LITMIR.BIZ

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Gabilonda was announced, General Carlo followed almost at his heels. The latter glanced in surprise at O'Halloran.

      “Where did you catch him, excellency?” he asked.

      “I did not catch him. He has caught me, and, incidentally, you, general,” answered the sardonic Megales.

      “In short, general,” laughed the big Irishman, “the game is up.”

      “But the army—You haven't surrendered without a fight?”

      “That is precisely what I have done. Cast your eye over that paper, general, and then tell me of what use the army would be to us. Half the officers are with the enemy, among them the patriotic Colonel Onate, whom you see present. A resistance would be futile, and would only result in useless bloodshed.”

      “I don't believe it,” returned Carlo bluntly.

      “Seeing is believing, general,” returned O'Halloran, and he gave a little nod to Onate.

      The colonel left the room, and two or three minutes later a bell began to toll.

      “What does that mean?” asked Carlo.

      “The call to arms, general. It means that the old regime is at an end in Chihuahua. VIVA VALDEZ.”

      “Not without a struggle,” cried the general, rushing out of the room.

      O'Halloran laughed. “I'm afraid he will not be able to give the countersign to Garcia. In the meantime, excellency, pending his return, I would suggest that you notify Colonel Gabilonda to turn over the prison to us without resistance.”

      “You hear your new dictator, colonel,” said Megales.

      “Pardon me, your excellency, but a written order—”

      “Would relieve you of responsibility. So it would. I write once more.”

      He was interrupted as he wrote by a great shout from the plaza. “VIVA VALDEZ!” came clearly across the night air, and presently another that stole the color from the cheek of Megales.

      “Death to the tyrant! Death to Megales!” repeated the governor, after the shouts reached them.

      “I fear, Senor Dictator, that your pledge to see me across the frontier will not avail against that mad-dog mob.” He smiled, waving an airy hand toward the window.

      The Irishman set his bulldog jaw. “I'll get you out safely or, begad! I'll go down fighting with you.”

      “I think we are likely to have interesting times, my dear dictator. Be sure I shall watch your doings with interest so long as your friends allow me to watch anything in this present world.” The governor turned to his desk and continued the letter with a firm hand. “I think this should relieve you of responsibility, colonel.”

      By this time General Carlo had reentered the room, with a crestfallen face.

      O'Halloran had been thinking rapidly. “Governor, I think the safest place for you and General Carlo, for a day or two, will be in the prison. I intend to put my friend O'Connor in charge of its defense, with a trustworthy command. There is no need of word reaching the mob as to where you are hidden. I confess the quarters will be narrows but—”

      “No narrower than those we shall occupy very soon if we do not accept your suggestion,” smiled Megales. “Buertos! Anything to escape the pressing attentions of your friends outside. I ask only one favor, the loan of a revolver, in order that we may disappoint the mad dogs if they overpower the guard of Senor O'Connor.”

      Hastily O'Halloran rapped out orders, gathered together a little force of five men, and prepared to start. Both Carlo and Megales he furnished with revolvers, that they might put an end to their lives in case the worst happened. But before they had started Juan Valdez and Carmencita Megales came running toward them.

      “Where are you going? It is too late. The palace is surrounded!” cried the young man. “Look!” He swept an excited arm toward the window. “There are thousands and thousands of frenzied people calling for the lives of the governor and General Carlo.”

      Carlo shook like a leaf, but Megales only smiled at O'Halloran his wintry smile. “That is the trouble in keeping a mad dog, senor. One never knows when it may get out of leash and bite perhaps even the hand that feeds it.”

      Carmencita flung herself, sobbing, into the arms of her father and filled the palace with her screams. Megales handed her over promptly to her lover.

      “To my private office,” he ordered briskly. “Come, general, there is still a chance.”

      O'Halloran failed to see it, but he joined the little group that hurried to the private office. Megales dragged his desk from the corner where it set and touched a spring that opened a panel in the wall. Carlo, blanched with fear at the threats and curses that filled the night, sprang toward the passageway that appeared.

      Megales plucked him back. “One moment, general. Ladies first. Carmencita, enter.”

      Carlo followed her, after him the governor, and lastly Gabilonda, tearing himself from a whispered conversation with O'Halloran. The panel swung closed again, and Valdez and O'Halloran lifted back the desk just as Garcia came running in to say that the mob would not be denied. Immediately O'Halloran threw open a French window and stepped out to the little railed porch upon which it opened. He had the chance of his life to make a speech, and that is the one thing that no Irishman can resist. He flung out from his revolver three shots in rapid succession to draw the attention of the mob to him. In this he succeeded beyond his hopes. The word ran like wildfire that the mad Irishman, O'Halloran, was about to deliver a message to them, and from all sides of the building they poured to hear it. He spoke in Mexican, rapidly, his great bull voice reaching to the utmost confines of the crowd.

      “Fellow lovers of liberty, the hour has struck that we have worked and prayed for. The glorious redemption of our State has been accomplished by your patriotic hands. An hour ago the tyrants, Megales and Carlo, slipped out of the palace, mounted swift horses, and are galloping toward the frontier.”

      A roar of rage, such as a tiger disappointed of its kill might give, rose into the night. Such a terrible cry no man made of flesh and blood could hear directed at him and not tremble.

      “But the pursuit is already on. Swift riders are in chase, with orders not to spare their horses so only they capture the fleeing despots. We expect confidently that before morning the tyrants will be in our hands. In the meantime, let us show ourselves worthy of the liberty we have won. Let us neither sack nor pillage, but show our great president in the City of Mexico that not ruffians but an outraged people have driven out the oppressors.”

      The huge Celt was swimming into his periods beautifully, but it was very apparent to him that the mob must have a vent for its stored excitement. An inspiration seized him.

      “But one sacred duty calls to us from heaven, my fellow citizens. Already I see in your glorious faces that you behold the duty. Then forward, patriots! To the plaza, and let us tear down, let us destroy by fire, let us annihilate the statue of the dastard Megales which defaces our fair city. Citizens, to your patriotic duty!”

      Another wild yell rang skyward, and at once the fringes of the crowd began to vanish plazaward, its centre began to heave, its flanks to stir. Three minutes later the grounds of the palace were again dark and empty. The Irishman's oratory had won the day.

      Chapter 15.

       In the Secret Chamber

       Table of Contents

      The escaping party groped its way along the passage in the wall, down a rough, narrow flight of stone steps to a second tunnel, and along this underground way for several hundred yards. Since he was the only one familiar with the path they were traversing, the governor took the lead and guided the others. At a distance of perhaps an eighth of a mile from the palace the tunnel forked.

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