PIZZO SHOOTS TO KILL.
However, as soon as Ellen was in the chamber, which was reasonably
clean, by the way, she placed two chairs, one on top of the other,
against the door so that an attempt to open it would cause the top
chair to fall with a crash. She lay down upon the bed, fully dressed.
Her intention was to fight off sleep, but she was dead with fatigue and
in ten minutes she was unconscious.
Many hours later she was awakened by voices in the next room and she
saw that the sun had been up at least an hour. Pizzo was talking to
some one and she could hear every word.
"I do not fear General Lopez, or President Garcia," he boasted. "I do
not care if she is the wife of Carlo Lopez. He cannot command me. She
is my prisoner. I think I marry her myself."
"General Lopez says he will take the field himself at the head of the
whole army of the nation," said the stranger boldly. "Beware, General
Pizzo. You cannot fight the whole republic."
Pizzo laughed scornfully. "This Lopez! I do him a service. I carry off
this Morrison. I will pay him a commission on the ransom. Tell him
that. It is not my fault this beautiful _señorita_ encounters me just
as I am leaving the city. I take her with me so she cannot bring down
the police upon us and get this Lopez into trouble with me. Now, I love
her. I am as good a _caballero_ as Lopez. I think she likes me better
already. I do not give her up."
"Then you and your whole band, men, women and children, will be
exterminated!" declared the messenger. "Our airplanes will drop bombs
on this village as soon as I return."
"If you return," retorted the bandit significantly. "My friend, I know
a pass through the mountains into Nicaragua. Once there, I am safe; the
army of Santa Rosa is powerless. A few more bandits in Nicaragua mean
nothing whatever to Nicaragua. From any part of these mountains I can
collect the ransom from Señor Tomaso Morrison. Lopez may find another
American _señorita_. This one belongs to me."
"Shall I take back that message?" asked the man.
"A moment. You have twice been in this valley. You know where are my
outposts. Another shall take back my defiance. You remain."
"I came here under a flag of truce," cried the other. "You wouldn't
dare detain me."
Pizzo laughed. "I dare anything."
"Then I proclaim you nothing but a treacherous brigand," cried the
brave man who confronted him.
_Crash!_ It was a pistol shot. She heard a groan and a heavy body
fall and she tore open the door and stood in the doorway. Pizzo was
returning a smoking pistol to his holster. A man in the uniform of
a Santa Rosa army officer lay bleeding on the floor. Ellen uttered a
shriek and crumpled down into a still white heap.
Pizzo looked at his victim, then at the girl lying on the floor.
Shrugging his shoulders, he picked Ellen up with difficulty, for she
weighed a hundred and eighteen pounds, and he was a small man, carried
her back into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. For a moment he
looked down on her. Was she worth the decision he had made to defy the
whole military force of the republic? Well, anyway, he had done it, and
she would pay for it. He left the hut and shouted for his lieutenants.
"Break camp, burn the houses, pack everything we can carry," he
commanded. "We're going across the frontier into Nicaragua."
There were protests. This valley was the only home these outlaws
possessed; but Pizzo knew how to explain the situation. Lopez had
permitted him to carry off Morrison for ransom, but now Lopez had
changed his mind and demanded that they give up their captive. The
ransom of Morrison would make them all rich. It would be a million
American dollars.
In Nicaragua's mountains they were safe from the army of Santa Rosa,
and the revolution in that country would prevent its government from
bothering about alien bandits in the remote recesses of the hills. The
girl? Oh, she was nobody; it was on account of Morrison that they were
taking to flight.
* * * * *
Looking through a window in the hut in which he had spent the night,
Jim Morrison saw the outlaws assemble. There were about a hundred men,
he thought, thirty-five or forty women, and a score or more of children
of all ages. In the entire outfit there were not a dozen men who could
be called white, the rest were Indians, negroes and breeds of the three
races.
He watched them bustle about with lack-luster eyes. What had happened
to Ellen during the night? Who had fired the shot just now, which
came apparently from Pizzo's headquarters? The last question was soon
answered for he saw four men carrying out a body dressed in the uniform
of an officer of Santa Rosa cavalry. An envoy, perhaps, from the
government, and this brigand had killed him!
Until he set eyes upon that dead body, Jim Morrison had not been fully
alive to the desperate character of his captors. Pizzo was a slimy
little rat, a menace to an unprotected young woman, but Jim couldn't
accept him as a full-fledged bandit. He hadn't believed in bandits. The
whole thing had seemed absurd. But Ellen's situation was not absurd,
and ransom or no ransom, neither of them was safe in such a mob.
His door was unbolted and a soldier beckoned to him. He followed him
into Pizzo's hut where the general was sitting at table.
Pizzo motioned to a seat.
"The young lady?" Jim demanded.
"She have refuse to come," said the chieftain. "I have to kill a man
and she unfortunately see him. It's a pity."
"Where is she?" he cried. Pizzo nodded toward the inner room. Jim
rushed to the door and knocked. "Ellen, it's Jim. Will you come out to
breakfast?"
"I will not eat with a murderer," she answered hysterically. Pizzo
laughed.
"I have finished. I go. Make her eat."
He left the room and Ellen emerged upon being informed of the fact. She
was very pale and her eyes were red.
Jim grew pale as he looked at her. "Did that wretch--did he--"
"No, no," she denied. "He was decent to me, but, oh, Jim, he shot an
officer who came from Lopez, murdered him in cold blood."
"Yes. I saw the body carried out. You poor kid, it must have been
dreadful! Sit down here. There's nothing but bread and milk, but you
need your strength."
He seated her and took his place opposite. Ellen was silent for a
long moment, her head bent, but she was watching him through her long
lashes. "Jim," she said shyly, "I have been very unjust to you, and I
was horrid last night."
He laughed delightedly. "Anything you ever said to me, I deserved. I
had it coming to me."
"No, you didn't. The officer was a messenger from Lopez and I overheard
his conversation with Pizzo. Jim, Lopez was responsible for your
capture. He contrived it with Pizzo."
"I wouldn't be a bit surprised," Jim replied calmly.
"The officer was sent to demand my release, not yours."
"Well, that would help a lot."
"And Pizzo killed him so he couldn't return and inform Lopez the
location of this camp." Her voice began to shake. "He--he isn't going
to let me go."
"Oh, yes, he will," Jim assured her.
She stretched appealing hands across the table. "Jim, I have been
frightful to you and I don't deserve anything from you, but will you
save me from this man? He says he's going to m-m-marry me." Her sobs
overcame her. With two strides Jim was around the table and had her in
his arms and this time she didn't repulse him.
"Don't you worry, darling," he declared as he stroked her glossy hair.
"Nobody's going to marry you but me. I was afraid of Lopez, but you're
onto him now, and you bet this funny bandit won't get you."
She looked up and smiled pitifully. "You'll think it's just because I'm
in peril that I turn to you."
He laughed loudly to conceal his emotion. "I should worry why you turn
to me, so long as you do. It's a question of money with these beggars
and father has plenty for both of us."
She released herself and smoothed her hair. "No, Jim," she said.
"Pizzo thinks he's in love with me and he expects to get all the money
he wants for you. I heard him say he was going to cross the frontier
to Nicaragua and escape the Santa Rosa troops. If you can't save me, I
won't be saved, that's all."
"Then it's up to us to get away. Just be ready to do whatever I say.
Something will break for us."