One of Raphele's "Christmas Graves"

CHAPTER XVIII

"THE FLY-BY-NIGHT"

Janice Day could never have told how long she sat there, elbows on the
bureau, eyes glued to those black lines on the newspaper page. The heat
of the tall oil lamp almost scorched her face; but her back was
freezing. There was never anything invented--not even a cold storage
plant--as cold as the ordinary New England farmhouse bedchamber!

But the girl felt neither the lamp's heat, nor the deadly chill of the
room. For a long time she could not even read beyond the mere headlines
of the article telegraphed from Cida.

This seemed to be conclusive. It was the end of all hope for Janice--or,
so she then believed. There seemed not a single chance that her father
could have escaped. No news had been good news, after all. This story in
the paper was all too evil--all too certainly evil!

By and by she managed to concentrate her numbed mind upon the story
itself. There is no need to repeat it here in full; when Janice had
read it twice she could not easily forget its most unimportant phrase.

The man, John Makepiece, with Broxton Day, of Granadas district, had
been held "incommunicado" for months by the bandit, Raphele. This leader
had fought with his _commando_ for the Constitutionalists at the battle
of Granadas; but he was really an outlaw and cutthroat, and many of his
followers were brigands like him.

The prisoners had been held for ransom. Several of the Mexican captives
of Raphele had managed to pay their way out of the villain's clutches;
but both Americans refused to apply to their friends for ransom. Indeed,
they did not trust to Raphele's protestations, believing that if any
money at all for their release was forthcoming, it would only whet the
villain's cupidity and cause Raphele to make larger demands.

Raphele feared now to remain longer in that part of Chihuahua. His
unlawful acts had called down upon his head the serious strictures of
the Constitutionalist leaders. They were about to abolish his command.

In his rage and bloodthirstiness he had declared his intention of either
destroying his remaining prisoners, or sending them to their homes
crippled. But the two Americans he treated differently. With fiendish
delight in seeing those two brave men suffer, he had commanded them to
cast lots to see which should be escorted beyond the lines, while the
other was marched to the edge of an open grave, there to find a sure and