Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1917-Feb 1918)

82 CAPTAIN SUNLIGHTS LAST RAID "And the second time was this morning." "Right again." "You weren't alone this morning." "You didn't see any one with me." "And it's a good thing I didn't." "Incidentally, I submit that it was a good thing for you too that you didn't." "Perhaps. I guess you met a lady on the trail and that you had hidden her from me in the undergrowth." "You're a wonderful guesser." "Do you deny it?" "I neither deny nor affirm. I admire." "Well, from what I learnt at the ranch, before I burned it down and killed its custodians," went on Captain Sunlight, suavely, "I feel certain that I am correct." "Suppose you are, what then?" "This : Tell me where that young lady is, deliver her to me, and you shall go free." "You infernal blackguard!" shouted Conway. He had been despoiled of every weapon and was still covered, but he struck his spurs into his horse and leaped forward. Captain Sunlight swerved aside ; one of the Mexicans grabbed the bridle of Conway's horse. The episode was over, and life would have ended there and then for Conway if Sunlight had not sharply bidden his men to hold their fire. "All this is useless, senor. You would have been shot out of the saddle and filled with bullets before your horse had moved if I hadn't been quick enough to halt my men." "Well, since my life is to pay for my carelessness in allowing myself to be taken, why did you halt your men?" asked Conway, realizing again his complete and entire helplessness. "For one thing, I dont desire that any man who has balked me twice, as you have, should die without allowing him ample time to repent him of his sins in so doing; therefore, I design a deferred death, as it were." "Ah !" "Consequently, I will temporarily postpone the little design I have of raiding the settlement and incidentally securing Miss Warned, who I have no doubt is there." Captain Sunlight's eyes sparkled as he saw the little involuntary motion to which Conway gave way at that remark. "There's a pleasant place up in the hills," he continued, "a little cave on that old trail that I know of, quite hidden from even the rare passer-by on this unfrequented and almost never-used pass, where you can be safely stowed away with abundant time for undisturbed reflection until such a moment as it pleases the good God" — he crossed himself devoutly ; he was that kind of a Christian, the outward and visible species only ! — "to call you to whatever station in the future He may be pleased to assign you !" "You're going to tie me up and leave me to starve ?" "Exactly that!" "You black-hearted villain!" Again Conway strove to come at grips, with Captain Sunlight laughing at his prisoner's futile rage. The American hoped to be shot and killed in the melee, for he had no possible doubt but that the desperado would carry out his intention to the letter, and he knew that he had no chance of rescue in that place where, as Captain Sunlight said, no one ever came up that horrible gorge unless it were a matter of life and death. The Mexicans, indeed, already showed the effects of their rapid and reckless descent, and so did their horses, all of them being cut, torn and bruised. But, as before, the three Mexicans seized him and stopped his horse, while Captain Sunlight grew more exasperatingly amused and polite than ever. At their captain's orders the Mexicans lashed Conway's hands behind his back, and then they all turned and rode up the horrible trail together. Now, the trail went along the edge of a precipice as the gorge grew deeper and wilder, about a mile from the entrance. Captain Sunlight rode in advance. One Mexican walked afoot at the head of Conway's horse and the other Mexicans brought up at the rear on their horses. Winding around the huge escarpment, Conway, whose eves were busy, saw far up the trail a high bluff, from about the middle of which a stunted pine protruded over the gulf, here something like two hundred and fifty feet deep. He remem