bid for the attention of his friends, if they were anywhere within sight of the blaze. He kept at his self-imposed work until he grew weary, and laid down under 4 tree to seek repose for the night. He was half asleep when he heard sounds as of persons approaching. Sitting up, he ~ looked around. Four figures, mounted on burros, the last one leading a fifth animal, suddenly ap- peared out of the gloom close by. Although Dick could not see them very distinctly, he guessed they were Pedro, the peon, and his two friends. He sprang to his feet and rushed forward into the dying glare of the fire so they could see him. Instantly he heard a shout from Sam and Char- ey. e y “Hello, Dick!” they cried, springing from their burros and running up to him. “Hello; chappies!” replied Dick joyfully. “I’m mighty glad to see you again!” “How the ‘dickens did you get here, Dick?” asked Sam. *“We thought you had tumbled down - the other side of the mountain, and we’ve been looking for you al] the afternoon.” “You’r never guess how I did get here, nor what I found when I reached the face.” “Tell us all about it,” said Charley eagerly. Here Pedro came up and shook hands with him, Saying something in Spanish. which neither: Dick nor his friends understood. Dick then told how he hid fallen from the top of the promontory inta the gully, and how the tree had borne him down the mountainside. His friends thought he had had a pretty strenuous experience. “This is the place we've been hunting for, fel- lows,’”’ concluded Dick. ; re a ou mean John Carden’s hangout?” said Sam, ase? aes pee
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10 “And where is Carden?” “Dead.” ‘ ‘ “Dead!” repeated Sam. ‘Then we have arrived too late to be of any use to him.” “You have; but I got here before he died.” “Then he hasn’t been dead long?” “About four hours. He died shortly before > sundown.” “Where is he—in the cabin?” “Ves.” Dick managed to explain the situation to Pedro, and the entire party entered the house to look at the dead man. Afterward Dick took Sam and Charley aside and told them about thé mine and how it had come into his possession. “Gee whiz! So you’re actually the owner of this gold mine?” cried Sam, staring almost in- credulously at Dick. “That’s what I am.” “How much do you think it’s worth?” “Carden said that it was easily wérth a million.” ; “A million!” gurgled. Charley. “And it’s all yours?” : “Hvery bit of it.” “Well, talk about blind. luck!” cried. Sam. “You've fallen into the butter tub head over heels. Going to sell it, I suppose?” : “JT don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I ‘must see your father about it. He will be able ‘to advise me what to do.” ce “Where’s the gold Carden took out of it? He must have got: some.” “There’s a big pile of quartz-rock in the corner of the cabin, and one of Carden’s saddle-bags is ful] of small nuggets of pure gold,” replied Dick. “Couldn’t you let Charley and I do some dig- ging on our own ccount, just to pay our expenses down here?” asked Sam eagerly. “Sure! I intended to give you a chance to make $50,000 or $100,000 apiece. I am not a hog, to wfnt to keep it all to myself, even if it does be- long to me,” answered Dick heartily. “Youre a brick, old man! You won’t miss what we get away with.” , ( “We'll stay here a few days and work the mine, and see how it pans out; then we will go to Chihuahua and I will file my claim to theemine, so I shall have no trouble about holding on to it,” said Dick. : “Yow about Pedro and his side partner?” said Sam. “After we bury Carden tomorrow they’ll probably want to return to the hacienda right away. As soon as Pedro discovers that there is gold here he may put in a claim for a share of ite” “Hig claim won’t count for anything. How- ever, I’m willing to give him some of the gold ore to keep him from making any trouble for me.” The boys talked a while longer about the mine - and then returned to the cabin, where they found Pedro and his companion already asleep on the floor. They followed the example of the Mex- jeans, and did not awaken until they were aroused in the morning by the overseer, who told them - preakfast was ready. After the meal Pedro went nosing about the place. : He looked into the big ‘hole dug by the dead prospector and afterward examined the specimens of ore in the cabin. He was about to investigate the contents of the sad- “ dle-bags, when Dick interfered, and told him that iY DICK HADLEY’S MINE the dead man had given him all his property be- fore he died. The Mexican grinned unpleasantly and walked off. He returned with the peon, and pointing to some empty bags, told the native to fill them with the gold ore in the corner. Dick said nothing till Pedro told the peon to take the bags outSide; then he told the Mexican that the ore was his prop- erty, and that he would make him a present of one. of the bags, but no more. Pedro regarded him.with an ugly look and ordered the peon to proceed, Dick called Sam and Charley to his side, and told Pedro plainly enough that he would re- ~ port him to Senor Gonzales if he didn’t leave all but a single *bag of the ore alone. drew an ugly-looking knife from his. belt, but after a moment’s reflection turned his back on the boys and went outside, calling the peon with him. The two retired to a short distance and had a talk. ’ “Looks as if we’re the overseer,” said Sam apprehensively, ‘Dick thought so, too. As they were unarmed, and both Mexicans had knives, it looked as if the latter possessed a decided advantage over them, “Tf we only had a revolver or rifle now, we could stand them off, in case it came to a scrap,’ said Sam. “Didn’t Carden have any weapons?” “T don’t know,” replied Dick. “Let’s look and see, while those chaps are out- side,” suggested Charley. ; They took up the saddle-bags, and found a | holster with a brace of loaded revolvers in them. — “Now we’re safe,’? said Sam,as he lifted. the holster up. So “Here’s a gun,’ zine, rifle of American make from under the bed, ’ together with a cartridge belt fully supplied with — cartridges. Ee Pedro half — likely to have trouble with said Charley, pulling a maga- Dick took possession of the rifle and the other boys put a revolver apiece in their belts. “Now we are in a position to. defend the ore.” said Sam. seat.” i At this moment Pedro and the peon returned to the cabin. The Mexican looked primed for busi- ness. He gave Dick to understand that he claimed the ore and was going to take it. tapped his knife. Dick then picked up the r’fle, whereupon the Mexican started back with an ugly frown, For a moment the opposing sides ap- peared to be at a deadlock. : “T settle for half,” said Pedro at length. a “No,” replied Dick. “Ill give you two bags of ore and call it square.” ; The Mexican was not inclined to accept. that kind of promise. He began to threaten Dick in “Mr. Pedro’ ‘will have to take a back. Dick denied his — “right to it. Pedro grinned in a sinister way and Spanish. Although the boys did not understand — a his words, they easily understood his meaning. — Dick showed by his plucky demeanor that he did not propose to be bulldozed. Finding that he was "making no headway, Pedro went outside again _ with the peon, and they held another consulta- - Pedro then returned and demanded four ~~ Dick said he - tion. bags, one of them for the peon. could have three, but that was the limit. The Mexican seemed to give in, and ordered his com- rades to remove three of-the bags. ; Ree “We come back presently and help bury m > , Rear pee se)
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DICK HADLEY’S MINE said Pedro,.as the peon carried out the last of the three bags. : Dick nodded, and the boys began to converse - together as to their future plans. . “T wonder what’s keeping those chaps so long, : ‘ gaid Dick, at length. “‘Let’s go out and see. The boys walked outside and discovered that Pedro, the peon, and the five burros had vanished. { CHAPTER VIII—A Jealous Beauty. . Looks as if they’d skipped = and left us to shift for ourselves,” said Dick. 5 p Se knd taken the burros with them!” ejaculated Sam.’ et “With the provisions!” gasped Charley... “We'll starve!” ; ; 3 . “No, we won’t starve,” replied Dick. There is a supply of canned goods in the cabin.” . “Ts there?” replied Charley, much relieved. “Well, let them go. We won’t miss them,” said Diek. “When Pedro*gets back to the hacienda without us he’ll have to give an explanation to Senor Gonzales. I guess he’ll find out that he’s up against it.’ tains,” said Sam. “That he hunted for us and uldn’t find us.” eeThen the senor will bring a party out to hunt us up. He'll consider himself responsible for our safety, for we are his guests. He notified your father that we were going to remain at his place for a week or two,” said Dick. ES ~ Sam and Charley immediately recovered their = Spirits. : , We can have a dandy time camping out here Sy by ourselves till Senor Gonzales comes after us,” _~ remarked Sam. : aes, me aes? “We can put th our time digging for gold,” in- » terjected Charley enthusiastically. “The first thing we’ve got to do is to bury John Carden,” said Dick. ; “Let’s do that right away,” said Charley. “No, we won’t do it till sundown,” answered Dick. “We can make our preparations, however. We've got to dig the grave in a suitable spot, and _-we ought to make some kind of a coffin to put him . in, There may be enough boards in the bunk to “answer that purpose.» Let’s hunt up a burial spot first—some place where he is not likely to be disturbed. Up the mountain, for instance, under _ the trees.” : i hey ascended the mountain behind the cabin, and finally found a place that by tac to be just ‘right for the solemn purpose. ith the pickaxe and shovel which they had brought along they @ug a hole six feet in length, two and one-half feet wide, and aes five feet deep. Then they eturned to the cabin. “ds . Carden was lifted from the bunk and placed on the floor. Dick found a hatchet and a can of nails. ~ ‘He knocked the bunk to pieces and found it would “afford boards enough to make a suitable box for e corpse. In half an hour the coffin was ready. was lined with a blanket after a rest had been in to hold up the dead prospector’s head. den, who was as rigid as a board now, was din. A large stone was then brought in and J ra aoe . y E a at é =r “He'll say we got lost somewhere in the moun- : t a < 3 art 11 one end of the box placed upon it, while the other ~ end rested on the’log of wood which the dead man had used for a chair. — “We'll let him: lie in state now till sundown,” 5 said Dick. 5 @ The boys then went outside and inspected the hole out of which Carden had dug his quartz: Afterward they found that the prospector had secured his nuggets an@ gold dust out of the bed of a stream below. The pan he had used to wash out the pay “dirt” was found standing against a tree with a few glittering specks still showing in, the small quantity of sand that remained in it. Sam and Charley were so anxious to get to work digging for gold quartz that they started in as soon as the property had been looked over, and Dick contented himself sitting under a tree and. watching them perspire at the laborious job. The two boys took turns in the hole, and each succeeded in getting out a small pile of the real stuff, much te their satisfaction. ° For dinner the boys had canned corn. beef, crackers and spring water, and although there was not much variety to the meal they were just as satisfied as though they had enjoyed a regular table d’hote. Dick wasn’t quite ‘sure that Pedro- had actually deserted them. He hada suspicion ~~ that the Mexican might be hiding a short distance away with the purpose of returning during the night when they were asleep, taking possession of their arms and the rest of the ala quagtz.. While Sam and Charley resumed their digging after dinner he was considerin® how they would be able to guard against such a contingency. He decided to bury the quartz somewhere up in the woods for safety’s sake. They couldn’t take the stuff with them, anyway, on their first trip back, — “and it would be taking great chances of'losing it by leaving it at the mercy of any wayfarer who might come that way while they were absent from the mine. » The digging soon became too hot work for Sam and Charley to continue long at, and they sought the shelter of the trees for a long rest, About three o’clock Dick took a look at Carden and saw that his body showed signs of rapid decomposition. He concluded that it was . better to bury the prospector right away and not wait till sundown. : So he notified his friends that the interment- had better be carried out immediately. A second blanket was placed above the corpse and the cover nailed on the box. They had quitea job carrying the box up to the grave, but they of it there at last, and with the ai®of a board slid it down into its last resting place. .* Dick, as chief mourner, said an impromptu rayer, while Sam and Charley stood by with their ats off. Ag soon as the short service was over the hole was filled in and a mound rgised on top. A stone was placed at the foot of the grave, and a piece of board for a headstone on which Dick printed the name of “JOHN CARDEN” in big es with the words “Sackville, N. Y.” under . » p*" 4x" .. Dick then looked around for a suitable spot to bury the bags of gold quartz. He discovered a — small eave in the rocks, and there the boys: dug — a hole deep enough to hide the bags, and covered — them up, afterwards spreading a lot of brush over it to conceal the fact that an excavation had been Me a made there.' Dick brought the saddlebags ther ~
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12 too, and covered them with brush. He also left the rifle and cartridge-belt in the cave. “Now, if Pedro returns to-night, expecting to -© eatch ‘us napping, he won’t get much for his trouble,” said Dick, in a tone of satisfaction. The boys decided to keep watch, anyway, for ‘part of the night against a possible surprise. They were not disturbed; however, and in the . morning they concluded that Pedro had actually © left them to their fate. They decided to remain on the ground for a day or two longer and then set out for the hacienda, where they intended to report to Senor Gonzales the treatment they had received from Pedro. Sam and Charley did not - do any more digging until the sun got down in _. the heavens, and then Dick joined them. Dick was turning over some of the ore.ghis friends had thrown out of the hole when the three . were treated to a big surprise. A steeple-crowned hat and then the face and lithe figure of Pepita Gonzales suddenly appeared up the slope in front of “the eabin. ; The girl looked around and then spied Dick, ~. shovel in hand, tossing the gold quartz into a pile. His back was towards her, but Sam, who rose out of the hole at that moment, saw her, and uttered . an astonished exclamation as the girl ran for- ward. She stopped a short distance off and looked ~ at Dick with flashing eyes as he turned and recog- nized her, “Why, Pepita!” he cried, in amazement. “You here!” : ; “Si, Senor Dick.«I am here,” she said, in a pas- ~— -gionate tone.~ “See what I found in your room when you had gone.” > She held up a photograph of a lovely blonde of ~ seventeen. It was the picture of Dick’s girl in ’* New York, which he had brought with him and had left it in the pocket of his light jacket at the hacienda, for the boys had started on their trip - without their jackets, the warm weather rendering . such a covering unnecessary. Pepita, with feminine curiosity; had gone through Dick’s jacket and found the photograph. -[t was inscribed, “Yours lovingly, Jessie.” : The Senorita, who was already madly infatuated with the young American, flew into a fit of jealous rage at the sight of the picture and the writing. Here was a rival, and evidently a favored one. And she realized that the girl was a beauty of an ~ opposite type to herself. She had always hated > plondes, anyway; and now to find that one of that class seemed to have a h on the boy of her » choice made her simply furious. Her first impulse was to throw the picture on the floor and crush it with her heel into a shapeless mass. Z changed her mind like a flash. She determined to save it and demand an explanation of Dick, forgetting that she had acquired no right to call ‘him to task on such a subject. Her impatience ‘was such that she could not wait Dick’s return from his trip. Taking advantage of her father’s ‘unexpected absence to Chihuahua, she determined to set out with several peons to intercept Diek on his return from the western spur of the Sierra Madre. She took this step unknown to her mother, who had very little céntrol over her. ~ When she and her attendants reached-the point in. the range. where the western spur jutted off, 2 they camped to wait for Pedro and the boys to appear. Two hours later the overseer and the ee DICK HADLEY’S MINE ‘them ladened with the bags of quartz ore. _ know where the boys were. But. she- ae “% SS See , — Mes Ay SG yee peas s ; Fo
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s* \ zi _-Pedro raised the rifle and covered him. Then he ordered the two peons to secure Dick. - “Here, I object. to this kind of treatment,” pro- ‘tested the boy... w Sam and Charley drew their revolvers to pro- tect their companion, but the overseer cowed them with the rifle while the peons sprang upon Dick and made him their prisoner. : *“Took here, Pepita, what is the meaning of this?” asked Dick, who could not help understand- - ing that she was the cause of the trouble. ~. The girl turned her back on him and walked away. Pedro told the peons to lead the boy to _ the cabin. © You stay where you are!” he hissed to Sam and Charley. “+ As soon as Dick had been brought to the house .. Pepita turned upon him in a rage. 3 ? “You think to play with me, Senor Dick,” she - gritted. “You make love to me and yet you have - ‘another girl: somewhere else that you say you love. You think I stand that? No, I kill you first!” -- What the dickens is the matter with you, Pepita? I never made love to you.” “Madre de Dios! Have not I ears and eyes?” she hissed. “You make me think I am all the world to you, and I give you my heart. Now you say you never make love. You shall marry me, or I will fix you. You think I will let you go back to that other one—the girl with the—bah!— light hair and fair face? Never shall you marry -her! You belong to me, and I will have you or you shall die! Entiende?”. _ Dick was paralyzed. There wasn’t the least doubt but that the Senorita was thoroughly in f.. earnest. . + “You say, I must marry you? You must be 2 -erazy!’’ said the boy. a “You refuse?” she cried, with flashing eyes. _ > _. “Why, of course,-I refuse. I’m only a boy yet. What do I want to get married for? I’ve never - thought about such a thing.” ; ; “Suppose I tell Pedro to shoot you if you will not marry me? - He will do as I say.” * -“You wouldn’t tell him to do any such thing.” “You do not know me, Senor Dick. You shall ednsent to marry me or you will regret. it. I _. would rather see you dead than any other girl _ should possess you.” “ ° If Dick had been temporarily taken with Pepita ~ on account of her beauty and fascinating ways, he was now quite cured of his liking for her by _. her present deportment. Her persistency in in- sisting that he marry her whether he wanted to or -. mot had a’tendency to make him Jose respect for » her. At any rate, he.was not a boy who could be bulldozed into doing what he didn’t care to do. «T didn’t come to Mexico to get married,” he said, impatiently. “Why, I ain’t done my school= “ing yet.” © pee = Will you marry me, or not?” she demanded, » angrily. _ “No, I don’t intend to marry you or anybody élse for some years yet.” : aie - She raised her hand as if about to strike him in -__ the face, and then, changing her mind; she beck- ned to Pedro, and they walked away a short dis- =. tance. | ; “Pedro,” she said in Spanishg“I must bring him to terms. I am determined to make him my hus- band. Youunderstand?” = : “Perfectly, Senorita. You wish my help?” — S. er; COE The oo Nie be dee Ds ‘sey “3 DICK HADLEY’S MINE _ fashion, as the operfing was line tx ak ee 5 te “ ot fee Lo = @ ; : eae 13. “Yes. If you can make him do as I wish I will reward you.” ; : ree “Then leave the matter in te She He shall — marry you whenever you wish him to, or I do not know what I am talking about,” he replied, with a sinister smile. ; “You must not injure him. He is mine, and I will not have him hurt,” she cried, impetuously. “T will frighten him, that is all,” replied the ' Mexican, evasively. “If anything happens tohim it will be his own fault, not miné. I must use strong measures with him, for he is a boy of much, pluck. He will not easily bé brought to terms, but, depend on it, he will consent to do as you wish him to before I am done.” ; oe “You swear that he will come to no harm?” said~ Pepita. : ‘ “T will swear that I will notlay a finger on him « to his injury.” . Se The a 1 seemed satisfied with that assurance, and told Pedro that she depended on him to make | things come around as she wished to have them. — Pedro, on the morning he and his companion deserted the boys, had discovered a-cave half a mile from that spot which had evidently once been the scene of a tragedy, for he had found a human skeleton in it. He believed he knew how the man “had met his death, and he determined that Dick Hadley should have a chance of. experiencing the ‘ same torture. His plan was to force the boy te give up all the gold quartz he had in his posses- sion, and swear to keep away from thé locality of the mine for good: and all. 3 fs That was his main object in pretending to fall =x in with Pepita’s plans. Rei He- cared -very little whether he helped the Senorita or not, for he had decided to leave her father’s service and take possession of the dead ~~ prospector’s mine. As soon as his conference with the girl was ended he ordered his peon as- sociate to bring up one of the burros. Dick’s arms were bound behind him and he was placed astride — the animal. The peon was directed to bring along — the shovel the boy had been using at the time of = « his capture. Pedro walked ahead while the peot led the animal. Dick, astonished at the turn | events had taken so unexpectedly, wondered where he was being taken to, and what purpose | the overseer had in view. ZS Sete #am and Charley had attempted to interfere in Dick’s behalf, but Pepita, who had taken poses- -sion of her rifle again, overawed them, while her — two peons jumped in, overpowered and disarmed _them. They were forced up against a tree and tied to it, back to back, after which they’ were left _~ “to meditate over the extraordinary change in af- fairs. Had this been Pedro’s work alone, they would not have been so surprised, since they had * evidence that he coveted the gold quartz;,but the appearance of» Pepita on the scene, 80 far away from her home, and her crazy attitude toward ~ Dick fairly dumfounded them. She did not seem — to be the same girl at all. She had developed into _~ a vengeful little spitfire. In the meanwhile, Pedro led the way down the valley to a cavernous open- © “He ing in the mountain side. The burro was tied te a tree and Dick was lifted off his back by the peom and forced to enter the cave. This proved to be a — = sort of vestibule .to an inner and larger cavern, “a lighted by a great jagged hole in the roof, through which’ the sunlight forced its way pe a stragglii S and are ay ‘ é She we
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14 Over with bushes. Directly under the break in the roof was a hole in the floor of the cave, about seven feet deep and several yards in cireumfer- ence. A &tout limb of a tree, ten feet tall, shorn of its branches, stuck upright in the center of the hole. Hanging in a heap at the foot of this pole, sustained by strands of rotten rope, was the skele- ton of a man, partially attired in the remnants of a thin suit of clothing. This grewsome object had evidently been in that pit for years. That he was a victim of some horrid crime was sufficiently clear. He had evidently been tied to the stake and then left to his fate. , ’ At first sight it would have struck a beholder that he had perished miserably of starvation, but _*Pedro had a different idea from the presence of a - thin stream of water which flowed down the rocks and ran across the floor of the cave, disappearing through a narrow subterranean opening, together with his knowledge of what had happened to an- other man under similar circumstances. * Whether he was right or not in his surmise was immaterial, and did not particularly interest him, since. the conditions looked ripe for the scheme he had in his own mind in connection with Dick Hadley. : CHAPTER X.—Face. To Face With a Hor- rible Death. . “What did you bring me here for?”” demanded - Dick, whose eyes, not yet accustomed to the par- tial gloom of the cavern, had not made out the skeleton at the bottom of the hole. “To talk business,” replied Pedro, significantly. y “What»is the nature of your business?” ' _.. “Pepita wishes that you marry her.” “T can’t help what she wishes.” “You will not do it, eh?” “Not if I can help myself.” “Suppose you can’t help yourself—what then?” To this Dick-made no reply. “Since you do not care to marry her, there is a Way for you to not do it.” The Mexican nonchalantly rolled a cigarette and lighted it. “What do you mean?” “You are in my power,” said Pedro, blowing out a few rings of smoke that curled upward towafd the opening in the roof and disappeared into the pushes. “Your friends cannot help you. If I choose to kill you in the way that I have selected ~ no one will be the wiser.” -The cool, unconcerned way in which he uttered the last sentence gave the boy a chill. He had evidence that the overseer was a rascal at heart, _ and he knew that a Mexican of that stamp was capable gf going to any extreme tb accomplish his purpose. Hé had been told that they valued life very lightly, and that the majority of the race had no great love for Americans, whom they sneeringly called gringoes. : Here he was, a hundred miles out in the heart f the Sierra Madre Range. It would be a simple matter for the Mexican to put him out of the way, ~ throw his body into a nearby gully, and make off. + Thete wasn’t one chance in a thousand that his body would ever be found and the crime brought home to the overseer, notwithstanding the sinister ccunatances connecting Pedro with his disap- pearance. — His friends would, of course, report i ue LA tip 6-5 . = 7 ter OS tee \ Le = 55 te ; Sah fet eee yim Gaara © DICK HADLEY’S MINE = =» = 7 the facts to Mr. Swift, if they were allowed to go back to the railroad, and Pedro might be ulti- mately tracked down and arrested, but murder would have to be proved against him before he could be subjected to the extreme penalty of the’ Mexican law. ; , : Besides, Dick had no more desire to die sud- denly than any othér healthy person who sees bright prospects ahead of him. “T suppose I’ve got to admit that I’m in your power,” replied Dick; “but Senor Gonzales, as well as John Swift, contractor for the Mexican Central Railroad, will hold you responsible for any wrong you may do me.” ; “Bah!” ejaculated Pedro, contemptuously. “I. care that for them,” and the Mexican snapped his — fingers and blew out more rings of smoke. “Now, attend to me, young Senor. These are my terms for your life: The whole of “that gold quartz which the dead miner dug out, and undisputed possession of the ground so that I may dig out as: much more as I choose. You must swear to leave the country at once and never return, and you must swear to hold your tongue. Pepita, who is love-sick over you, will forget you after you are ~ gone. I will, as a condition, see to it that she does not annoy you. These are not hard terms, since — the gold quartz is not really yours. You took © charge of it because the owner is dead: You could not carry it away, anyway, and if you could, of what avai] would it be to you? You would be cheated out of most of its value.” 1 ee ea “The gold quartz and the mine as well is my property,” said Dick. “Your property!” cried Pedro, with a sarcastic amy John Card deeded 3 ‘Yes. John Carden deeded it bee me died.” bani ont pe: . “You have a paper signed him, then?” sai the Mexican, looking hard at hid boy.’ ; a x eee ou will give me that paper, too.” \ ‘L will not.” eee a! Then you refuse the conditions on whi I offer you your life?” r- ag _“I will consent to let you have all the quartzin © sight on condition that you let me go.” “Tt is not for you to make terms, youn I hold the upper hand. You will do as —you die!” : “You have no right to deprive me of the mine,” protested Dick. . ee “T make the right,” answered Pedro, with an ~ unpleasant smile, rolling- a fresh cigarette. ~ “Mendez,” turning to the peon, “search the boy’s pockets for a paper.” = “You wouldn’t find any, for I haven’t got it about me.” : “Tt is at the cabin, then?” “It is safe, where you never can find it,” re- plied Dick, defiantly. “ “You think to outwit me, eh?” said Pedro, lighting the second cigarette. “It is not possible. — You shall tell me-where you have put that paper,’ “You can’t make me do that.” ’ Ss “No, young Senor? We shall-see. I will show — you what is your fate if you make trouble for me, Bring him forward, Mendez. Let him look in the ole.” . ae rete c - Dick was forced’ forward by the p Senor. say or. eon. Hei a:
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_stinctively gazed down into the excavation, which was of stone like the cave itself. Base _ hen he saw the crumbling skeleton with its ' few shreds of clothing, and he could not repress a shudder at the sight. = “That man was once alive and full of strength like yourself, young Senor,” said Pedro, in a crafty tone. “You see he is bound to the stake, which shows that he was. put there to die. Why? you ask. Who shall say? Perhaps on_ account of a’ woman. Someone else also desired the ‘woman, maybe, and he decoyed this man here and —well, you see the result. Perhaps it was some ‘other. reason. That concerns us not. The man is dead ‘long since. How would you like that you take his place?” Diek made no reply. “We will see how you will like it for the mo- ~ ment. Perhaps it will help you to decide quickly ‘how you shall save your life,” said Pedro, with a cruel leer. “Mendez, jump into that hole and kick those bones from the pole.” The peon obeyed the overseer’s command. _ “So.” said Pedro. “Come out. Lower the young: Senor down and tie him tight to the same place.” : : : It was useless for Dick to resist. His arms ~_ -were bound and he was at the mercy of his-cap- tors. In two minutes he was in the hole and the peon, with fresh cord, was securing his chest to = the pole. od his maliciously down at his victim. “Kick those bones around his feet,” he said to Mendez, and the Peon did so. : : 2 “Now, you think it will feel nice to remain - where you are till you become as that skeleton was, young Senor,” said the Mexican, with a sin- ister smile. AES - “You are a cowardly villain to treat me this way,” replied Dick, bitterly. “You would not dare give me a chance for my life on. even terms.” “Am I not giving you all the chance you need?” grinned Pedro. “Tell me where I am to find that paper you spoke of, and swear you will leave this country without saying a word about this ee matter, and you shall go free as the air. I will “help myself to the bags of quartz in the cabin ‘without your permission.” “Tf I agreed to do as you want I have no guar- antee that you would keep your part of the agree- ment. You would probably leave.me here to 1 perish, anyway, that you might make sure I would not afterward make trouble for you.” ‘The Mexican gritted his teeth at the boy’s repl and looked at him savagely. _ y . © You will agree to my terms or I shall leave “you to your fate,” he hissed. “You shall not -* only starve, but you shall drown, too. See that rill of water running down the wall? It crosses this cave here and goes down a small hole in the rock yonder. It seems as nothing, but suppose I alter its course so that it shall run into the hole where you are? It will take two or three days to rise to your mouth, but it will get there, and all e time you will feel its cold embrace as it rises as by theh, You will suffer the tortures of hun- ger first, and then you will be strangled so slowly ~~ that the halter will be as nothing to it. ; Does the prospect please you? Give me the clue to where I ghall find that paper. Swear to leave the country. That is all I ask, then you will escape this trap Pedro puffed his cigarette and looked ; ’ thoughts were ‘certainly far from pleasant, and — much the better of him ae shen, ‘DICK HADLEY’S MINE 15 you are in. Refuse, and we leave you not to re- turn.” “IT refuse to agree to your terms.” “Then you shal] die!” cried Pedro, fiercely. “My death won’t put the paper in your way.” “I care not. I will work the mine as I intended before you spoke of the paper.” “T will make no bargain with you,” replied Dick, resolutely. ro With an imprecation, Pedro said something in Spanish to Mendez. The peon took the shovel and went outside. Presently he returned with a spadeful of earth. He cast it over the channel of the rill and cut off its flow toward its subter- ranean retreat. Then he got more earth till he had made a small embankment that turned the course of the water into the hole. Dick soon saw it running down the rocky side of the excavation in which he was held a prisoner. It began to gather in a small pool not far from the pile of bones around his feet, The poo] grew steadily ~ larger and spread out toward him. Pedro watched ” it with demoniacal satisfaction. "5 “You begin to understand what your fate will — be, young Senor,” he said, with a cruel laugh, as he rolled a third cigarette. “Yet you still have | time to reconsider. Agree to my terms,.and if I find the paper, Mendez shall return in less than an hour and release you, while the water shall resume its natura] course at once.” : “You have had my answer. Once you-had that paper in your hands you would not return. I am sure of that. If you leave me here to perish you will be a murderer, and some day will have to account for your crime. That’s all I’ve got to say to you. Go if you intend to. I will put my trust in Heaven and take my chances.” ~ : “You are a fool!” gritted the Mexican. “I will — “leave you to your fate. Come, Mendez, let us go.’* The two rascals immediately quitted the cave, and Dick was left to the silence and solitude of the wilderness. : CHAPTER XI—In Which Sam and Charley Discuss the Situation, It would not be easy to describe the sensations — ~ that filled the brain of Dick Hadley as the steps — -of the two. rascals died away outside and he rea- _ : lized that he was alone and face to face with what appeared to be certain death. The tenor of his — yet had the Mexican returned and offered him an- other chance on the same terms his reply would have been the same. To save his life he would have : yielded up every- thing if he could have had faith in Pedro’s word; but he believed that it would be more-to the vil- lain’s interest to break his agreement than to keep it, and so he would-not allow the man to have that. And yet to die, at his age and under such horrible circumstances, was a prospect enough to have appalled the stoutest heart. He had time to consider the strange con- duct of Pepita. If she loved him as her words — and actions seemed to imply, would she let him perish thus miserably without making a aN effort to save him? He did not think she would. — She had come all that distance out into the heart of the Sierra Madre to demand that he marry her. . 2 ~
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16 He saw that the girl’s hot, jealous nature had . been stirred to its very depths by the picture of his American swetheart, and that.she was capable of going to extremes in order to carry her point. Whatever arrangement she made made with Pedro he felt sure it did not embrace his death, and he wondered what the girl would say to the overseer when he returned to the cabin without him. Then he wondered what Sam and Charley would do, provided they were free to act. He was satisfied they would try to hunt him up. This ~ cavern was such a short distance from the mine that it seemed to him if they managed to strike the right trail they were bound to investigate it in _their efforts to find him. Dick began to notice that the cavern was growing more gloomy every moment. 5 This fact told him that the sun was far down beyond the mountain tops and that the darkness of night was rapidly approaching. It would soon be as black as the ace of clubs in the cave, and that would make his position all the more terrible. The chilly feeling around his feet called his atten- tion to the fact that he was now standing in an jineh or two of cold spring water, but his long boots would protect his lower limbs for some time - yet, possibly all through the night, if no relief came. At length the light faded entirely out of the cavern, and Dick was face to face with the horrors of a long night. The moments went ‘ slowly by, as if held back by the hand of time, and all Dick could do was to think and ask him- self if he really was slated to die. When Pedro, accompanied by his associates in rascality, got back to the cabin, he found Pepita impatiently awaiting his return. “What have you done with Senor Dick?” she demanded in Spanish. “He is quite safe, Senorita.” — - “Where did you take him?” — “To a certain place in the mountains.” “What place?” insisted the girl. “It need not matter to you what place,” replied the Mexican doggedly. : “JT want to know,” she answered sharply. Pedro, however, refused to tell her. _, “You have not harmed him?” she cried, her eyes beginning to flash. “Why should I, Senorita? What have I against him? Yow are the one interested in bringing him to terms.” ; “Think you he will agree to marry me?” “J think twenty-four hours of starvation will bring him around.’’ _ “You have him tied up in some place not far away?” “Yes, Senorita,” “And what did you say to him?” “That you were determined to make him marry you at any cost. That you would rather see him ~ dead than that any other girl should have him.” “That is right. He shall not leave the count o return to that other girl whose picture I foun : the pocket of his coat. He shal] marry me or—— “Well?” said Pedro, as Pepita stopped. .“No matter. I'will see tomorrow. For tonight he shall think it over. In the morning he shall give me his answer. If he once more refuses he shall stay where he is until he agrees to do as I wish. Now we will have something to eat. Do vou attend to that.” ; DICK HADLEY’S MINE = } -girls are as hot-headed as Pepita. If they are é - “We shall keep the other two boys tied up for the present, eh?” : “Tt is better that they should be where we can keep watch on them,” she replied. Pedro thought so, too, in order to ayoid trouble with them. Sam and Charley, when they saw the J Mexican and his peon co on return without Dick, began to entertain fears that their com- ~ panion had perhaps been made the victim of foul play. Although they were tied so that they could not see each other, they were close eno! to be ae to carry on a conversation over their shoul- ers. ‘What do you suppose those rascals have done with Dick?” Sam asked. “How could I guess any better than you?. Things look mighty serious, though, for him, in pe opinion, and maybe for us, too, for all we can ell’. “You’re right, it does, Charley. I can’t under- stand the change that’s taken place in that girl. That photograph of Jessie Millwood, Dick’s girl, seems to have been the cause of turning the ¢ senorita into a regular fire-eater. Just think of her coming away out to this place, ninety miles from the hacienda, to have it out with Dick.” “Gee! I’m so glad she didn’t fall in love with — me. These Mexican girls are altogether too stren- uous to suit me,” éI should say they are, when they’re jealous. I'd feel sorry for Jessie if she were here at this eae, Ot the game. I don’t think she’d escape- alive. 2 “Td like to know where Pedro carried Dick off to, and what he means to do with him if he hasn’t already done something.” e “So would I,” pees Sam, in an anxious tone. “It was an unlucky day that we got lost in that valley and ran across Pepita.” “4 “It was that. I’m afraid this mine is not going ¢ to do Dick any good.” j pn “No, nor us, either, which is tough, after all our anticipations of making a bank account out of it.” _ “This is a rotten country,” said Sam, ina tone of disgust. “I don’t see that we’ve had sucha | ee fies since we came into ni + , things were going on all right up to this ~ afternoon,” replied Charley. . ? - “They’re pretty shaky just at present. I won- der how long we are to remain tied up to this _ tree. Pepita doesn’t take the least notice of us. — She doesn’t seem to consider our feelings at all.” “If she fails to have her way with Dick she may take satisfaction out of us.” rea “T think she’s taking it out of us anyway. ~ a When I go back to my old man I ‘bet there’ll je something doing if there’s any law in Mexico.” “I hope so. I’d give a good deal’ to be within hajling distance of the railroad at this moment.” — “My father has a pretty good pull with the offi- — ‘ ; =: cials of the. Mexican Central. He’ll make Rome — howl to get justice. Pepita coming out here and raising al] this racket is going to make trouble for the senor, her father.” ; “You bet your life it is.” _ “The idea of her wanting to force Dick te — marry her against his will! What would he do ~~ with a wife, anyway? He doesn’t want one any more than we do. I wonder if all the Mexican a théy must be a dangerous proposition to tackl {
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= - “Tf one of them made a break for me like Pepita has for Dick, it would be me for the woods.” ~ While the boys were talking the sun set and . soon ‘darkness fell upon the landscape. Pedro and Mendez were in the cabin getting supper ready. ‘S The sight of smoke issuing from the chimney made Sam remember that he had a stomach, and he and Charley began to speculate as to the ~ chances of anything in the edible line coming their way. At length Pedro appeared at the door of the cabin and called Pepita inside. The two peons who had come with the girl squatted outside and DICK HADLEY’S MINE Mendez presently brought them a mess of some-- thing to satisfy their appetites. No one seemed to pay any attention to Sam and Charley, and as ‘the moments slipped away iets Bepes of getting any supper began to grow beautifully less. 2 _ €HAPTER XIl—Dick Makes His Escape from the Cavern. BIS There was.a break in the 7 rocky edge of the hole at one point. ~*~ As long as Dick swung the pole with some - vapidity it passed over this break, but when, as he grew exhausted by his efforts, its speed relaxed to a spasmodic swing, it slipped into the break and caught. The rocky cleft held it with sufti- _ cient firmness for Dick to take advantage of his »-chance to pull away from the pole altogether. Al- ‘though free of the pole, his position was not greatly improved, for his bound arms prevented him from pulling himself out of the excavation. . The only real advantage he had secured was abil- ity to move at will around the circumscribed a ~ a, =) Ye: tunately, the pole followed the motions of his body, Said Cate to him like a leech. Foiled in his at- « 17 space of the hole. After resting himself from his late exertions he began to devote his entire atten- tion to the rope that secured his arms. He pulled and tugged at it in every imaginable way, but though it gave some it did not become sufficiently loose for him to withdraw one of his arms. The water was now about three inches deep in the hole, and Dick realized that fact as he splashed about in it. With great persistency he worked the fingers of one hand up to the other arm until he succeeded in grasping one of the cords that bound him. His object now was to try and work that cord down his arm. Fifteen min- - utes later his arms were free, and he gave a sigh of satisfaction. To escape from the excavation was not a difficult matter now. He pulled the pole down from where it was caught in the crevice in the rocks, placed it at an angle against of the hole and shinned up to the top. Then he lost no time feeling his way out of the cavern, e side © - and soon stood a free boy under the brilliant, star-- _-peration seized him and he began to struggle with . lit heavens. “Nobody can tel] how good it feels to be boss. of his own actions till he has been through such a deal as I have just weathered. I thought at one time that it was all up with me. I guess I had a close call, all right. If the three of us get back to New York in good shape I’ll have a story to tell that would make a newspaper reporter gasp. Now, the question is, what am I going todo? The mine is in possession of that rascally Pedro and his villainous associate, Mendez. Sam and Char- ley may be prisoners. As for Pepita’and her peons, I must consider them my enemies, too, in spite of the fact that she claims to be dead gone on me. I’m as hungry as a hunter, and as Pedro and the others are in possession of ‘the cabin where our provisions are, I don’t see how I’m going to feed. I can’t live on air, so I’m afraid I’m in a very serious scrape, anyway, notwith- standing the awful predicament from which I have just escaped.’’* 3 He sat for half an hour on a rock in the moon- .*light and tried to figure out how he was going to — get something to eat, but he couldn’t reach a solu- tion of the difficulty. “Well, I must return to the mine and see how things dre getting on. there. I must take care that I’m not seen by the enemy, or I’ll surely be made a prisoner again, and it’s pretty certain that Pedro would take special pains that I didn’t escape a second time.” : So Dick started for the cabin, taking a round- about course that would bring him to the back of the building. When he reached the locality of the mine there was no sign of life in the neigh- borhood of the cabin. “Can it be that Pedro, Pepita and the rest have left the place, taking Sam and Charley with them?” Dick asked himself, as he cautiously drew near the house. “Or are they all asleep in the cabin?” ‘The latter idea seemed the more probable, for Dick scarcely believed that Pedro would leave the mine so quick as that. On his return to the place ~ “after leaving Dick in the cavern, the boy judged that he had gone into the cabin to take @osses- sion of the remaining bags of gold quartz. Of course he didn’t find them, for, as the reader knows, Dick and his friends had buried them in the little cave up the mountainside. a ote ¢ 2 & * ie
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18 “T’ll bet when he found the quartz missing that he tried to force Sam or Charley to tell him where the bags were hidden,” said Dick, as he stood gazing at the-cabin, which looked silent and deserted in the moonlight. ‘The question is, were they intimidated into telling him? I can find that. out by running up to the cave.” Dick made his way to the little cave and found everything just as he and his companions had left it, so he was satisfied that the quartz was still there. He returned to the back of the cabin and took fresh observations. After satisfying himself that no one was about on the outside of the build- ing, he cautiously approached the front door. It stood half open. Dick got down on his hands and tmnees, crawled up to the entrance and looked in. He could make out nothing, owing to the gloom which enveloped the room, but he heard the deep breath- ing of a number of sleepers. Removing his boots, he entered the cabin in his stocking feet, and soon located the positions of several of the sleepers. Mendez and the other two peons were curled up near the doorway. Pepita, Pedro and his two friends he judged to be at the far end of the room. Passing the sleeping peons like a shadow, he found no difficulty in reaching the shelf where the canned stuff stood. Selecting the nearest three cans, he made his escape as softly as he had entered. When he got outside he resumed his boots and retired up to the little cave. Conceal- ing two of the cans in the underbrush, he opened the other with the aid of a stone and found it contained canned beef. He got away with half of the contents of the can before his hunger was appeased. After washing his meal down with a dyvink of water, he secured his rifle and the car- tridge belt, and continued on up the mountain till he found a secluded spot among the trees. There he lay down and was soon asleep. CHAPTER XIIL—In Which Dick Plays a March .on Pedro Pacheco. - : When Dick awoke next morning it was broad daylight. He walked back to the cave and made his breakfast off the remainder of the meat in the can he had opened the night before. Then he slipped down the mountain side to a point where he could overlook the site of the mine. Smoke “was issuing from the chimney of the cabin, which told him that some cooking was under way. Pedro and Pepita were standing near the door talking, Neither his friends nor the three peons were in sight. While he was watching the girl and the overseer, Mendez came to the door and said some- thing to them. They broke off their conversation and entered the cabin. < “Gone in to eat, I guess,” thought Dick. While Dick was watching for further develop- ments he saw Pepita’s two peons appear, leading - quite a bunch of burros. He counted them and found there were ten altogether. '. “Why, where did’ the two extra ones come from?” the boy muttered. “We had five animals, then Pepita’s party brought three, which makes eight. That’s all that were around here yesterday -afternoon. I don’t see any strangers on the scene to account for the other pair. By Geoyge! Those two must have belonged to Carden. - eouldn’t be- out here without one animal, at least. He must have had his burros staked somewhere : Pipa ies a 3 . 2 ° DICK HADLEY’S MINE fe I knew he. ~ int Be oe that there’s grass and water for them to subsist — on. The peons found the place and tethered the — other burros there, too. That seems quite clear.” The peons tied the burros under a tree and then entered the cabin. After the lapse of perhaps a — quarter of ar hour Pedro came out of the house; followed by two of the peons leading Sam and ~ Charley. They were marched over to a tree and tied up as before. The natives retired to a short distance, and.throwing themselves on the ground, . rolled and lighted cigarettes. Pedro remained = with Sam and Charley, and was evidently holding an argument with them. Dick had a good view of — the trio, and he wondered if the conversation re- lated to the bags of gold quartz. As’a matter of fact, that was what Pedro was questioning’ the — two boys about. Neither Sam nor Charley ati 4 oblige him with the information. The boys were — game, however, and so the Mexican made no head- _ way with them. Finally he quit them and started to look around on his own account. . He particu- © larly examined the ground at the back of the cabin to see if it showed signs of having been dug into. Then he went into the house and looked the floor all over for similar signs. He was dis-.. appointed on all sides, and returned to whe Sam and Charley were bound to the tree. : “Look here, young senors, if you refuse to tell — me where those bags of quartz are hidden, I will leave you both bound to this tree when we ‘go — away. How will that suit you, eh?” per “You wouldn’t dare do that,” replied Sam. “No?” replied the Mexican, with an unpleasant smile.. “You try me too far and see what I dare do. Your companion, Senor Dick, is now learning what I dare to do. He refused to accept my terms and is taking the consequences.” = “What did you_.do to him?” “No matter. That is only for him to know. | did not myself lay a finger on him. I had a that I would not harm him,” he said, with a mali= © cious grin. “I put him where he could not get — away. By and by I will see him again. Perhaps — by that time he will consent to change his mind and do as I want. If he does you shall all go — free, but you must also leave the country with, him and swear to hold your tongues.” as “Well, we’re not going to tell you anything un- less Dick says so. Take us to him and let him — decide the matter. If he’s willing to make a bar- ~ gain with you to save us all from further trouble, — we won’t kick. He knows where the quartz is — hidden. -As it belongs to him you must do busi- ness with him. We’re not going to give anything _ away without his knowledge and consent.” pn “You talk-very brave, young’ seconr,” replied Pedro, with a sneer. “Before I turn the screw on you I will see Senor Dick and find if he is more reasonable this morning. If he says what I wis ie it will not be necessary that I hold further talk with you. If he still acts the fool—caramba! 4 fix all three of you so that you never leave the: mountains.” : et Thus speaking, the overseer walked off rolliz a cigarette, which he lighted and then approache Pepita. After a short talk with the girl three burros were detached from the bunch, the senorita mounted one, Pedro and Mendez the other,two, — and the party set off down the declivity in the — direction of the cavern where Dick had been left a prisoner. The two remaining peons continue :
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DICK HADL ? 3 Yo loll and smoke under the trees. Dick decided %that now was the time for him to act while the enemy was divided. He came down the mountain _ ‘gide and suddenly appeared before Sam and Char- “ey. The two boys were both astonished and de- lighted at his unexpected appearance. With his “sharp jackknife he cut his companions free. Tite “two peons were unsuspicious of what was going on so close at hand, and the three boys sought the ‘shelter of the back of the cabin before they no- ticed that anything had happened. — Sat & “Now,” said Dick, in a business-like tone, “the i ‘frst thing we’ve got to do is to secure those two .Greasers and tie them up so they’ll be helpless. - “We'll work around behind the trees and take them ‘by surprise.” ’ ; ici had the rope in his hands with which Sam d Charley had been tied up, for he intended to it for putting the two peons in the same _pre- - eating The boys approached the two Mex- icans so cautiously that the men were not aware sf their presence until Sam and Dick, each select- eg a victim, sprang upon them. A struggle, of ‘course, ensued, but the boys were strong and de- termined, and with.the help of Charley soon had the peons gagged, bound and secured to the tree nder which*they had been resting. ‘Now, then, Sam, go up-to the cave where we iried the quartz and bring down the saddlebags. m not going to disturb the ore bags. . They’re afe enough where they are. While you’re away harley and I will get things ready for an imme- jate start.” : : am started off to obey Dick’s orders, while the tter led one of the burros up to the cabin door. here still remained several empty bags in the ouse. - Under Dick’s direttions Charley filled one of them with all the canned goods and crackers _ that remained! The bag was fastened on the bur- “x0’s back. When Sam returned with Carden’s ~gaddlebags they were also added to the burro’s . loa si i. eae “Now, we'll start off at once, fellows, and take ‘course to the south and westward, and feel our y out of the range as best we can. We've got ub enough to last us some time. It may take us ~~ a week or ten days even to find our way back to “ the railroad, but what’s the difference, as long “Tf we knew the way as well as Pedro we might it in that time; but we don’t. We’re just as able to get lost in the range as not without a guide, and as Pedro and his party are sure to take that direction in an effort to récapture us soon as they find we have escaped, why, it is uch better for us to takeran opposite road, even it is roundabout. We'll) get out of the range ymehow.” j : ; Peco nainaly, the little party, mounting three of burros, and leading the loaded one, left the ing property without any further delay. HAPTER XIV.—Trying to Get Out of the ; ; = Range. ag ‘Judging their course by the position of the sun? ey eetak ican due south as they oye g0. ere soon Out of sight of the cabin, but EY’S- MINE 19 ‘Dick made notes of the landscape for future refer- ence, for, of course, he intended to come back to his mine as soon as possible with a suitable escort that would prevent any interference on the part of Senor Gonzales’ overseer. property was in the saddlebags, and as soon as he had had it recorded at Chihuahua no one could take the mine from him. He knew that Sam’s father would see that he got his rights-in the mat- ter, and the chances were that gentleman would put the Mexican authorities on Pedro’s trail with the view of having the rascal caught and pun- ished. As for Pepita, Dick had no intention of having her prosecuted for the part her jealousy had induced her to undertake. He told Sam and Charley that the senorita must be left out of the story they had to tell. Dick then proceeded to tell _ his companions about the treatment he had re- ceived from Pedro and Mendez at. the cavern. “What are you going to do about your mine, Dick?” asked Sam. “T’m going to look after it, don’t yeu fret.” “Tf you got up a company Charley and me I suppose would tome in for a few of the shares,” said Sam. “Sure, you would. thing as well as myself. We’re chums, you know, and are roughing it together. If I sell the mine as it stands, after its value has been deménstrated -to the satisfaction of the purchaser, you'll get a ~ rakeoff. So you see, no matter what I may do, you'll be taken care of.” ; After traveling some miles in a fairly straight direction, they got mixed up in a trackless part of the range, and it took them some hours to make any further headway worth’ mentioning. They camped beside a running stream-and ate their din- ner, after which they lay under the trees and rested for some time. After three o’clock they ‘resumed their journey. Night found them in th: midst of a long ravine. After stopping to eat supper, they continued on by the light of the stars. Later on the moon helped them out, and they did not pause for sleep untifclose on to mid- night. They were up at sunrise ‘and on their “way again, looking for water. It was eleven o’clock before they came across a stream. Thea they tethered the animals, ate their breakfast and turned in on the ground for rest and sleep. Only for the fact that getting out of the range seemed to be a serious business, the boys would have felt as happy as larks over their adventure in the wilds of northwestern Mexico. afternoon when they woke up and prepared to go on again. “I wonder where Pedro and his crowd are by this time?” Sam said. . : “Hunting for us, I suppose, over the track by a he brought us to these regions,” replied ick. 5 3 ; “He'll find us, too—I guess nit,’ grinned Char- ey. what has happened,” -remarked Sam. “No, I don’t think he will. pose of the gold quartz I gave him at the nearest smelter, and probably return to the mine for more. head him off.” : = , “We'll come back with you, of course,” said 1 am ad > x ay - es 4 - y ack lat J ¢ The deed: to the . I’d see you made a good. It was late in the’ “He won’t dare go back to the hacienda after - He'll try and dis- | x I’ve got to get back as soon as'I.can and
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“Sure thing, if your father has no objections.” “He don’t object to our keeping you company. He’ll see that we’re properly protected.” - ‘The boys traveled well into the night again, as _it was much pleasanter than under the hot sun, ~ which had already made them as brown as berries. They spent the night in a small cave and awoke again at sunrise. The third day’s journey was ‘the slowest and most difficult they had yet experi- enced since leaving the mine. Their’way led them through a deeply wooded, narrow canyon, almost impassable in places for the hardy little burros. _ They were obliged to take frequent rests, and the » . moon was shining when they finally camped? for the night beside a stream that marked the end of the worst stage of the day’s travel. Next day they ascended the mountairis again and got a view of the plains beyond. fi ope ee cried Sam. . the-range.” Dick and Charley also felt like shouting their ‘satisfaction, but they refrained and _ contented {hemselves with gazing upon the landscape beyond _ the western spur of the Sierra Madre. Late that . afternoon they descended to the plain and camped ~ _ among the foothills. They saw a mountain stream a short distance away, but it was not practicable to reach it with the burros from where they were. While Dick was tethering the animals on the grass Sam.and Charley took a couple of empty _ gans and started for the stream. Dick was open- ing a‘ean of corned beef for supper when he heard a shout-in"the direction taken by his com- panions, and then a pistol shot. “Great-Caesar!” he cried, starting to his feet. “What does tha® mean?” ‘A second shot awoke the echoes of the evening. air, and Dick saw the smoke curling up near*the mountain stream. Then came a cwy for help in tones that sounded like Charley’s voice. “There’s something wrong!” cried Dick, snatch- ing up his rifle and starting for the scene of ’ syouble. “Can it be that Pedro and his party have _ een following on our trail after all?” : He hustled forward and soon came in sight of ae ‘she stream. Peering through the bushes, he saw *' sharley in the hands of Mendez and the other --swo peons, while Pepita was seated on a burro ~~ a;ear by. There were sounds of someone crashing - ‘hrough the bushes at Dick’s left. He thought it vas Sam, but a moment later he saw it was Pedro, with a revolver in his hand. ‘: “He’s looking for Sam, who’s got away,” ; preathed - Dick, following the Mexican’ $s move- yements.. 05%" __~ Suddenly ‘the rasca] gave a. shout of exultation anced fo upon an 5 Obi concealed in Seis “We'll soon be ont of DICK HADLEY’S MINE ° the-bushes. In another moment he was dragging Sam from his place of concealment. Sam uttered a loud shout and struck Pédro a tremendous blow. in the face, which caused the overseer*to release _ his hold on him. The boy darted into the bane again. With an imprecation Pedro raised Biv ee Seta re aim at the fleeing boy. Dick et raise is rifle quicker . Artes: be than a flash, covered ee CHAPTER XV.—Conclusion, Simultaneous with the crack of Dick’s rifle” Pedro uttered a hoarse cry, and half turning: around, fell forward on his back and lay ate still. The revolver fell upon the ground. fi a “Come back, Sam,” shouted Dick, springing: forward to‘see if he had really killed the Mex ican. Sam recognized his friend’s, voice afters © ; hearing the report of his weapon, and ie do . back. : “Shot him, have you?” said Sam, picking: Uy c Pedro’s revolver. “Serves him right if you kille a him. He fired twice at me, and I only escape iis bullets by the skin of my teeth.’ _ » “No, he isn’t dead,” said Dick, who wa. ing beside the fallen rascal; “but-I guess pie», for good, just the same. Come, we'll leave him: here and rescue Charley, who’s in: the hands 01 Mendez aiid Pepita’s satellites,” je The two boys issued from the bushes into ‘fal view of the girl and the peons. Charley: was- being bound to a tree.. Be tt “Let him go!” cried Dick, cov with his rifle. eee ae * The rascal turned with a snarl, ana: seeing th boys, drew the revolver he had in-his belt. D was not taking any chances with the Mexicans, — so, without trying to parley ‘further with people. ; who understood little, if any, English, he fired, ate. Mendez’s arm, The rascaj uttered a scream of — pain and dropped the weapon. Dick had brok ; his arm with the bullet. He and Sam then thre; on ened the other two with their weapons, and they ae threw up their arms in terror of their lives, The an two boys then advanced. 4 ow Pepita,” said Dick, “tell those men Bs ye release Charley Ross.” 5a The girl said something to them in “Spanish, and they undid the ropes that held the boy. Cha ley snatched up the revolver dropped b -wounded Mendez and ee over to his panions. ~ Bald.
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© “He’s down and out with a bullet in his chest,” $aid Dick. “Sam, you and Charley go and fetch him over to his friends, and let them see that he’s out of business.” : ‘The two boys obeyed their young leader, and Pepita uttered a low cry when she saw Pedro ~ borne forward apparently dead. They laid him under one of the*trees and left him to be at- "tended by his associates. - “Well, Pepita,” said Dick, walking up to ter - burro, “are you still an-enemy of mine?” _ She covered her face with her hands and began _ to weep. _ “There’s my hand, Sencrita,” continued Dick. 3 moe don’t Wear you any hard feeling for the trouble you got us into. Let us be friends again.” » She seized his hand and carried it to her lips. “I am very unhappy,” she cried. re for.me any more, and I don’t care if I die.” . “Don’t talk about dying. Come with us and let us take you back to your home. Leave these fel- dows to look after themselves. Pedro is a big .» rascal and deserves al] he got, while Mendez isn’t much better. They left me bound in a hole in a eave to die, and I should be there now, only luck played in my favor.” ‘I will come with you,” said the girl, looking etty badly broken up. In fact, she was almost.a wreck of her former dainty self. A week’s roughing among the moun- ee while it- hadn’t hurt her, physically speak- ing, had demoralized her womanly charms to a " considerable extent. “Pil your cans with water,” said Dick to Sam d Charley, “and follow us.’ He seized the burro by its rein and stinhed by a-roundabout course to regain their camping yround. It took threé-quarters of an hour to h their camp by a way practicable for é Pepita’s burro to follow. When they got there ‘Dick helped the senorita to dismount, and he ‘treated her so kindly that she started to cry ain, and finally threw her arms around his neck d kissed him with all the ardor of her warm flexican blood. The girl was now thoroughly re- ant and Diek assured her that he forgave “and would not tell her parents what she had They had their usual supper, in . She told Dick that Her object in letting Pedro take charge of was to frighten him into agreeing to marry *. Pedro had sworn not to injure him, and d believed him. He had broken his oath, e was glad he was now suffering the conse- é aid she hoped us would a for if * DICK HADLEY’S MINE- “You do not. Siz venge, and might succeed. Then she asked Diek - if he really loved the girl of the ape and. intended to marry her. “No, I don’t love any girl. She’s just wae friend of my sister’s, and I like her a whole lot myself, but I never thought about marrying her. I’m too young’ to think about marrying for several years yet.” ; Pepita seemed. greatly comforted by Dick’s as- surance that he did not love her nor intend tu marry the original of the photograph. A. ray oi hope came into her heart that there was still a chance for her to win -this young American to whom she had surrendered her affections. After supper Dick said they would continue their jour- ney, as he did not care to stay all night in the vicinity of the enemy, who, though they were not _very formidable now, were still capable’ of giving them trouble. They continued on across the plain for several hours, and finally camped near a_ stream. The boys alternately kept watch during the night, but the party was not disturbed. Next day they reached a break in the lower part of the range ‘through which Pepita said they could easily ride to the hacienda. Dick agreed to see that she got home before he and his friends went on to the railroad. Just at sundown they came in sight of the hacienda, and half an hour later they were at the front. door. Pepita was embraced with joy by her anxious mother, white the boys were received with open arms for bringing her back. The senorita’s father and several of his hands were searching the range for her, and they. had nci returned when the boys took their leave «next morning. Pepita had a tearful parting with Dick, who felt sorry for the girl. He promised that he would eall at the hacienda later on and - see her again, with which assurance the lovesick’ ‘senorita had to be content. A peon was sent with the boys to see that they reached the railroad all right: Mr. Swift re- ceived the boys back in a matter-of-fact way. He had not the least idea of the strenuous adventures through which his son and companions had passed since they left the railroad, but supposed they had been at the hacienda ever since he got word from Senor Gonzales that the lads were to spend _ a week or two at his home. His astonishment may be imagined when the boys told their story, which omitted any particular reference to Pepita, Dick’s statement about the gold mine that had come into his possession in so singular a manner | amazed Mr. Swift, and it was not until the boy. . exhibited the papers from the saddlebags, and the bunch of golden nuggets, that he actually placed full, credence in the story. : geet og asked him for his advice and assist-
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22 ance in the matter. The engineer readily agreed to*see him through, and secure‘ him the undis- puted ownership of the valuable property. Next day the three boys accompanied him to Chihua- hua. John Carden’s deed of conveyance was duly and legally registered, and then a mining expert was secured to visit the mine and pass upon its , probable value. Mr. Swift accompanied the ex- -pedition to the western spur of the Sierra Madre and saw the property with his own eyes. Car- den’s estimate of the mine was confirmed by the expert, who declared that ‘the ore in sight fur- nished sufficient evidence for estimating the value of the property at several millions. On the re- “turn of the party to the railroad Mr. Swift ad- vised the formation of a company for the purpose of working the mine* Dick agreed to anything that he advocated. Mr. Swift accordingly set the plan in motion. ~ Several capitalists of Chihuahua were’ induced to take the matter up in return for a substantial in- terest in the mine. The company was duly formed and the engineer saw that the controlling interest was secured to Dick. The boy gave hima . power-of-attorney to represent him, as he and his friends had to return north. Mr. Swift, as Dick’s representative, had himself elected president and - general manager, and gave considerable of his attention to the development of the mine. The following summer the three boys revisited Mex- ico and found the mine in full and paying opera- tion. Dick also found Pepita more attractive than ever and just as much devoted to him. In fact, she played her cards so»well that be- fore he returned north he had, with her parents’ consent, agreed to marry her when he had com- pleted his education. Perhaps the fact that he was to become president and general manager of the mine himself at the end of his schooldays, which would necessitate him taking up, his resi- dence in the State of Chihuahua, had a good deal to do with Pepita’s conquest. When he finally re- ‘turned to Mexico to marry Pepita and take up his residence permanently at the old hacienda, Sam Swift went with him to live at Chihuahua as sec- retary of the company. Today Dick Hadley’s mine is known as one of . the richest in the western section of the Sierra adre Range. It has already made Dick a wealthy man, while Sam Swift and Charley Ross are each drawing large incomes from their stock. A year or two ago Charley went to visit Dick on _ his own wedding trip, and then the three boys met together for the first time in five years. Dick and Sam had a-whole lot to tell Charley about “the workings of the mine, and you may well be- lieve that they did not forget to talk over the time “DICK HADLEY’S MINE when for a brief interval they were oe eld aig. gers in Mexico. . om 2 Next week’s issue will contain “A. BOY STOCK ~ BROKER; OR, FROM ERRAND eee TO MILLIONAIRE.” CROWS SAVE MONEY There’s a rancher out San “Fernando Valley 3 way who has revised all his preconceived notions about crows. Inasmuch as they have just saved him $5,000, he feels that he is in duty bound — to chuck the “scarecrows” and cultivate his new-. a found friends. In other words, he’s off the anti-" crow movement for life. Mrs. Robert. Fargo, programme chairman of the Los Angeles Audu-t bon Society, vouches for the fact in thé case. The farmer has forty-five acres of coma They were coming along finely when he discov- ; ered some weeks ago that tomato worms had in= BY vated the field and were destroying the plants. © All hands, men, women and children, << E drafted to wage war on the worms which multi- plied at an appalling rate. As many as 1,000 . 3 of them would be found in a single morning. ; 4 a The fight appeared to be hopeless. and— ee farmer, in despair, had. almost resigned himself. to the loss of his crop when the black battalion : of his rescuers arrived one morming, A veritable cloud of the birds descended ie one corner of the field. At first he supposed — it merely meant more trouble. In a short time Pg _he discovered his mistake. - The new arrivals were after the worms aa they got them, too. The loyal birds stayed right on the job for several days, A careful search — of the field several days after they left revealed only three’of the worms. ae it Not a tomato plant was disturbed by the~ % birds, according to the rancher. He is now ie trucking his tomotoes to a nearby cannery whic contracted for them. At the price fixed he will clear $5, 000. If the crows had not arrived Boe time, ther would have been neither vines nor tomatoes left in a few days, so he credits them with having ‘ saved him the results of a year’s labor, the cos of his plants and returned him a neat profit be sides. So =3 oe aie eee ae Flush—The ouibies wealth of the Uni States is $150,000,000,000. Broke—Well, the 1 st six ciphers ro my share, 2
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HARRY THE HALF-BACK os ; OR *. A FOOTBALLIST FOR FAIR « By GASTON GARNE (A Sétial Story.) CHATER XIX. ' The Search.. “How do you know?” “Why, sie the bed is all made up just as I did it yesterday morning,” the woman explained. Phe professor stared. Then, as the import of the woman’s words took hold upon him, he turned pale. “When was she seen last?” he queried. ~ “Yesterday. evening, sir. I saw her go out for Ther regular evening walk.” “s _ “And you did not see her return? ; ~- .*No, sir; but I thought nothing about it, for -. I do not always see her when she comes in. -_ “J understand; you supposed that she had come - in and gone to her room.” Bom y es, Sir. : ~The professor leaped up, all excitement. _ “This must be seen into at once!” he cried. “Tt is a very strange affair—yes, an alarming affair!” -* Mike Murphy was summoned, and he was asked f.he had seen Winnie leaving or returning to 1e college building the evening before. : “Oj saw her sthart fur a walk, sur,” was the eply; “but Oigid not say her come back.” _ “We will search the house,” the professor said. ‘We will not say anything to any one until we are sure that Winnie is not about the: place.” “Mike Murphy and the housekeeper made a orough search, the professor aiding, but no gns of the girl was found, of course. ‘She’s not in the house, sir,’ said the house- “shure an’ she isn’t, sur, more’s the pity,” said ike. \ j ~The professor, now thoroughly alarmed, called a meeting of the faculty and placed the matter before them. It was quickly decided to hold no ‘sessions until] the mystery of the disappearance “of the professor’s daughter was cleared up. It was decided to tell the studerits the news and en- Eat them in the, search for the missing maiden. "This was done and soon the students were out ng. ; ; tae ee their way along the lake road, “awhere, as was well known, Winnie usually walked ” ES FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY ie Wilkins, Small and Thorp, for they were not in Silkwell’s confidence in this affair of the kidnap- ping of the girl. * = z Harry Winslow was among those who were most eager and earnest in the search. With him was Denman, Parker and Westley. The search was kept up till noon and then the students returned to the college and ate dinner, only to be off again at once. They were eager to find the missing girl—and yet they feared that™ they might find her dead. Along toward evening Winslow and his three companions, tired and almost discouraged, were passing near the village of Wrightmore, and suc- . denly Denman called the attention of the others to a boy of perhaps ten years who was motioning toward them from the edge of the timber. _“Let’s seé what he wants,” said Winslow. © . They hastened over and joined the boy. “Well,” said Winsloy, “ t do you want?” “Say,” said the little chap, a shrewd look on his face, “air ye fellers lookin’ fur er gal?” The youths started and exchanged glances. “Yes,” said Winslow, eagerly. “do you know anything about her? Can you tell us where we will find her?” _- The boy stuck his tongue into the cheek and winked. “T might tell ye sumthin’ ef ye c’u’d make ct worth while ter me,” he said. . # , “Why, you blasted little scoun ”* ‘began Parker, but Winslew motioned to him to be silent. At the same time he drew from his pocket a twenty-dollar gold piece and held it up before the boy’s eyes. ; “Tell us where we will find the girl and this is yours,” he said, eagerly. : An avaricious look appeared on the boy’s face. “Yl show ye whur* she is fur thet shiner, mister,” he said. i “Quick! Lead the way!” urged Winslow, whose eyes were shuting with excitement and hope. “Come erlong” said the boy. ye got enny weapins?” ‘No; we won’t need any, will we?” “T dunno. Whar we’re goin’ thar air er cou- ple uv mighty tuff customers, I’m tellin’ ye!” “Only two? We can handle them, weapons or no weapons!” cried Winslow. “Lead on!” The boy obeyed and led the way northward along the shore of the lake. As he went he ex- plained, in answer to questions from the youths, that he had the evening before been fishing dowr. by the lake, and had seen two tough-looking thugs come across the lake in a boat, and after mak- ing a landing they had lifted a girl out of the boat and disappeared behind ‘some bushes. The boy had crept in behind the bushes, «and had found that there was a cave there in the face of the biuff, and back in the cave he saw a fire burning, and he could hear the murmur of voices. “We'll find Winnie there!” declared Winslow; “how far is it to the cave, sonny?” “We're putty nigh thar, mister.” oy few minutes later they stood at the ei- trance to the cave. They heard the murmur of a “But, say, hev voice, and at a word from Winslow they dashed into the cave, crying: “Surrender, you scoundrels!” .
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. ol 24° FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY “ was looking ahead of him, and he caught a CHATER XX.. Found! ~- Winnie Marshfield was there, but the thugs were not. : The girl’s arms were bound, but she was not gagged, and she gave utterance to a glad cry as she saw who the newcomers were. “Saved!” she exclaimed. “Oh, I am so glad that you have come!” “Where are they? Where are the scoundrels?” cried Winslow. They ran away as you came in,” replied Win- nie. “Which way did they go?” eagerly. The girl nodded toward the rear of the cave. “That way,” she said. “After them, boys!” cried Harry. “I’ll be with you as soon as I free Miss Marshfield.” The three ran back into the cave, and Winslow hastened to cut the girl’s bonds. “Oh, thank you!” said Winnie. “How did you manage to find me?” “This boy saw the thugs brin he guided us,” with a nod towa who was standing near at hand. Winslow was about to excuse himself and fol- low his three comrades, when they suddenly put in an appearance. “There’s an exit back there,’-explained Parker,’ . “and the thugs have escaped.” '. “They are only the tools,” said Winnie; “per- ' haps you may be able to catch the principal.’ “The principal?” remarfked Winslow, inquir ua here, and e little chap, ingly. “Yes; those two el i me at the in- > stigation of aa a Silkwell.” The four sta: at the speaker in amazement. “You don’t mean it!” finally gasped Winslow. “Yes, I do. Percy Silkwell was here last night, after they brought me here, and avowed that fact that he was responsible for having me kid- naped.” ! “The scoundrel!” burst from Winslow’s lips. “He has gotten himself into trouble now, for sure,” from Parker. % “Why did he do such a thing?” queried Walter Denman. Winnie blushed and said: \ : “He—wished me to promise—to marry him. I have refused to let him pay any attention to me again and agai, and so he took this means of bringing the matter about.” 2 ~ “Well, that beats anything I ever heard of! eried Win low, wrathfully. 7 “He has a preacher-friend who is somewhat unscrupulous, so he -informed me, and this man was commg here and was going to perform the ~ ceremony.” “Say, that fellow Silkwell ought to be hung!” said Westley. “Let us hasten back to the college and capture him before he gets wind of the fact that you haves been found, Miss Marshfield,” said Winslow. “Yes, come.on,” said Parker. ; They set out, and had they not been so greatly aiterested in their own conversation ee might have seen a human being hurrying back away . from the mouth of the cave. The boy, however. i ed et tok et -and made happy by a flashing. smile from Win- glimpse of the figure. “Thar goes ther feller now, I’ll bet!” he cried, “Where?” cried the young men in unison. “Yonder,” pointing. ae The three leaped forward and made a thorough search, Winslow remaining with Miss Marshfield. — They did not find the fugithive, however, and _ they were inclined to think the boy may have imagined he saw some one. He insisted to the contrary, however. rs : “I seed ’im,’ ’he declared. “He wuz runnin’ ter beat the band.” z Winslow handed the boy the gold piece he had promised him. “There you are,” he said, “and we are much obliged besides.” : “Thet’s all right; thank ye, mister.” ; The boy stopped when they reached the village, and the others hurried onward. ‘ When they reached the college Winnie hast- ened at once to her father’s library and found him there. ; When he saw his daughter, alive and well, he was overcome with joy, and he seized her in his arms and kissed her. t | “Now tell me where you have been,” he said, after they had both taken seats. me The girl did so, and when Professor Marsh- field heard the story of Percy Silkwell’s villafny he was very angry, as well as almost paralyzed with amazement because of the audacity of the dent. “T will have him arrested!” he cried. ay But presently Denman and Winslow came to: — the library and they brought the news that Silk- well was not to be found in the college buildings « or anywhere about the grounds. eee ~ “Then the boy must have been right,” said .— Winnie; “that was Silkwell that he saw at the entrance to the cave as wé@ were ing out.) oan “Undoubtedly,” said Winslow; “and, professor, we are going n search of Silkwell at once—all - the students.” * “Thank you, Mr. Winslow; do this and bring _ him here a prisoner if you can.” ow “We will do our best, sir,” and then, cheered ~ ’ ad nie’s blue eyes, Winslow, accompanied by Den- | man, took his departure. . The students searched till the small hours of the morning, but found no traces of the villainous student, and returned to the college weary and disappointed. yh “That’s the last we will ever see of Percy Silk- well,” said Parker to a number of the students, as they were about to disperse to their various rooms. Ve But he was mistaken. 4 . CHAPTER XXI. . ig A Desperate Deed. is i ~<a - It was the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day. The hour for the beginning of the third and deciding game of. football between Wrightmore and Larehmount Colleges was almost at hand. _ _ The first game had been played at Wrightm poe:
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the second at Larchmount, and now the third was to be played at Wrightmore. ; It was a fine day, and an immense crowd was Pst Marshfield and Winnie occupied the “pox in front of the grandstand seats, and the plue eyes of the beautiful girl were shining with eagerness and excitement. ix eS “We'll win to-day; I just know we will,” she murmured, “for Harry, the Halfback, is here ‘and will surely play. Yes, we will win! We can’t inning !”” He Hee caadenes in Harry Winslow was absolute, put she was not alone in feeling thus. All the players were ae ee that they would win, now arry was to play. gan aaeed, the majority of the students were resting perfectly easy, feeling sure that with Winslow in the game the Wrigtmore eleven t lose. ; art ee the Halfback, was there with the other players, and although he knew the way he aa - yegarded by all, it did not give him the swell- head; in fact, tltere was not a more modest-ap- pearing player among them than he. The Larchmount players were on hand, and they pretended to feel confident of winning. ~ All the Larchmount students and all the sport- loving citizens of the village were there ready to render moral ‘support to their team. : Be: At last came the time for play, and as tt e ‘players made their way to the gridiron, Harry, the Halfback’s, eyes met those of Winnie’ Marsh- field, and the smile and nod that the girl eee “him made the pepe ted a : giant. He fe pal doing wonderful work. ? eee ae feel, Harry?” asked Captain ‘Westley, slapping the halfback on the shoulder. - “Fine as silk, Westley.” u “Good! We'll win in a walk to-day. “T hope oe a “é7?- " 9) Toe. s Ree leg piers ee their positions and the ball ee i o Wrightmore. ° te Be sound of the whistle Hollowell, the big ~. center, kicked off. * players, and he came with a rush, and, with good interference, succeeded in bringing the ball pe at least twenty-five yards. , ‘Then he was downed, and a series of fierce ‘scrimmages began. -.. The Larchmount players worked like demons, “and in spite of all the Wrightmore players could do, the ball was forced up the field, the Larch- mount gaining the necessary five yards in three downs each time, till ere, Nhe within fifteen # eir opponents’ goal, Saas Wriehtmere players made a desper- ate stand, and succeeded in holding the Larch- more for downs, and thus secured the ball. Then they began forcing\their way back down the field, working with desperate energy and de- termination. Scrimmage after scrimmage took place to enable them to keep the ball. \ Then they- did some fine playing around the ends, and made splendid gains in this. manner. When the Tea hviawiia solved this play, the ri rds on a flying. wedge play. : ay Leas work caused great enthusiasm FAME “AND FORTUNE WEEKLY Wrightmores sent the ball through for eight. s 20; among their adherents, and cheer after cheer went up. : Then the Wrightmore players returned to the work of smashing up the field iN» Scrimmages, and at last, "hes a few minutes before the ena of the half, they got the ball across the goal-line for a touchdown. And then such a shout as went up! It could students and adherents have been heard a mile. The Wrightmore cheered for at least three minutes steadily, and only ceased when they saw that Harry, the Half- back, was getting ready to try for goal. He made the kick and sent the sphere between the posts, a beautiful goal. And then the cheering was resumed, and the words, “Harry, the Halfback! Hurrah fer Har- ry, the Halfback!” could be distinguished, = . And the praise was justified, for Winslow had -done Herculean work in the scrimmages and in the end plays. , Two minutes of play still remained in the half, and the players lined up and «started again, but no score was made when the whistle blew. The half ended with the score of 6 to 0, in favor of Wrightmore. ; Winnie Marshfield was in the seventh heaven of happiness. “Oh, papa, we're going to win!” she cried. ae looks that way, Winnie,” was the smiling’ reply. 33 “Yes, we can’t lose with Harry, the Halfback, playing.” A sober look appeared on the professor’s face for an instant, and he gave his daughter. a quick, searching glance. Could it be possible that his daughter was in love with the handsome half- back? he mentally queried. ; But, no, he decided; she was simply apprecia- tive of the handsome halfback’s good playing, that was all. Presently the ten minutes’ intermission was up, and the players came forth from their dressing. rooms. Winnie’s eyes were on Winslow, and as he came along their eyes met, and the girl waved her hand and gave the youth a bright smile. He waved his hand and smiled in return, and just as he did so the sharp crack of a rifle rang out, and Harry gave utterance to a gasping groan and fell forward upon his face. He had been stricken down by an assassin’s _ bullet. . There was a moment of dead silence, and then cries of horror went up. And above. all rang ~ a shrill, piercing shriek from the lips of Winnie Marshfield. The next moment she had leaped *from the box to the ground, and running to where the halfback lay, she knelt beside him, crying: : : ‘ “Is he dead? Oh, tell me that he isnot dead! . He isn’t dead! He can’t be dead!” Then the crowd caught sight of the person who — had fired the shat. He had been lying on the sloping top of the dressing-room, and had leape! to the ground and was running away as fast as he could. Seoreseof students recognized him, and on the air went up the cry: ; “Silkwell! © Silkwell did it!” “Silkwell shot Harry, the Halfback!” (To be.continued.)
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og ae 26 “Fame and Fortune Weekly” NEW YORK, JANUARY 29, 1926 TERMS TO SUBSCRIBERS Sinsle Contes ccocsagres Pogtase Rhee gg centa One Copy Six Months.......... S st One Copy One Year............. = e 4.00 Canada, $4.50; Foreign, $5.00. HOW TO SEND MONEY—At our risk sénd P. 0. Money Order, Check or Registered Letter; remittances in any other way are at your risk. -We accept Postage Stamps the same as cash. When sending silver wrap the Coin in a separate piece of paper to avoid cutting the envelope. rite your name and address plainly. Address letters to HARRY E. WOLFF, { Harry E. Wolff, Pres. Charles E. Nylander, Sec, Publisher, Inc., L.-F. Wilzin, Treas. 166 W. 28d St., N. Y. ITEMS OF INTEREST MOTHER-OF-PEARL FISHING How the natives collect the shells in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from “which we get our mother-of-pearl is described in a report from Ad- dison E. Southard, American Consul at Aden. - About twenty men go out to the fishing beds in a sailing dhow and then divide up into rowboats, in which they search for likely spots, using a kerosene tin with one end filled with glass as a water telescope. d After locating the shells one of the fishermen removes his scant clothing, places a small clamp er plug to close his nostrils, and dives. As he descends a large basket is lowered, weighted with a stone to cause it to sink quickly. The diver works on the bottom, throwing the shells into the basket until he has filled it, He usually finds it necessary to come to the surface two or three times for a fresh breath before he has completed the filling of a basket. There are many sharks in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden and -. when the divers are attacked they are fortunate if they escape minus a leg or an arm. : The shells vary from two inches to ten inches ‘n diameter. After six or eight hours the shells ure opened and the oysters eaten. When the dhow *s laden she goes to Aden or Massowah and drives x bargain with the shell buyers. Just before the war the prevailing price was about 16 cents a pound; today it is only 8 cents. One large ship- inent to the United States was made last year. {fhe Aden market supplies about 500,000. pearl shells a year. ae DAY’S LENGTH VARIES The earth is getting out of step with the music of the spheres, according to Dr. Innes, Director of the Union Observatory of South Africa, who announces the result of a series of investigations which appear to prove that the rate of the earth’s rotation and consequently the length of the day is alternately diminishing and increas- jing slightly. This irregularity puts all clocks wrong and incidentally explyains the old enigma _ behind -its - predicted place, even if ‘allowance is made for all” of irregularities of the moon’s motion. The moon is generaly ahead of or Pps Cary FAME AND FORTUNE “WEEKLY sae rs ites > , known sources of disturbances, a fact which has — profoundly puzzled mathematicians the last two — centuries. The late Prof. Newcomb suggested that the gain and loss were only apparent and — that there was no fluctuation in the length of the day and consequently of the clocks. gee When, however, he examined two hundred-year = series of transits of Mercury he found no definite parallelism in the discrepancies in the movement _ of the two bodies. Dr. Innes has-investigated — much longer series of transits of Mercury, also- eclipses of Jupiter’s first satellite and discrepan- cies between observed and calculated places of : the sun, and he finds all these run parallel with — the moon, strong evidence that during the last — forty yéars the earth’s rotation, and hence the — world’s clocks, gained about thirty seconds. one If his findings are confirmed, they will go to — explain the irregularity of the moon and will necessitate new precautions in time measurement — and will create’a new problem in case such large — and rapid fluctuations occur. tee LAUGHS ca “When you finish your art studies, what is your sy chief ambition to draw?” “A nice big check on ~ some bank.’ oy Marcel—Do you know, Claude, chorus ginks i: have a hard time? Claude—Yes, they do have to _ bare a great deal. ee “Sarah, is your husband a good provider?” “In- deed, Be is, ma’am, but I’se afraid he’ll get eatched — Bb it Bas" He (at 7:30 p. m.)—Well, misery loves com- pany, you know... She (stifling a yawn)—No this hour, I think. f “My wife sent me to buy a rolling pin,” sai the mild-looking man. “What kind of wood do you prefer?” inquired the salesman. “What.is the _ softest wood you have?” A So Medical Examiner—Suppose you should have a — patient with some disease hide you knew noth- — ing about. What would you do? Student—Charge — him five dollars for the examination, and ther send him to you. : oes Young Jenkins (tremblingly)—I haye—e spoken to Mabel, Mr. Stentor, and she said— well—er—she said if I wished to press my suit — I must see you. Mr. Stentor. She did, eh? Well, Mr. Jenkins, all I’ye got to say is this, that if z wish to press your suit you had better see tailor. Goodday, sir. . St. Peter (at the heavenly portals)—Come. in young lady; there’s plenty of room. Chicago (¢ —Excuse me, but I want to ask one question. “S Peter—I am here for the purpose of answeri the questions of newcomers. Chicago Girl. then, would you mind telling me if you kee ice cream’ soda-water in this place?
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‘tie RADIO WAVES REPLACE LIGHT BEAMS ‘This radio “lighthouse,” at South Foreland, in England, warns mariners by sending out a sharply defined beam of wireless energy. The steel structure at the right is rotated once every ®two minutes, and as the wireless beam swings -‘avound the circle, it transmits a series of twenty- - 3 b;: a =! er : as Sie will consist of nine Pullmans and a ffet car. There will be a bridal suite in each ‘Pullman. The railroad plans to have teain crews ‘composed of men of exceptional courtesy. -- DETROIT LOT COST PENNY | | The site of Detroit’s $14,000,000 Book-Cadillac Hotel once sold for exactly one cent. The pur- gress. In 1805 the town of con- ion, obtain Government land. Mary Wat- ta deen, bought this particular inset dow one ‘cent. Ten years after the lot was purchased by 2 speculator for $150. % : 2 PRE-COLUMBIAN TOYS Toys of the American Indain tribes never be- e exhibited have been placed on exhibition’ in e division of ethnology of the United States tional Museum. These playthings of the pa- jooses from Alaska to Mexico reveal that the red- nen were efficient toy-makers and that their chil- ‘en found delight in the same imitation by their ders taken into consideration by the man- Dy 2 | FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY [a INTERESTING ARTICLES ; i a ee sit , zs See ae kN ee eT. TS tae Oe ee ee ufacturers of our modern Christmas devices. While little Indian girls, the exhiibt shows, could not hug the talking, walking and sleeping dolls of our mechanical age, they did have plenty of dolls, with miniature teepees instead of doll houses, and little cradles to carry on their backs like the ones their mother carried them in when they were babies. Among these dolls is one of the tiny Eskimo which is a real stuffed wild duck for baby to play with. Animal dolls were evidently very popular among the Indians. «An ingenious beaver with a tail of leather marked in imitation of the big flat tail of the real beaver was made by an Arrapaho papa for his papoose. .Cute little woolly buffaloes _, made out of different colored beads are shown. _ Miniature elk and targets cut in the shape of buf-/ faloes for little Indian boys td shoot at are also shown. There are horse dolls, and one doll is a tiny horse believed to have been made from the skin of an unborn colt on, account of the lack of seams in the delicate hairy coat covering the little wooden image. These presents were sometimes _ exchanged when the families went visiting. The - exhibit included. material from Arrapahos, Sho- ees. Hopi, Utes, Apaches, Cheyennes and other ndians. © MECHANICAL EYE The cigar industry is using a machine which is almost uncanny in its “power of sight.” It auto- matically sorts cigars according to the color ‘of the wrapper, and can distinguish between thirty different shades of cigar wrappers, says Scientfic American. This mechanical “eye” is.:shaped liked a small X-ray tube, with two terminals connected to a battery. One terminal is enlarged within the tube and heavily coated with potassium. The entire tube is covered by a light-proof case, and in the darkness no current flows between the two terminals. Light, however, activates the po- . tassium-covered terminal, causing an emission of electrons which permits current to flow. The eye is simply an electric switch, opened“and shut by light and darkness. Below the eye is another chamber containing four small electric light bulbs, shielded from the tube above. When the automatic finger of the machine places the cigar in position within this lighted chamber, a shutter opens a slit in the covered tube-chamber above it, and only the light ~~ which is reflected from the wrapper of the cigar is permitted to act upon the tube. Obviously, the darker the color of the cigar, the less light wil] be*reflected upon the tube, and vice versa. The actual color of the*cigar, then, de- termines the amount.of current permitted to flow between the two terminals of the tube. And, since every color reflects a different amount of light, it is easily seen that the only limit to the” color-sorting abilities of this machine lies-in the minuteness with which these varying amounts of current, sent through the tube, can be detected and caused to operate the mechanical sorting ap- — POEAUS 2 Ss ha Mx Nixa
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e -. or gas engines, on Be Fe a Ke a oF eee pr See z CHEAP FUEL FROM DUST, Tf you pump cornstarch with air into an en- closed tube and ignite the mixture with an elec- trie spark’ it will explode. Recent Government experiments have shown in dust great explosive enetgy going to waste. It is this that is utilized in a new fuel announced recently, according to Popular Science Monthly. . ue] made from dust or scourings not only will make use of waste material, but will reduce a big potential fire hazard in manufacturing _ plants, explains W. A. Noel, an engineer of the . ‘Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agri: culture. It would solve the problem of cheap uel for factories, he adds, for it may be used in steam Wood, metal, leathers, chemicals, cork, rubber, sugar, grain cocoa and cinnamon are but a few of hundreds of products from which the inflam- mable dust may be obtained.” Probably the most powerful of all dusts is that of aluminum while grain dusts are available in the greatest quanti ties. ARE TORTOISES DEAF? Wither tortoises are deaf or else much less in- telligent than generally supposed, according to a report of experiments made by Ryo Kuroda of the College of Nigata, Japan. In previous ex- periments with snakes, Kuroda found that most water snakes have no hearing ability, while land snakes often have an acute hearing. \To further this work, it. was decided to experiment with the tortoise, which is a more advanced member of the reptile family. An experimental group of sev- _ eral tortoises was used. Scraps of meat, which is a favorite food, were laid upon a broad copper plate which was con- nected with an electrica] circuit. When the* ex- perimental animal attempted to snap the meat from the plate, a bell was rung and at the same time an electric current passed through the plate, ‘giving the animal a shock. If thé animal were able to hear it would soon learn to associate the sound of the bell with the coming shock if the attempt to snap up the meat were made. » Re- peated trials with individual animals revealed no reaction to the bell sound associated with the elec- tric shock. As a result the experimenter was led to the conclusion that the tortoise does not have a developed sense of hearing. PEARLS FROM FISH SCALES DEFY DETECTION Today fashion dictates pearls no matter what the occasion or the hour—necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and all to be smart, must be pearls... And they are not the pearls that Fifth * ‘Avenue alone can afford to drape round its aristo- eratic white throat. » Scientists, experimenting in their laboratories with. test tubes and chemicals, have evolved a process by which evil-smelling fish seales are fashioned into lustrous pearls, glowing _ with iridescent beauty, and now we have a new FAME AND FORTUNE ‘WEEKLY GOOD READING | - Wine imitation poils.” 219 Seventh Avenue, New York, RS fates” Pass 2 ae Set, See and rapidly prospering industry in the manufae- es ts ae ie A he finished product is smooth, either pearl white or faintly’ pink, and‘ defies Paid Be cause the competition between the America French and Japanese manufacturers is keen, 70U may, if your taste runs that way, for a few dole lars festoon strands and strands of these fish- seale pearls on your person. s The imitation pearl industry is but a scant ten years old, and if it had not been for the demorali zation by the World War of the French essence d’Orient industry, Pari a and Japan mig ; never have entered the field as rivals of the — French. “Essence d’Orient” is. the fantastic name which the French, with their genius for that sor of thing, gave to the valuable lustrous lacquer’o tained from the fish scales, and forming such important part of the manufacture of artifi pearls. PEN The solid glass beads are coated with a lacquer, ~ the pigment being crystalline guenan prep red from the silvery sheen of the fish scales. T lustrous substance is composed of small, point erystals, which when treated with various che icals and strong ammonia, makes what is kn as pearl essence. The “indestructible” pearls are made of “opal” or “milk” glass beads which have dipped into the pearl essence containing so e gelatine, and then permitted to dry. A laeqi ro of pyroxylin or cellulose agetate is then ap to render the coating waterproof. Finishi touches are put on by polishing with a chatnoi skin arid fine chalk. Then the beads,are gra sized and strung. The evolution of a foul- ing fish. scale! _ Inthe selling of these, too, a new note ha e introduged in merchandising articles for femin: adornment.. The sidewalk merchant, with — wares looped on both arms, is a common sight many a fastidious shopper has been. unable to. sist this’ clarion call, : : ; - The modish girl fetchingly cascades several strands of these erstwhile fish seales of var size and length gracefully round her neck twines string after string around her wrists | the pearls form a deep cuff. Only then do consider that she is well and completely dre And as soon would she appear in public withor her shoes and stockings as without her’ “gen 66 * oon - 5 Moving Picture Stories” | A Weekly Magazine Devoted to Photoplays and = PRICE TEN CENTS PER COPy. et Hach number cofftaing Three Stories of the Best ¥ on the Screen—Hlegant Half-tone Scenes from the Pi —Interesting Articles About Prominent Peo Ce di ¥Films—Doings of Actors and Actresses in the Lessons in Scenario Writing. i ETHEL ROSEMAN, Pusrisumr AND D:
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de tn wall a x >> Leah iz en. 238 FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY . BRIEF BUT POINTED Although detailed figures were not. available, Mr. Robinson placed the resent: large contribu- tions at between $40,000,000 and $50,000,000, in- cluding cash gifts, art collections, and the Bar- nard Cloisters in Washington Heights, recently donated by John D. Rockefeller, jr. Adding to this the Munsey bequest, the cash on hand and the investment fund -of the institution, the. total would reach into the hundred million, Robinson believes. : See, “But,” he added significantly. “We have no — “estimate of the contents of the museum—aside N will be.in charge of one of the two from the collections contributed—or of the build- ing and the land, donated by the’city. These © certainly would run into millions, if not tens of millions!” Among the previous gifts to the museum, taken into consideration by Robinson in his estimate, are the following: . J. Pierpont Morgan, art collections and building fund, $16,000,000; Collis P. Huntington, art collec- tion, $2,500,000; Francis L. Leland, $1,000,000; Jacob H. Rogers $6,500,000; John D. Rockefeller, Jr., cash and land, $2,000,000; William K, Van- derbilt, paintings, $1,500,000; William H. Riggs, armor collection $1,000,000; Mrs. Stephen Harkness, $1,000,000; George F. Baker, $1,000,- < 000 Isaac D. Fletcher, art collection and residue of estate, $3,000,000, and Benjamin D. Altman, art tollectiow and maintenance fund, $10,250,000. CHASING SUN OVER TOP OF WORLD To pursue the sun across the top of th® world is one of the expectations of the Detroit Aviation Society’s Arctic airplane expedition, when it takes off from Point Barrow, Alaska, next. March.) “From the time we take off at Point Barrow, we will never lose sight of the sun,” said Captain George H. Wilkins, leader of the venture, upon his arrival here today. “If we start in the morn- ing from Point Barrow and keep on flying, we should reach the geographic pole at midnight. The sun at that time will just about touch the horizon and immediately begin to rise again. We will lose twelve hours in that instant when we cross the North Pole. In other words, it will be both morning and afternoon. The sun at that time of the year will never be-higher than 12 degrees.” , The take-off from Point Barrow is scheduled for March 21. Captain Wilkins said he had every reason to believe land will be discovered in the unexplored region between Point Barrow and the “ice pole.” Should this prove true, he added, he would return to Point Barrow without landing on the initial flight, report the discovery and, ac- companied by a second plane, go back to explore: and map the new territory. a If no land is sighted, he said, he would endeavor on the initial fight to fly over the top of the world to Spitzbergen, approximately 2,100 miles from Point Barrow. : Ss ¥e Ben Hielson, formerly a mail pilot in Alaska, sa ee of the expedition. - % Fokker planes ear
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| SEAWEED IS DINNER DELICACY IN : JAPAN ; Seaweed in Japan is a dinner delicacy—for the Japanese.. In fact, the harvesting of seaweed is one of: Japan’s large industries. _ Of the many species of the weed, gathered from the bottom of the sea, the Japanese Tangle (Laminaria Japonica) is most popular because of its flavor and refreshing taste. This weed grows abundantly in the co d seas off Hokkaido and is harvested during the summer months. The yearly harvest off Hokkaido alone is estimated at 200,000,000 pounds. : : While this seaweed is relatively cheap, food chemists claim it is very nutritious and contains much “vitamine A,” the food element lacking in polished rice. DUST IN AIR REACHES MANY MILLIONS OF TONS Winds charge the atmosphere with millions of tons of dust every year, and it is often carried to great distances! before it settles to the earth. Many instruments have been devised for count- ing the number of dust particles in samples of Gir. * “Some rather startling statements are heard, as, for example, that a cigarette smoker sends 4,000,- 000,000 particles into the air with every puff. What this instrument actually, counted was the -nuclei about which condensation occurred in the * forming of an artificial fog, writes C. F. Talman of the Weather Bureau. It now seems probable that a large proportion of these nuclei were too minute t@ deserve the name of “dust,” most of them being far beyond the range of the micro- scope, and many, perhaps, individual gas mole- cules. aa BELATED MAIL Ais Ten years ago Moisiej Pus sent a $100 inter- national money order to his relative, Charbyona Pus, in Russia, and last month the remittance was delivered to the _ family, the Post Office De- artment announced, : 9 peThe money order was sent from Endicott, N. Y., but before it reached its destination, Merwa, Russia, the revolution had made evacuation of the town necessary. The Russian Government lost track of Sharbyona Pus and the order .was re- turned to this country, but wrote the Department that Moisiej Pus the sender in the meantime had eft the country. - The Polish Government last month complained his money order never had materialized. The authorization promptly was identified and dis- patched to Poland, where the Pus family now re- sides. EVEN CHAIRS CLAD IN SCANT GARB “The pronounced. reduction in the amount of _ clothing that women wear today is nothing less \than a tragedy for English manufacturers” of worsteds, who frankly admit, in their pleas to _ Parliament for protective’ tariffs, that the new styles have meant serious loss for them, \ ET ie 3 ee Ba a eR ne eae FAME AND FORTUNE.WEEKLY CURRENT NEWS ‘the combined height of the pole and_topmast “But it is not the new women’s styles alone that ee cause hardship for the makers of fabrics. Houses, ~ also are going “decollete” summer and winter, in contrast to the heavily curtained and draped homes of thé Victorian age. Ponderous draperies are pasing. There are not nearly so many stuffed. chairs and sofas.- With their long skirts, women: are abandoning also dust-catching fabrics of alky kinds in the home and thus are simplifying house _ keeping. “*29 Nor are men wearing as many worsteds as — formerly, the Loi age ie” ae ‘There.are mo more shawls for old mén, for men, imitating — women, refuse to get old. In many ways this age _ uses fewer clothes than its predecessors. Formal» — entertaining is less general. People go to the; — theatre in business: clothes, and even refuse tow dress for dinner. ee? EPA a any Cae NEW YORK CITY’S BIGGEST FLAGPOLES — Mention was made in the Sun the other day of _ the arrival in Hoboken of a flagpole 165 feet. ing which Joseph T. Lilly, president of the Norton- — Lilly Steamship Company, intended to set up at , his country Home in Northport, L. I. Four large flat cars were used to carry what it is said will. — be the tallest flagpole along the Atlantic coast — from the place where it was found near Tacoma, ash. 2 ‘Mr. Lilly is proud of his new flagpole, and well — he may be in view of the time, trouble and money” _ expended before the right piece of timber was" found. The search for it took two months. Ate was taken from the virgin forest, and the treeyan~ Oregon fir, from which it was shaped, was 300% feet high. Besides being beautifully grained, the S the city bought the topmast and foot base 00. $ 2 The- weight of the great pole is 5,000 pound while the -topmast weighs approximately 8( pounds. . The diameter of the pole at the foot is. 22 1-8 inches, while at the top it is 14 1-2 inches, The diameter of the topmast at the foot is 12 inches and at the top 3 1-2 inches. ua Pe t ‘ + at
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- SUBMARINE CAN STAY UNDER WATER TWO AND ONE-HALF DAYS ~ * Constructed at a.cost of nearly $4,500,000, this ~ British submarine “X-1” can remain submerged two-and one-half days at a time. It can make a voyage of 20,000 miles. The underseas dread- - nought can turn in its own length—350 feet—and Carries a crew of 121 men. WALTZ MUSIC POPULAR AGAIN WITH fae LONDONERS ee The old-fashioned waltz is slowly coming into vogue again. One of the biggest talking machine distributing agencies says three waltz records ere-among the ten most popular dance tune ‘records sold during the last quarter. . It is asserted in dancing circles that the tango has failed to appeal to the “man in the street,” nd that the popularity of waltz music points to “~@ definite revival of the old-fashioned, waltz. HUNTERS WILL USE AUTOS Many of the big game hunters who aré going om England to Africa this winter will use otor cars to hunt in the deserts and along the ges of the jungles. _ Among the first to leave for the season’s sport were Sir John and Lady Harrington, who will yt from Khartoum for an expedition in the wilds of the White Nile country. Sir John knows e Sudan well, as does Lady pain vee who was formerly Miss Amy MacMillan, an heiress of ~ Detroit. ee, Sir John was the first Englishman to travel to _ Abyssinia by way of Khartoum. He became Brit- ish Minister. to the Court of Ethiopa and a little later was knighted by King Edward VII. : HOLDS UP HIS OWN FATHER undhouse, Worcester, Mass., Louis Paquette, 17 ears old, was arraigned in District Court with» pal, Orlando Guiti, 16. After entering pleas of t guilty the couple were held in bonds of $2,100 7 a continued hearing. The attempted hold-up of the paymaster, Jo- h E. Paquette, followed the stealing of an automobile owned by Max Sobel in which the boys tended to make their getaway. According t police, young Paquette confessed. ; “Covering their faces with handkerchiefs, the boys held up Paquette and demanded the money, when he refused to give it, his son fired a shot at- him from the revolver. Frightened at the ap- ch of pedestrians, the boys jumped into the hiné and drove away. D “CANAL BUILDER’S” SKELETON IN. ARIZONA ember of the race said by some archaeologists ave ‘ We ia 1926 Ford free (|) AMERICAN S = “BI Dept. A-127 LANGASTE »)
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OUR TEN-CENT HAND BOOKS _ Useful, Instructive, and Amusing. They contain ‘ Valuable Information on Almost Every Subject. No. 26. HOW TO ROW, SAIL AND BUILD A BOAT— ° Fully illustrated. little book, together with instructions on swimnft riding, companion sports to boating. No. 28.—HOWw desirous of knowing what his future life will bring torth, whether happiness or misery, wealth or poverty. You can tell by a glance at this little book.’ Buy one ~and.be convinced. No. 29. HOW TO BECOME AN INVENTOR.—Every boy should know how inventions originated. This book explains them all, giving examples in electricity, hy- draulics, magnetism, optics, pneumatics, mechanics. No. 80. HOW TO CQOK.—One of the most instructive : books on coc tne evé® published. It contains recipes . for cooking meats, fish, game and oysters; also pies at puddings, cakes and all kinds of pastry, and a gran collection of recipes.’ ’ No, 33.—HOW TO BEHAVE.— Containing the rules and etiquette of good society and the easiest and most approved methods of appearing to good advantage at parties, balls, the theatre, church, and in the drawing- room. : No. 85. HOW TO PLAY GAMES.—A complete and nseful little book containing the rules and regulations of billiards, bagatelle, back-gammon, croquet, dominoes, ete. No. 86. HOW TO SOLVE CONUNDRUMS.—Contain- ing all the lending corundrums of the day, amusing rid- dies, curious catches and witty sayings. No. 40. HOW TO MAKE AND SET TRAPS,—Includ- ing hints on how to catch moles, weasels, otter, rats, squirrels and birds. Also how to cure skins. Copiously illustrated. : No. 41. THE BOYS OF NEW YORK END MEN’S JOKE BOOK.—Containing a great variety ofthe latest jokes used by the most famous end men. No amateur minstrels is complete without this wonderful little book. No. 42. THE BOYS OF NEW YORK STUMP- SPEAKER.—Containing a varied assortment of stump speeches. Negro, Dutch and Trish. Also end men’s jokes, Tust the thing for home amusement and amateur shows. No. 45. THE .BOYS OF NEW YORK MINSTREL GUIDE AND JOKE BOOK.—Something new and rary instructive. Every boy should obtain this book, ag f d contains full instructions for organizing an amateur 4 -mi el troupe. mot 16 : HOW TO MAKE AND USE ELECTRICITY, —A description of the wonderful uses of electricity and electro magnetism; together with full instructions for making Dlectric Toys, Batteries, etc. By George Trebel, A. M., M. D. Containing over fifty illustrations. No. 48. HOW TO BUILD AND SAIL CANOES.—A handy book for boys, containing full directions for. con- tructipg canoes and the most popular manner of sailing them. *Pully illustrated. No. 49. HOW TO DEBATE.—Giving rules for con- ducting debates, outlinés for debates, questions for dis- cussion and the best sources for procuring information uestion given. eat HOW TO STUrF EIRDS AND ANIMALS.— A yaluable book, giving instructions in collecting, pre- -paring, mounting and preserving birds, animals and in- sects No. 51. HOW TO DO TRICKS WITH CARDS.—Con- taining explanations of the general principles of sleight- of-hand applicable to card tricks; or card tricks with ordinary ecards, and not requiring sleight-of-hand; of tricks involving sleight-of-hand, or the use of specially prepared cards. Tilustrated. No. 52. HOW TO PLAY CARDS.—A complete and handy little book, giving rules and full directions’ for playing. Huchre, Cribbage, Casino, Forty-Five, Rounee, Pedro Sancho, Draw. Poker, Auction Pitch, All Fours, and many other popular games of cards. No. 54. HOW TO KEEP: AND MANAGE PETS.— Giving complete information as to the manner and i method of raising, keeping, taming, breeding and man- aging all kinds of pets; also giving full instructions for making cages, ete. Fully explained by “twenty-eight illustrations. Full instructions are given in this ng and For sale by all jewedantert, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 10c. per copy, in money or stamps, by y ee HARRY E. WOLFF, Publisher, Inc. * est 23d Street New York City 4 Sy ar, TO TELL FORTUNES.—Every one is ° < - ; 5s : Fame and Fortune Weekly — LATEST IssuRSs — wise 1009 On His Merits: or, The Smartest Boy Alive. is 1010 Trapping the Brokers; or, A Game Wall Strect Boy. 1011 A Million in Gold: or, The ®reasure of Santa Cruz. ni 1012 ee He Make Money; or, From the West to Wall | reet, ee 1013 The Boy Magnate; or. Making Baseball Pay. eet 1014 Making Money; or, A Wall Street Mousenger's Luck, 1015 A’ Harvest of Gold; or, The Buried Treasure of Coral Island. 1016 On the Curh; or, Beating the Wall Street Brokers. 1017 A SEs of Fortune; or, The Boy Who Struck — 3 il. * z 1018 The Prince of Wall Street; or, A Big Deal for Big _ “ Money. wes 1019 Starting His Own Business; or, The Boy Who aught On. 1020 poe In Wall Street; or, The Wall Street Boy o Won. ? 1021 First in the Field; or, Doing Business for Himself. 1022 A Breer at Highteen; or, Roy Gilbert’s Wall Street Career. , 1023 Only a Dollar; or. From Errand Boy to Owner. 1024 Price & Co.. Boy Brokers; or, The Young Traders * of Wall Street. . ia ‘ 1025 A Winning Risk: or, The Boy Who Made Good. |; 1026 From a Dime to. a Million; or, A Wide-Awake Wall Street Boy. Ss 1027 The Path to Good Luck; or, The Boy Miner of. Death Vallev é es. 1028 Mart Morton’s Money; or, A Corner in Wall Street ; Stocks. : , 1029-Famous at Fourteen; or, The Boy Who Made aw Great Name. ie 1080 Tips To Fortune: or, A Tiucky Wall Street Deal. 1031 Striking His Gait; or, The Perils of a Boy gineer. a 1032 From Messenger to Millionaire; or, A Boy’s Luck In Wall Street. 10383 The Boy Gold Hunters; or, After ,A Pirate's ~ or, A Wall Street Boy’s Treasure. 10384 Tricking the Traders; Game of Chance. a ¢ 1035 Jack Merry’s Grit; or, Making a Man Of Himself. — 1086 A Golden Shower; or, The Boy Banker of Wall — Street, 10287 Making a Record; or, The Luck of a Working Boy. 1038 A Fight For Money; or, From School toe wali 1039 Stranded Out West; or, The Boy Who Found a 1040 Ben Basstord's Luck: or, Working on. Wall Streetie 1041 A Sopa ee Kiug; or, The Treasure of the Secvet a 1042 Bound To Get Rich; or, How A Wall Street Boy Made Money. . s 1043 Friendless Frank; or, The* Boy who Became Famous. SE aps. 1044 A $30,000 Tip; or, The Young Weazel of “Wall ; Street. oe 1045 Plucky Bob; or, The Boy Who Won Success. 1046 From Newsboy to Banker; or, Rob Lake’s Rise in Wall Street. rl 1047 A Golden Stake; or, The Treasure of the Indies. 1048 A sey" one the Market; or, A Het Time In Wall ° Street. * 1049 Watching His Chance; or, From Ferry Boy to Cap- tain. 1050 A sone — Gold; or, The Young King of Wal } Street. 1051 A Wizard.for Luck; or Getting Ahead in the World. 1052 A Fortune at Stake; or, A Wall Street Messenger’s ; Deal. a7 Fis Last Niekel; or, What It Did for Jack Rand Nat Noble, the Little Broker; or, The Boy Who Started a Wall Street Panic. ; 1055 A Struggle for Fame; or,, The Gamest Boy in orid. 1056 The Young Money Magnate; or, The Wall Stre Boy who Broke the Market. ne 1057 A pe ae Contract; or, The Boy Who Made a Raft 0 oney. : 1058 A Big Risk; or, The Game That Won. es 1059 On Pirate’s Isle; or, The Treasure of the Seven Craters. : 1060 A Wall Street Mystery; or, The Boy Who Be : the Syndicate. x } For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 8c, per copy, Sie eA in money or stamps, by