Newspaper Page Text
HEART
OF THE
SUNSET
By REX BEACH
Author of " The Spoiler*,” 11 The Iron
Trail," “The Slitter Horde," Etc.
Copyright by Harper A Brothers
CHAPTER Vlll.—Continued.
“So do I,” Law declared quietly. “He
treated be like a hobo —sent me to the
kitchen fof a hand-out. That sticks.
If I hadn't tamed down considerably
these late years, I'd have —wound him
up, right there.”
From beneath his dropping lids
Ellsworth regarded the Ranger curi
ously. “You have a bad temper, haven't
you ?”
“Rotten 1"
“I know. You were a violent boy.
I've often wondered how you were get
ting along. How do you feel when
you’re—that way?”
It was the younger man’s turn to
hesitate. “Well, I don't feel anything
when I’m mad,” he confessed. “I’m
plumb crazy, I guess. But I feel plenty
bad afterwards.”
There was a flicker of the judge’s
eyelids.
Dave went on musingly: “I dare say
it's inherited. They tell me my father
was the same. He was—a killer.”
“Yes. He was all of that.”
Dave lifted an abstracted gaze from
the Pullmnn carpet. “I hardly know
what I mean, judge. But you’ve had
hunches, haven't you? Didn’t you
ever know that something you thought
was true wasn’t true at all? Well, I
never felt as if I had bud blood in
me. My mother was Mexicun —”
“Spanish.”
“All right. Am I Spanish? Have I
any Spnnish blood in me?”
“She didn’t look Spanish. She was
light-complexloned, for one thing. We
both know plenty of people with a
Latin strain in them who look like
Anglo-Saxons. You were educated In
the North, and your boyhood was spent
at school and college, away from ev
erything Mexican.”
“That probably accounts for It,” Law
agreed; then his face lit with a slow
smile. “By the way, don’t tell Mrs.
Austin that I’m a sort of college per
son. She thinks I’m a red-neck, nud
she sends me books.”
Ellsworth laughed silently. “Your
talk is to blame, Dave. Has she sent
you ‘The Swiss Family Robinson?’”
“No. Mostly good, sad romances
with an uplift—stories full of lances
nt rest, and Willie-boys in tin sweaters.
The good women were always beau
tiful, too, and the villains never had
a redeeming trait. It’s a shame how
human nature has got mixed up since
then, isn’t it?”
“Alaire Austin’s romance is sadder
than any of those novels.”
Dave nodded. “But she doesn’t cry
about it.” Then he asked gravely:
“Why didn’t she pick a real fellow
who’d kneel and kiss the hem of her
dress and make a man of himself?”
“What’s the matter with you?" quer
ied the judge. “Are you smitten with
that girl?”
Dave laughed. “Maybe! Who
wouldn’t be? Why doesn't she divorce
that bum —she could do It easy enough
—and then marry a chap who could
run Las Palmas for her?”
“A mnn about six feet three or
four,” acidly suggested the judge.
“That’s the picture I have tn mind."
“You think you could run Las Pai
mns?”
"I wouldn’t mind trying.”
“You must never marry,” firmly de
clared the older man. “You'd make
a bnd husband, Dave.”
“She ought to know how to get along
with a bad husband, by this time.”
The Judge’s face broadened in a
smile. “Thank heaven ‘Young Ed’ has
the Insides of a steel range, and so my
pet client is safe from your mercenary
schemes for some years.”
CHAPTER IX.
Longorlo Makes Bold.
At La Ferin Alulre discovered that
the federal depredations had been even
grentcr than she had fenred. Not only
hnd the soldiers taken a great many
head of cattle, but they had practically
cleared the ranch of horses, leaving
scarcely enough with which to carry
on the work.
Life in the roomy, fortresslike adobe
house was pleasant enough. Alairo
welcomed the change in her dally life.
Everything about La Feria was rest
fully un-American, from the house It
self, with its bare walls and floors, Its
brilliantly flowering patio, and Its
primitive kitchen arrangements, to the
black-shawled, barefooted Indian wom
en and their naked children rolling in
the dust. Even the tlmberlewj moun
tains that rose sheer from the west
ward plain into a tumbling purple-
' DAVE LAW ADMITS THAT HE IS SMITTEN WITH THE MIS
TRESS OF LAS PALMAS—MRS. AUSTIN HAS A
STRANGE EXPERIENCE.
Synopsis. —Mrs. Alaire Austin, handsome young mistress of Las
Palmas ranch, lost in the Texas desert, wanders into the little camp
of David Law, state ranger, lying in nmbush for a Mexican murderer.
She is forced to stay for 24 hours, until Law captures his man, kills an
other and escorts her home. “Young Ed” Austin, drunken wastrel, be
rates his wife and makes insulting insinuations about the ranger. Aus
tin is secretly in league with Mexican rebels and horse thieves. Mrs.
Austin encounters Gen. Luis Longorio, Mexican federal, when she
goes to La Feria, her ranch in Mexico, to collect war damages, and
Longorio, a bad man, falls in love with her. Dave Law kills a cattle
thief and suspects Ed Justin of criminal connections.
shadowed rampart were Mexican. La
Fertn was several miles from the rail
road ; therefore it could not have been
more foreign had it lain In the very
heart of Mexico rather than near the
northern boundary.
In such surroundings, nud in spite of
faint misgivings, it was not strange
that, after a few days, Alaire’s unhap
piness assumed a vaguely impersonal
quality and that Iter life, for the mo
ment, seemed not to be her own. Even
the thought of her husband, Ed Austin,
became indistinct and unreal. Then
all too soon she realized that the pur
pose of her visit was accomplished,
and that she had no excuse for re
maining longer. She was now armed
with sufficient facts to make a definite
demand upon the federal government.
The homeward journey was a rep
etition of the journey out. Jose, as
before, was newsgatherer. Hour after
hour they crept toward (he border, un
til at last they were again laid out on
a siding for an Indefinite wait.
The occasion for this was made plain
when an engine drawing a single ca
boose appeared. Even before it had
come to a pause, a tall figure in spot
less uniform leaped to the ground and
strode to the waiting coaches. It was
Luis Lougorio. He waved a signal to
the conductor, then swung aboard the
north-bound train.
The general was all smiles as he
came down the aisle, and bowed low
over Alaire’s hand.
Dolores gasped and stiffened in her
sent like a woman of stone.
“Heaven be praised 1 You are safe
and well!” said the newcomer. “I
have blamed myself for allowing you
to take this abominable Journey! I
have been in torment lest something
befall you. Every night I have prayed
that you might be spared all harm.
When I received word that you were
coining, 1 made all speed to meet you.”
“Dolores and I are greatly in your
debt,” Alnire told him.
“But you stayed so long!”
“There was more work than I
thought.. General, you have ruined me.”
Longorio was pained; his fnce be
came Ineffably sad. “Please! I beg
of you,” he entreated. “I have ar
ranged for reparation of that miser
able mistake. I shall see that you re
ceive justice. If the government will
not pay, I will. All I possess would
be too little to buy your happiness.”
“Y'ou embarrass me. I’m afraid you
don’t realize what you say.” Alaire re
mained coo! under the man’s protesta
tions. “I have lost more than a thou
sand head of cattle.”
“We shall say two, three thousand,
and the government will pay,” Longo
rio asserted brazenly. “I will vouch
for your figures, and no one will ques
tion them, for I am a man of honor.”
“No! All I want—”
“It is done. Let us say no more
about the affnir. Sonora, I have thought
of you every hour; the duties that held
me in Nuevo Pueblo were like irksome
chains. I was in madness. I would
have flown to La Feria, but—l could
not.”
“My husband will thank you for your
great courtesy to me,” Alaire managed
to say.
But the mention of husbands was
not agreeable to one of Longorio’s sen
sitiveness, and his fnce betrayed a
hint of impatience.
“Yes, yes,” he agreed carelessly.
“Senor Austin and I must know each
other better and become friends."
“That is hardly possible at present.
When the war is over—”
“Bah! This war is nothing. I go
where I please. You would be sur
prised to greet me nt Las Palmas some
day soon, eh? When you tell your
husband what n friend I am, he would
be glad to see me, would he not?”
“Why—of course. But surely you
wouldn’t dare—”
"And why not? I have made Inqui
ries, and they tell me Las Palmas Is
beautiful, heavenly, and that you are
the one who transformed it. I believe
them. You have the power to trans
form all things, even a man’s heart
und soul. No wonder you are called
‘The Lone Star.’ But wait. You will
see how constantly I think of you.”
Longorio drew from his pocket several
photographs of the Austin rnnchhouse.
“Where did you get those?” Alnire
asked in astonishment.
"AJi! My secret. See! They are
badly worn already, for I keep them
next to my bosom.”
“We entertain very few guests nt
Las Palmas,” she murmured, uncom
fortably.
“I know. I know u great deal."
THE NORTH GEORGIAN, GUMMING, GEORGIA.
“It would scarcely be safe for you
to call; the country is full of Cande
leristas—”
“Cattle!” said (be officer, with a
careless shrug. “Did not that great
poet Byron swim across an ocean to
see a lovely lady? Well, I, too, am a
poet. I have beautiful fancies—songs
of love run through my mind. Those
Englishmen know nothing of passion.
Your American men are cold. Only a
Mexican can love. We have fire In
our veins, senora.”
To these perfervld protestations Do
lores listened with growing fright; her
eyes were wide, and they were fixed
hypnotically upon the speaker; she pre
sented much the appearance of a rab
bit charmed by a serpent. But to Lon
gorio she did not exist; she was a chat
tel, a servant, and therefore devoid of
soul or intelligence, or use beyond that
of serving her mistress.
Thinking to put an end to these
blandishments, Alaire undertook to re
turn the general’s ring, with the pre
tense that she considered It no more
than a talisman loaned her for the time
being. But it was a task to make Lon
gorio accept it. He was shocked, of
fended, hurt; he declared the ring to
be of no value; it was no more than
a trifling evidence of his esteem. But
Alaire was firm.
It was an odd, unreal ride, through
the blazing heat of the long afternoon.
Longorio cast off all pretense and open
ly laid siege to the red-hnired woman’s
heart —all without offering her the
smallest chance to rebuff him, the
slightest ground for open resentment,
so respectful and guarded were his
advances. When the train arrived nt
its destination, his victim ‘was well
nigh exhausted from. the struggle.
After a good night’s rest, however, she
was able to smile at yesterday’s adven
ture. Longorio did not bulk so large
now; even these few hours had greatly
diminished his importance, so that he
appeared merely as an Impulsive for
eigner who had allowed a woman to
turn his head.
Once back across the river she dis
covered that there were obstacles to
a prompt adjustment of her claim. The
red tape of her own government was
as nothing to that of Mexico. There
were a thousand formalities, a myriad
of maddening details to be observed,
and they called for the services of an
advocate, a notary, a jefe politico, a
jefe de armas —officials without end.
All of these worthies were patient and
polite, but they displayed a malarial
Indifference to delay, and responsi
bility seemed to rest nowhere. During
the day Alaire became bewildered, al
most lost in the mazes of official pro
cedure, and was half minded to tele
graph to Judge Ellsworth.
Longorio by no means shared her
disappointment. On the contrary, he
assured her they were making splen
did progress, and he wns delighted
with her grasp of detail and her knowl
edge of business essentluls. At his
word all Nuevo Pueblo bowed and
scraped to her; he arranged for her
an'elaborate luncheon In his qunrters.
“You cun never know what these two
days have been for me,” the genernl
said as he and Alaire lingered over
their meal. "They will afford me some
thing to think about nil my life. It is
a delicious comfort to know that you
trust me, that you do not dislike me.
And you do not dislike me, eh?”
“Why, of course not. I have a great
deal for which to thank you.”
General Longorlo fingered his wine
glass nnd stared into It. “I am not
like other men. I am a man of iron—
yes, an Invincible soldier—yet I have
a heart, and a woman could rule me.”
“You say you have a heart.” Alulre
studied her vis-a-vis curiously as he
met her eyes with his mournful gaze.
“How is it that I hear such strange
stories about you, general?"
“Lies, all of them 1” Longorio as
serted.
“For Instance, they tell me that you
shoot your prisoners?”
“Of course!” Then, at her shocked
exclamation, he explained: “It is a
necessity of war. Listen, senora 1 We
have twelve million Indians in Mexico,
und a few selfish men who Incite them
to revolt. To permit the lower classes
to rise would result in chaos, black an
archy, Indescribable outrages against
life and property. There Is but one
way to pacify such people—extermi
nate them! Mexico Is n civilized nn
tlon; there is no greater in the world;
but she roust be ruled with an Iron
hand. We shall drive all the traitors
Into the sea, and Mexico shall have
peace. But I am not a bloodthirsty
man. No, I am a poet and a lover at
heart. As great a patriot as I am,
I could be faithless to my country for
one smile from the woman I adore.”
Alaire did not color under the ardent
glance that went with this declaration.
She deliberately changed the subject.
. “This morning while we were in the
office of the jefe de armas,” she said,
“1 saw a poor woman with a baby—
she was scarcely more than a child
herself—whose husband is in prison.
Every day she comes to plead with the
jefe de armas for her husband’s life.
Buthe will not see her, und the sol
diers only laugh at her tears.”
“A common story! • These women
and their babies are very annoying,"
observed the general.
“She says that her husband is to
be shot.”
“Very likely! Our prisons are full.
Doubtless he is a bad mnn.”
“Can’t you do something?”
“Eh?” Longorio lifted his brows in
the frankest inquiry.
“That poor girl with her little, bare,
brown-eyed baby was pitiful.” Alaire
leaned forward with an earnest nppenl
in her fnce, and her host smiled.
“So? That is how it is, eh? What is
her name?”
“Inez Garcia. The husband’s name
is Juan.”
“Of course. These peladors are all
Juans. You would like to appear ns
an nngol of mercy, eh? Y’our heart Is
touched ?”
“Deeply.”
“Bnstante! There Is no more to be
said.” Longorio rose and went into
the next room, where were certain
members of his staff. After a time he
returned with a paper in his hand, and
this he laid before Alaire. It wns an
order for the release of Juan Garcia.
“The salvo conducto which will permit
Juan and his Inez and their Junnlto to
return to their farm is being made
out,” he explained. “Are you satis
fied?”
Alaire looked up wonderingly. “I am
deeply grateful. You overwhelm me.
You are—a strange man.”
“Dear lady, I live to serve you. Your
wish is my law. How can I prove It
further?”
The strained, throbbing silence that
followed Longorio’s last words did
more to frighten the woman than had
his most ardent advances. He would
have lingered Indefinitely over the
table, but Alaire soon rose to go, ex
plaining :
“I must finish my disagreeable task
now, so that I can go home tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow!*’ her host cried in dis
may. “No, no! You must wait—”
“My husband Is expecting me.”
This statement was a blow; It
seemed to crush Longorio, who could
only look his keen distress.
As they stepped out into the street,
in the gutter stood Inez Garcia with
her baby in her arms, nnd beside her
the ragged figure of a young man,
evidently her Juan. The fellow was
emaciated, his face was gaunt and
w'orn and frightened, his feet were
bare even of sandals, the huge peaked
straw hat which he clutched over his
breast was tattered, and yet in Ills eye
there was a light.
They had waited patiently, these
Garcias, heedful of Longorio’s orders,
nnd now they burst into n torrent of
thanks. They flung themselves to
their knees and kissed the edge of
Alaire’s dress. General Longorio en
joyed this scene tremendously, nnd his
beaming eyes expressed the hope that
Alnire was fully satisfied with the mo
ment.
“They look very poor,” said Alaire,
and opened her purse; but Longorio
would not permit her to give. Extract
ing a large roll of paper money from
his own pocket, he tossed It, without
counting, to Juan, nnd then when the
onlookers applauded, he loudly culled
to one of his officers, saying:
"Oiga! Give these good friends of
mine two horses, and see that they are
well cared for. Now, Juan,” he ad
dressed the dazed countryman, “I have
one order for you: Every night of your
life you and your pretty wife must say
a prayer for the safety nnd happiness
of this benuttful lady who has induced
me to spare you. Do you promise?”
“We promise!” eagerly cried the
pair.
“Good! See that you keep your
word. On the day that you forget for
the first time Luts Longorio will come
to see you. And then what!” He
scowled nt them fiercely.
“VVe will not forget,” the Garcias
chorused.
The next installment covers
further exciting and extremely
distasteful advances on the
part of General Longorio. Alaire
begins to fear the Mexican.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
School of Mines.
“What are you boring there?”
“A gold mine.”
"Bah I There’s no gold around here.”
“This Is a practical tunnel for our
students In the mining course.”
"Does it look like a real mine?”
“Very much so. Several people have
been along who wunted to buy stock !u
it.”—Louisville Courier-JournaL
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The Householder.
“Ever have pipe dreams?"
“Yes, nnd they are generally stove
pipe nightmares.”
WOMAN’S CROWNING GLORY
is her hair. If yours is streaked with
ugly, grizzly, gray hairs, use “La Cre
ole” Hair Dressing and change it in
the natural way. I‘ricc SI.OO. —Adv.
Score One for My Lady Nicotine.
The new German gas is (he most
fearful instrument the war has yet
produced, by the testimony of those
who have ex|erience(l it. The senses
give no warning of It. The gassed
man does not know he Is n victim until
he reels and falls.
“We have to lie ’em down In the
ambulance,” said a driver. “They
suffer and scream! My God! Their
eyes go, you know. Then all their
mucous membranes. I guess most of
’em die. That’s what 1 hear."
The new gas clings to the ground
for days, according to report. It has
been felt at 1.1 kilometers behind the
lines. Oddly enough, tolmcco gives
the only alarm. The man who Is
smoking feels the gas In time to get
on his mask or run away, while the
nonsmoker falls on Ills face uncon
scious.
Equal to the Occasion.
Christinas was drawing near and
tlie two small girls were discussing
that all-absorbing topic—presents,
“Mother sn.vs,” announced the fair
little girl, “that I’m going to have a
fur for my neck tills Christmas.”
The dark little girl regarded her
friend enviously for a moment ; then,
rallying, said contentedly:
“That’s nothing! My mother took
me to the doctor this morning and he
said my tongue had been furred for a
week past.”
There’s
Superior
Flavor
To
POSTUM
as a table beverage.
A package from
the grocer is well
worth a trial, in place
of coffee—especially
IVhen Coffee Disagrees!