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In the month of September, the captains O'Brien and Taylor, of the ships Temple and Griffin, being on a joint cruise off the islands Granadas, received intelligence that the Virgin, formerly a British sloop of war, which had been taken by the enemy, then lay at anchor, together with three privateers, under protection of three forts on the island, sailed thither in order to attack them, and their enterprise was crowned with success.
A posse had started for Granadas the day before, to see what was the condition of affairs around the mining property of which Mr. Day had had charge. It was a fact that the guerrilla, Raphele, had overrun that district and had controlled it for some months; but his command was now scattered, and the more peacefully-inclined inhabitants of Granadas were stealing back to their homes.
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.
The story of her father's captivity in the hands of the brigand, Raphele, had been made of light moment in Mr. Day's letters that immediately followed his escape; but Janice understood enough about it to know that God had been very good to her. Some other American mining men and ranchers in Granadas had not escaped with their lives and property from Raphele and his ilk.
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.
He was quickly in communication with one of the great New York papers and found that it was over the paper's private wire that first authentic news from the Granadas district had arrived in the East. The posse from Cida had found everything peaceful about the mines. The guerrilla leader, Raphele, had decamped.
The houses were in yards completely filled with fruit trees chirimoyas, limas, granadas de China, ahuacates and oranges. Garden-beds of spinach, lettuce, and onions were frequent. The houses were of poles set upright, with thick thatchings of palms. Bee-hives in quantity were seen at almost every house. At Tilantongo we had seen but few women in native dress.
The article she feared to see was upon the first page of the paper. A Fugitive's Story of the Christmas-Week Execution in Granadas District John Makepiece Tells His Story in Cida; His Fellow-Prisoner, Broxton Day, Fills One of Raphele's "Christmas Graves" 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.
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