uberant young bridegroom from the fate before him.

"Do you see that peddler--old Rosenthal--close to the bar? He brought in
a large and rich pack tonight. It lies in the next room. Do you go there
at once. I will come soon, and together we will select a gift for your
bride. Go quickly!"

She passed again behind the bar. Jack Phillips was at one end, lame
Jim Driscoll at the other, Tom Bell in the middle. Rosa paused near
a branching candelabra which had once graced the altar of a Spanish
church.

"Is Jose below?" whispered Bell. She nodded. "Why did you save that boy,
just now? A new lover?" She directed upon him a level glance of hate.

"I do what pleases me, senor." She raised her arm high, beginning the
first stamping measure of a Spanish dance. Instantly there was a curious
rumbling noise in the stable underneath. Rosa swept over the candelabra.
All the lights in the place were struck out. Phillips and Driscoll
slipped two great bolts, and the entire bar-room floor swung downward on
hinges.

The chute to purgatory was open!

There was bedlam in that dank pass to the region of shades, and no
quarter was shown to any man; only cries of "The String! The String!"
from members of the gang in order to distinguish the robbers from the
robbed, in the darkness. There were curses, the kicking and squealing
of horses in their stalls; a verse from the Talmud recited in Yiddish
(which suddenly stopped), and above it all the high and hysterical laugh
of a woman.

The boy turned from the peddler's pack as Rosa entered the room. "What
is that horrible noise?"

"A fight. Come, you had better go." She led him down a dark stair to
another section of the cellar. "Jose," she called. An evil looking
Mexican pushed open a rough door. "You shall take this man out through
the second tunnel."

"Si, senora."

"And, Jose, he shall reach the outer opening alive, and with all his
belongings. He has no money. Do you hear?" Jose grunted. "Go, now,
under, cover of the noise."

"But the gift for Elena!"

Rosa laughed mockingly. "What a child it is! My gift to Elena tonight,
is you--her lover. Ask her to thank me with a prayer from her pure heart
for my sins."

Jose led the young man through a long, damp, evil-odored passage
underground, and out through a trapdoor at the extreme end of the
garden. A shrub grew on top of the door, surrounded by a bed of fragrant
wild pansies. Jose kicked the staring youth away from the entrance and