Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1917-Feb 1918)

CAPTAIN SUNLIGHTS LAST HAW S3 bered that far below the pine, where the water of a mountain brook ran, there was a cave which he had discovered while fishing in the brook from the lowland, one day. He was sure this was not the cave to which Captain Sunlight was taking him. He knew nothing about that. There were many hidden and almost inaccessible nooks in the mountains, the knowledge of which often enabled the desperado to escape his pursuers, but obviously this recess which Conway had in mind was not that in which he was destined to be starved, for there was no possible access to that cave at the foot of the precipice from the trail where they were then. Conway was doomed to die, anyway. He thought that it would be better to die of his own will by being dashed to pieces over the cliff than by slow starvation, and there was just a chance that he might escape with his life. His guard was not very observant. What was the necessity ? With Captain Sunlight before him and a man holding the head of his horse, Conway could not go forward. With the Mexicans behind him, he could not go back. He could not turn around on the narrow trail, and that he would go over the cliff never occurred to any one. Yet that is just what he did when he came above the tree. He spoke to his horse sharply, dug the spurs deeply into him. The animal reared. The Mexican .at the bridle lost his footing. He and the horse and Conway went over the cliff together. As he fell, Conway in some manner freed himself from the saddle and strove to fall into the tree. In this he was in part successful. A branch fortunately caught him under the arm, holding him suspended a second or two, enough to check the terrible momentum of the fall. His arms still bound, he could do nothing to help himself except to swing his legs. He realized if the branch held he would be shot instantly, so he swung himself violently. The little branch gave way, and he went plunging down the cliff, which a few feet below the tree inclined slightly from the sheer perpendicularity of its upper half. Meanwhile the horse and the Mexican, unchecked by anything, went hurtling down into the gulf with terrific speed, and they were both dead as soon as, if not before, they brought up at the side of the brook. Even tho Conway's fall had been checked half way down, that he accomplished the remainder of the descent without being instantly killed was something in the nature of a miracle. As it was, he brought up against a great boulder in the midst of the stream. He was knocked senseless and lay there with his head against the boulder, his cheek pressed to the rock, his face downward, his feet in the water. There was some undergrowth on the bank of the creek. He had rolled thru it and broken off most of it, but several slender twigs still stood upright. Quick action on the part of the men on the trail two hundred feet above was impossible. For one thing, for a moment or two they were in imminent danger of falling with their horses themselves. Captain Sunlight watched the bodies of the two men and horse crash down into the abyss ; then he took out his revolver and, taking careful aim, sent a shot at poor Conway. There was a visible movement of the body, and then all was still. "Shall we also fire?" asked the Mexicans. Captain Sunlight shook his head. "No other shot than mine is necessary," he said. "The man was probably killed by the fall, anyway, and you saw his body jump as my bullet struck him." "And poor Manuel?" asked the nearest bandit. "Dead as a door-nail ! Well, it's a little quicker than I had planned for mio ami go Conway, but it will serve. We'll go on until we can turn the horses around, and then we'll go back and raid the town." Having thus disposed of one man and not having the slightest conception that there was another to be reckoned with, Captain Sunlight, observing, after they retraced their steps and passed the place again, that neither of the three bodies below him had changed positions in the slightest degree, descended to the lowland and then rode rapidly toward the town. Meanwhile, coming over the border at