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Show TH6 yellow spring. Iomarfic Mexican tofy BY WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP. OopyrtfclitieA by J. B. Iippincott Company, and pi liafaed bV special arrangement with tWiJ 1 ' CHAPTEE XIL 5BB PASSION OF DONA BEATRIZ i)E RIVERA. ' cussing the loss of the letter the Indian fruit seller came around the corner and sent Walter a shrill warning in the form of a snatch from a ballad. , "Time is passing, time up," she song; "those who do not buy my fruits when they are ripe may regret them when they are withered." ; . , "Where next where next can we meet f demanded Walter. "Is there no way? In another moment we may be watched, interrupted." ' "I can think of only one plan. ' I might come down to the church very early in the morning, even before the devotees, and pretend to be one of them. You could kneel near me, and we could talk in English without appearing to be communicating com-municating with each other."' 1 . "Then, quickl to-morrow, ''if yon will. I shall be there even before daylight." And they parted. V - His messenger followed him to claim her reward. Afterwards, she wont and talked about him to an arriero, Perf ecto Ponce, whom we have briefly seen as the friend and critic of Antonio Gnssol in the first chapter. This man had come up among the bonds of pilgrims. ' - "la he one of the schoolmates? Does he know the time of day, since he doet such peculiar things?" she asked, in mysterious mys-terious praseology. "I'm not quite sure that he is of ' the society," replied the other, equally obscure. ob-scure. "We must look him tip; we must keep an eye on him." ' Afterwards, who should come up to Walter but bis old servant, the dismissed Pablol This fellow, so stupid otherwise, had some animal like scent for identities, and began to peer at him in the same investigating in-vestigating way as before. ; ' "You look like a better man," said he, suddenly, meaning, no doubt, to test him. "I wish I could say as much for you, my friend, though we are all made in God's image and likeness. You will find that in your catechism." , ( ? Walter thoroughly understood the ways and speech of the lower class, and could adapt himself to them at need in humorous, rollicking fashion. . He had a gift of mimicry, too, with which in gay moods he would amuse his friends, and he drew upon this in disguising his voice. Pablo was apparently puzzled, but not convinced. But twilight was drawing on, and at this moment, from under the wide curtain draping the main door way of the church, issued forth the saint's procession, which was the main feature of the f estivaL A large female figure in bjacjc velvet gown, silver adorned, with jomca nanaa and a tearful, pleading expression, ex-pression, was carried around the plaza on a platform amid a multitude of attendants at-tendants with lighted candles. She tottered tot-tered under the unsteady motion of the shoulders that bore her, and the countenance, counte-nance, looking down, had a very real and human aspect. Amid such a melee, for they were near the front, it was not difficult to slip away, and for the morrow he made some further changes in his personal appearance. appear-ance. He was in the church at the very first gray of morning. Amy did not come down for a long time. He grew impatient, im-patient, alarmed. The sky was pink instead in-stead of gray, and their last opportunity was passing. , "I could not get away before without arousing suspicion," she said, when, panting with haste, she finally appeared. "Luz, her mother and Beatriz were in the same room with me; some of them were awake, and I had to wait till they slept again. I doubt if Dona Beatriz had slept all night; and you saw yesterday how quick she is to penetrate one's plans." "Could it be anything more than quickness?" queried Walter, and they returned re-turned to the subject of the letter gone astray. Amy repudiated the idea. They could discuss nothing thoroughly, but dashed from one topio to another. Walter repeated re-peated hurriedly the same account of events in the canyon which he had before written, and then spoke of the uncertain future. : v "Do not look any more for the regular bubbling of the spring," said he. "I have told you of my present plan, and there is no saying henceforth where I shall be or what I shall do. Nor will it do to tinst to letters again." "And I shall tot hear from you? You will disappear utterly?" "If my new attempt does not succeed, perhaps I shall soon reappear in my own person; concealment would be no longer of any use. But I will try to find some means of keeping yon in mind of me. It may be possible to use a messenger. By those whom it is delightful to remember re-member we do not wish to be forgotten." Amy was burning to tell him feelingly feeling-ly of her sympathy and distress for him in his hardships, her warm belief in his final triumph, and her desire to be patient pa-tient and strong for his sake, but it was too late; people came and interrupted, " and Walter went away with a little impression im-pression of coldness on her part. The horses wej? already stamping without, and he overheard 7)on Angel summon her with boyish impatience, saving: "Well, are you not ready? The sun is half an hour high: we ride early here in the tropics, and we must be off." The Arroyo ladies were among the other worshipers by this time, and it seemed to him he could not escape detection de-tection should those familiar eyes fall upon him. To avoid them, he went out by a small door through which the flaming flam-ing eastern heavens could be seen above the vegetation of a courtyard. His investigations in-vestigations had already shown him there was an exit to a lane. Around the courtyard was an arcade of the usual sort, and on the top of one of the stuc-cood stuc-cood walls, -stained leesK)f-wine color, was a small belvedere. , Dona Beatriz, who might just have come in or might have been obscured by a column, glided into the cloister after him, and, touching his arm, addressed him in a most agitated way. As before, he was disposed to deny his identity, but she parsisted. ' "Do not be afraid of my betraying you," she said. "I am prudent. I pass my whole time here only in praying for your welfare and safety; could I then be capable of endangering you? You have trusted your secret to her; oh, I beseech you, let me who would do so much more for you, who would give my heart's blood for you let me also have some share in serving yon." "This from you, Sister Beatriz?" "It cannot be wholly a surprise to you, for Amy has told you of my feelings." "She has; but I could not find it in my heart to believe it of Dona Beatriz, whom I have always looked upon as the sweetest and most perfect of saints." "Call me saint and perfect no longer, unless it be saintly to worship an earthly earth-ly hero and type of gallant boldness who well deserves it. I am changed; yonr words have sunk deeply into my mind; I believe nothing or everything just as you would have it I belong no more to the religious life, and in the great world what can I do if you are not with me?' "Tell me, Dona Beatriz," said her companion, com-panion, gently, touched -as what man could fail to be by such an all pervading, nncalcnlating affection?. "how you knew I had confided my secret to Dona Amy?" - - . She blushed with the ingenuousness of one little used to duplicity, yet replied boldly: "I. found the letter at the cross of the English governess. I did not know what COMTXSCIO OH SBVESTH PACK. time," he said, with the despair of failure fail-ure in his heart. "It was for that I wanted to see you, to arrange for the future, to make some new little plan of action." "But you speak of failure and of these millions you have gained in the same breath?" Bhe said, repeating the figures he gave her and catching at this as something some-thing tangible. "The amount is one that mokes n; y poor brain dizzy. It is already a magnificent Buccess." "It is a mere drop in the bucket," he rejoined, bitterly, after his usual way of' looking at it. "Surely the state of affairs and the reasoning presented in my latter can have made but little impression upon you." Thus the letter came to be spoken of, and its loss was discovered. Amy raised her small hand to her forehead in a gesture ges-ture of consternation As is a common experience, they could not at once verify the exact date and fix all the attending circumstances through which it might have been accounted for. With Walter there was one redeeming feature in it. He had felt a little involuntary resentment resent-ment when she tried to comfort him by representing his defeat as victory, and he was glad, after all, the confession had not reached her. He experienced a proud revulsion of feeling on the whole subject, sub-ject, and something more of his self esteem es-teem returned to him, now that she did not know who he was, and to what tragic history he was bound. "Yes, as events have turned out, , it will bo best that notliing of it should ever be known till success is certain," he mentally decided. Still, the letter had gone astray, and, though unsigned and in some respects enigmatic, there was no telling what new element of danger might not be involved in itsjoss, ;., . While they were still niia,tedlyis- "CoH me saint and perfect no longer." "How wom and ill you lookf said Amy at once on greeting him. "Is it real, or only a part of yonr disguise?' "Soma of it may be real but let us not talk of that; time is too short; let us talk of yourself." He was looking at her with timidity and misgiving, aided by the effect of the poor peasant attire be wore, to see if perchance he might divine somo results from tho confession be had made her. "PobreJ" rising the Spanish word of ympathy, caught up familiarly from her companions "no, we must talk of ?ou. Oh, what a strange way to meet! 'ell me mt least that you have been successful, suc-cessful, that all is going well." "No, at present it is going very ill; fiie. end, seems nut off to a very Jong towards Walter's own treasure it was because Beatria had offered him hers. He had got bnt a little way out of the place, in starting upon a renewal of his journey, when he heard rumors that the disturbance had been particularly violent vio-lent over in the direction of the Barranca of Cimarron. One informant, just down from Huetongo, said he had seen a mighty column of smoke arise from there and mount a prodigous distance into the air. All other anxieties were swallowed tp in the thought that he had better turn back and look to the safety of the property left behind. v He therefore took again to his devious routes. But proceed cautiously, as he would, he met a number of people prowling prowl-ing about in this district wont to be so lonely. iy,,'. . j "Why Is there such, an unusual beat-j beat-j ing of ; the woods just nowr he asked, entering into confidential relations with one of them near Huetongo. .,..' ; ''The kidnapers are at, their tricks again. Awhile ago they carried off Kaufmann, the foreman of . the glass works, around at Lake Jornada, and a reward is offered. It is said he has been seen over this way lately,' . "If Kaufmann has been carried off be keeps very cool about it," commented Walter. ; TI-MLIISPEM. fTtCEP rKOM SIXTH PAO. ' ' or from whom it was at first, but I suspected. sus-pected. , It wee not till I heard you de-clare de-clare yourself Ignacio Gomez that it wqs gll clear to me beyond a doubt," , "And yon openly avow that you took a letter that was not yours and did not return it, even when you knew to whom it belonged?- "There was one excellent reason why I did not return it," she persisted. "No; I could not My heart bled for you on divining that confession. I could not bear that you should humiliate yourself before her. Dear Bon Walter, you are too high and noble to be an object of condescension to any one in the world." Walter winced before this commendation, commenda-tion, this touching of the sore spot even by such as she. "As for me," Dona Beatriz went on, "it brings you but tho nearer to me. This painful secret needs no apology for me. To know you have suffered makes you only the dearer." . Surely here was a strong appeal; there was a great sense of rest to him in knowing know-ing his secret shared and yet no odium falling upon him on account of it; but more was to follow. "You have suffered her to aid, and yet " it was I who was far the stronger. , Listen,' Lis-ten,' dearest Don Walter; you are in want of very great resources; I now know the reason why. Well, I, even I, might give them to you. If I could command a treasure sufficient for all your needs, would you share it with me?" ' "Does all the world think 6f nothing else but treasure?", he cried, as if this were only a kind of specter conjured by . her out of his own thoughts. "And you, poor Sister Beatriz, what have you to do with' such things?" 1 He looked at .her coniiniseratingly, and began to doubt her canity. '. :. V - : 'It is in my power, poor and weak as you think me, . Nobody can hear us; I speak of , the treasure of my convent, buried securely away against the greed of the selfish men who would have robbed us of that as of everything else." She no doubt saw his face change, and went on hurriedly, ardently, as if she eaw him yielding: "I trust you at once, though no one else knows it; I can have no fear of you. It is close by the spot you cleared for us in our old garden of Santa Rosa. It is buried in the foundation founda-tion wall, and made a part of it, so that ' they might dig the whole place over and never find a trace of it." "Is it yours to give, Dona Beatriz?" ' Again she flushed most deeply. "To use it for your mission would be right," she replied. "To whom, indeed, does it really belong? It can never again bej used for the religious purposes for which, it was designed. The survivors of thei convent who are very few have no right to use it in luxurious living, evenj if their inclinations did not forbid. If . it be seized it will not'' go to the servicei of the state, but to feed individual rapacity. ra-pacity. Theri to what .better end than' ' the one you have in view is it ever likely to be devoted? Take me with you," she pleaded. .'You have always been so good to mo, I belong to you and not to myself."-' '- , :! 1 ; ":. -.' ' i. ; Walter was convinced that her state ' ment- was 'truer -fajimy'-Bmatt circunv j stances from the past wove themselves together to-gether td strengthen the convictioni It needed a strong motive, indeed, to resist so dazzling a temptation. Nor was it purely mercenary, for the charms of - Dona Beatriz were great, and one could foresee how she would develop under freedom, which she would enjoy with. . the zest of an escaped bird, and but now he had thought Amy cold. But motive somewhere there was that gained the victory even over so many combined al- ' lurements. A crippled beggar, from the church door, here shuflled up closer to them, asking for alms. Walter motioned i him away, and they two moved somewhat some-what farther on, in the cloister. : "I cannot share it with you; I cannot take it," he responded. "Give up these strange ideas, and be again the unworldly un-worldly little Beatriz I have always liked." "You cannot take it! Oh, -1 felt it would be so. But tell me why, why?' she besought. A worse man would, perhaps, have been kinder on the surface, but Walter was master, even in such a case, of soma of that Spartan firmness which fits one for fjreat things. "It is best, to ear it plainly; to accept it, I ought to lore yon," he replied; "and, while I admire and esteem yon most warmly as no man could help doing I do not love you." She bent as if before a heary blow, covering her face a moment with, both hands. "There are those who hate if they are not loved," she said, with a touching pathos, after commanding herself again. . "Iam not one of them. I can never wish to be revenged, nor think bitterly of you. Then take it without me. I can die. It shall never be sad I imposed myself as a condition upon a means that may secure your happiness." Walter advanced towards her to take her hands and speak some kinder, more reassuring words. But at this time, though the sky was blue and the sun Jbright, a strange, calamitous wind arose, The belvedere above the wall toppled into the court with a crash; the ground wayed and oscillated beneath their feet, and in some places was seen to open; one of the most severe earthquakes known in that district for years had ensued. "It is a judgment," cried Beatriz, who seemed stricken by a mortal terror. - "The voice of heaven has spoken against me." - Walter had to look on from a distance at the departure of Amy like the merest stranger. He 6aw that she had come to no harm. The company, recovering from their panic, more in haste to be off than ever, went away in a somewhat disorder-ly disorder-ly manner, many very anxious to see if ' any damage had been done at the hacienda. haci-enda. In the shock several curious things had "happened. The cripple in the corridor with Beatriz and Walter, for instance, had shown surprising activity. He made ' quite a normal use of his legs thereafter, , ' and on returning to Cuernavaca reported report-ed to the Jef e Politico that Dona Beatria had talked in a very animated way with man Who, though wearing peasant's dress, did not appear to' be a peasant. Upon his heels came Pablo, who, had identified this peasant as the same one he half suspected to be Don Walter. "Pooh! pooh! it is not probable, scoffed the Jefe Politico. "Nevertheless, "Neverthe-less, we will keep an eye out for these birds, too." - And so it happened that if the first re-raote re-raote glance of scrutiny began to be cast |