LITMIR.BIZ

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Scotch quickly knelt beside the motionless form, feeling for the pulse, and then shaking his head gravely.

      "What is it?" anxiously asked Frank. "Has he——"

      He was silent at a motion from the professor, who bent to listen for some movement of the man's heart.

      After a few seconds, Professor Scotch straightened up, and solemnly declared:

      "This is the end for him. We can do nothing more."

      "He is dead?"

      "Yes."

      There was an awed hush.

      "Now we can leave him," the professor finally said. "Pacheco, the bandit, cannot harm him now."

      They lifted the body and bore it back to the wretched bed of straw, on which they tenderly placed it.

      "The idol—the golden image?" said the professor. "You must not forget that, Frank. You have it?"

      "Little danger that I shall forget it. It is here, where it fell from my fingers as I ran out."

      He picked up the image, and placed it in one of his pockets.

      Then, having covered the face of Jack Burk with his handkerchief, Frank led the way from the hut.

      Their horses had been tethered near at hand, and they were soon mounted and riding away toward Mendoza.

      The sun beat down hotly on the plain of white sand, and the sky was of a bright blue, such as Frank had never seen elsewhere.

      Outside Mendoza was a narrow canal, but a few feet in width, and half filled with water, from which rose little whiffs of hot steam.

      Along the side of the canal was a staggering rude stone wall, fringed with bushes in strips and clumps.

      Beyond the canal, which fixed the boundary of the plain of sand, through vistas of tree trunks, could be seen glimpses of brown fields, fading away into pale pink, violet, and green.

      The dome and towers of a church rose against the dim blue; low down, and on every side were spots of cream-white, red, and yellow, with patches of dark green intervening, revealing bits of the town, with orange groves all about.

      Across the fields ran a road that was ankle deep with dust, and along the road a string of burros, loaded with great bundles of green fodder, were crawling into the town.

      An undulating mass of yellow dust finally revealed itself as a drove of sheep, urged along by peons, appeared.

      Groups of natives were strolling in both directions, seeking the shadows along the canal. The women were in straw hats, with their black hair plaited, and little children strung to their backs; the men wore serapes and sandals, and smoked cigarettes.

      Along the side of the canal were scattered scores of natives of all ages and both sexes, lolling beneath the bushes or soaking their bodies in the water, while their heads rested on the ground.

      Those stretched in the shadow of the bushes had taken their bath, and were waiting for their bodies to dry, covered simply by serapes.

      From beneath such a covering dark-eyed native girls stared curiously at the passing trio, causing Hans no small amount of confusion.

      "I say, Vrankie," said the Dutch boy, "vot you dinks apoudt dot pusiness uf dakin' a path in bublic mit der roadt beside?"

      "It seems to be the custom of the country," smiled Frank; "and they do not seem to think it at all improper."

      "Vell, somepody better toldt dem to stob id. Id keeps mein plood mein face in so much dot I shall look like you hat peen drinking."

      "They think nothing of it," explained the professor. "You will notice with what deftness they disrobe, slipping out of their clothes and into the water without exposing much more than a bare toe."

      "Oxcuse you!" fluttered Hans. "I don'd like to took mein chances py looking. Somepody mighd make a misdake."

      The sun was low down as they rode into the town.

      "We have no time to lose," said Frank. "We must move lively, if we mean to return to the hut before nightfall."

      "That's right," nodded Professor Scotch.

      They were successful in finding a native undertaker, but the fellow was very lazy, and he did not want to do anything till the next day.

      "To-morrow, señors, to-morrow," he said.

      That did not satisfy, however, and he was soon aroused by the sight of money. Learning where the corpse was, he procured a cart and a burro, and they again set out along the road.

      They found whole families soaking in groups in the canal, sousing their babies in the water, and draining them on the bank.

      Young Indian girls in groups were combing out their hair and chatting merrily among themselves and with friends in the water.

      "Dere oughter peen some law for dot," muttered Hans.

      Leaving the canal, they set out upon the sand-plain, the undertaker's burro crawling along at an aggravating pace, its master refusing to whip it up, despite urging.

      The sun had set, and darkness was settling in a blue haze on the plain when the hut was reached.

      Frank lighted a pocket lamp he always carried, and entered.

      A cry of astonishment broke from his lips.

      "Professor! professor!" he called; "the body is gone!"

      CHAPTER III.

       HELD FOR RANSOM

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      "Gone!"

      The professor was astonished.

      "Shimminy Gristmas! I don'd toldt you dot!" came from Hans Dunnerwust.

      "Yes, gone," repeated Frank, throwing the light about the room and finally bringing it back to the bed of grass.

      "But—but it's impossible."

      "Impossible or not, it is true, as you may see."

      "But the man was dead—as dead as he could be!"

      "Yah!" snorted Hans. "Py shingoes! dot peen der trute. Dot man vos teader as a goffin nail, und don'd you vorget him!"

      The trio were silent, staring in stupefied amazement at the bed of grass.

      An uncanny feeling began to creep over Frank, and it seemed that a chill hand touched his face and played about his temples.

      Hans' teeth began to chatter.

      "I am quite ill," the professor faintly declared, in a feeble tone of voice. "The exertions of the day have been far too severe for me."

      "Yah, yah!" gurgled the Dutch lad. "You vos anodder. Oxcuse me while I go oudt to ged a liddle fresh air."

      He made a bolt for the open door, and Professor Scotch was not long in following. Frank, however, was determined to be thoroughly satisfied, and he again began looking for the body of the dead man, once more going over the entire hut.

      "The body is gone, beyond a doubt," he finally muttered.

      "There is no place for it to be concealed here, and dead men do not hide themselves."

      He went out, and found Professor Scotch and Hans awaiting his appearance with no small amount of anxiety.

      "Ah!" said the professor, with a deep breath of relief, "you are all right."

      "All right," said Frank, with amusement; "of course I am. What did you think? Fancy I was going to be spirited away by spooks?"

      The little man drew himself up with an assumption of great dignity.

      "Young

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