The Mystery of The Barranca

of lime fresh drawn from a kiln of their own burning. "I'd always imagined bricklaying to be a mere matter of plumb and trowel, but this darned craft has mor

d-carrier. But now I know that the humble 'mort' puts more foot-pounds of energy into his work than the average h

se than the first,'" Billy groaned. "Can

ranchero. But that single transaction summed up their dealings with the natives. No man had answered their call for laborers at wages which must have appeared as wealth to a peon. The charcoal-burners who drove their burros past the mine every day returned to their greetings either muttered curses or black stares. They were as stubborn in their cold obstinacy as the fa

somewhat shattered by the Dutchman's hurried exit, dug a lime kiln, and hauled the wood and stone for the first burning. They had completed the laying out of the smelter foundation, filling in odd

beating an old pan. It is doubtful whether young men ever had better prospects; and so, knowing that Billy's present pessimism arose from a strong dis

rd rush of the pine, and all along the bench pi?on and copal, upland growths, shouldered cedars and ceibas, the tropical giants. While these battled above for light and room there came, writhing snake-like up from the tropics, creepers and climbers, vines and twining plants, to engage the ferns and bracken, the pine's green allies. A plague of orchids here attacked t

on Luis is back from Mexico City. The hunchbacked c

t came their way that of the cripple was the m

olicy for me to run down and pay the denunciation taxes before we begin work on the smelter. No, I don't apprehend any trouble. Your Mexican hasn't much stomach for litigation, and no doubt the ol

n you prefer to intrust your precious neck. Light began the day by kicking me through the side of the stable. Sh

late white. "Is this magnificence altogether for el General, or did Caliban drop some word

re, after tearing it in shreds, he tossed it to the winds. Its destruction, however, did not seem to change his mood. He let Peace take her own way until, having slipped, slid, and tobogganed on tense haunches down the last grade, she felt able to assert her individuality by attempting

ranged between the copious curses of the fat se?ora whose pacing-mule was driven by Peace off the trail, and the

we do not

out of a jungle clearing, at the ranchos which now began to cover the valley with a green checker of maize fields, and at scattered huts, half hidden by the rich foliage of pal

of a dry creek bed, so that only a few feet leeway was left for the train of burros which came trotting out of the

grins of two of his fellows. Flushing with quick anger, he backed Peace against the fence, leaned forward over her neck, and slashed with his whip at the leadi

other and busier end beat a devil's tattoo on resounding ribs and filled the air with flying charcoal. Yet even her demoniac energies had their limitations. If she held the ground for herself and master she could not preserve the inviol

content with h

p then with all his might, he laid it across the crooked shoulders once, twice, thrice, before the fellow sprang, snarling, out of reach. The others, who had already passed, came leaping

t what to do. It was too late to give way, for that would expose him to future insult. Yet if, taking the initiative, he sh

were passing behind him. Looking quickly, he caught the glint of polished hardwood in the tail of his eye; then, without a pause for thought, he dropped flat on the rump of the mule, and not a second too soon, for, raising the hair on his

st then came a sudden beat of hoofs, and from behind a bamboo thicket gal