Produced by Al Haines [Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: "This is a terrible piece of work." Page 185.] THE LOST GOLD OF THE MONTEZUMAS A STORY OF THE ALAMO BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD AUTHOR OF "CHUMLEY'S POST," "CROWDED OUT O' CROFIELD," "THE TALKING LEAVES," ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY _CHARLES H. STEPHENS_ PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1898 COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Gods of the Montezumas CHAPTER II. The Alamo Fort CHAPTER III. The Dream of the New Empire CHAPTER IV. The Race for the Chaparral CHAPTER V. Among the Bushes CHAPTER VI. The Old Cash-Box CHAPTER VII. The Escape of the Rangers CHAPTER VIII. The Camp at the Spring CHAPTER IX. The Skirmish in the Night CHAPTER X. A Baffled Pursuit CHAPTER XI. The Charge of the Lancers CHAPTER XII. The Horse-Thieves and the Stampede CHAPTER XIII. The Last of Tetzcatl CHAPTER XIV. The Perilous Path CHAPTER XV. The Return of the Gold Hunters CHAPTER XVI. The Army of Santa Anna CHAPTER XVII. The First Shot CHAPTER XVIII. Crockett's Alarm Gun CHAPTER XIX. The Reinforcement CHAPTER XX. Nearing the End ILLUSTRATIONS "This is a terrible piece of work" . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece._ "Good! Tetzcatl go to the Alamo" "Heap dollar," remarked Red Wolf "Ugh!" screeched the Comanche at the end of a terrific minute, and he sank into the grass In rode the very airy captain of lancers A dark, stern, terrible shape half rose from a couch CHAPTER I. THE GODS OF THE MONTEZUMAS. It was a gloomy place. It would have been dark but for a heap of blazing wood upon a rock at one side. That is, it looked like a rock at first sight, but upon a closer inspection it proved to be a cube of well-fitted, although roughly finished, masonry. It was about six feet square, and there were three stone steps leading up in front. Behind this altar-like structure a vast wall of the natural rock, a dark limestone, had been sculptured into the shape of a colossal and exceedingly ugly human face,--as if the head of a stone giant were half sunken in that side of what was evidently an immense cave. There were men in the cave, but no women were to be seen. Several of the men were standing near the altar, and one of them was putting fuel upon the fire. The only garment worn by any of them was a ragged blanket, the Mexican _serape_. In the middle of the blanket was a hole, and when the wearer's head was thrust through this he was in full dress.