Show Flame of 01 the Border SYNOPSIS Seeking death by throwing herself from the summit of Lone Mesa to escape dIshonor at the hands of a drunken desperado Sonya allows al- al allow low lows herself to be rescued by her Bud sua- sobered and repentant attacker The girl Is Ie a self appointed ph sic Ian to the tho Navajo Indians living on an Arizona sheep ranch pith Ith her brother Sorge hi his wIfe Lila IUs and their small daughter Babs Baba ron a year she has been boen engaged to Rodney Blake wealthy New Yorker but her heart Is with the friendless Navajos and she e wades eades ades a wedding wadding Sonya pUlls Little Moon site Ifo ot of Two FIngers a Navajo through the crIsis of an Illness T 0 Fingers I Is deeply grateful Blake returns to New NewYork York declaring ho he will gh e Sonya sl sic more months and then demand she keep her promise to marry him Sonya again meets the man whose ances ad ads ances she aho had repulsed on Lone Mesa Meca Ho tells her he bitterly regrets his action Sonya Is affected but unforgiving She Sho hoars rumors of a Border bandIt EI EI Capitan DIablo who crucifies hI double and and vaguely connects him with her bel attacker CHAPTER III-Continued III S not not-knowin 1 No maybe you know not nut But I 1 think thInh you were wrong Sonya even een so Whatever might have happened to you would have been out Bide aIde your power to pre present no fault ot of yours An think what n a ghastly waste It would have your been brok broken broken en body at the Me Mesas Mesa's as a's foot i oot- oot our kind kindly ly y gone from thIs earth which needs such so bad No she finished shakIng her head you should not have trIed to kill yourself Well the girl laughed I didn't so that's th tt And Myra I wIsh you could have seen his face I never neer saw sawa sawa a drunken man get sober so fast In my life What did he look 1001 like asked My Myrn rn ra curiously Was he a cowboy Sonya considered Well he was dressed like one yetI yet yetI I wondered what oUtfit he could work for since were we're all sheep over there you I know now And he was good to look at tall and slIm hIpped wIth the strangest long blue eyes I ever er saw Odd eyes that could change In a see sec secand and ond They were fierce at first like a hawks hawk's reckless and selfish They made me furIous just to look at them And then Vo hen he be saw I was In dead earnest about this thing thing- they turned perfectly terrIble With like a man s oho ho sees a child dying and c to t help If you see what I mean Well ay Its It's ancient his history tory tort and I hope I never lay by eyes on hIm again the good for And now te tell me about yourself IIo flow s the ranch goIng And Myra fell Into the usual train ot of trivial lal happenings which hid tIlled filled the recent months as the afternoon wore away and the sun went down the west It has as t when the they came out Into the ranch yard and some one was coming Into the round stockade corral where the big tanks shimmered wIth their sweet waters from the well under the wIndmill This Ras as a strange creature If ever er there was one that sat wearily on his little gray burro leadIng another and hazing a third ahead of him him-a thIn stooped fi figure re In rusty black garments that bore about them something of the dig dl of chancel and sacristy Ass A ice hIe brImmed black blach hat sat squarely on the head of long white haIr that fen fell fenIn fellin In dusty rInglets to his shoulders 1 Zhe he tired burros drank as t if famished and the mister stepped off the one herode he herode rode standing patiently beside It while It slaked Its thIrst Myra laId down her pIn pan and went toward thIs newcomer her ller hand ex extended extended tended Hello sir she said V e a re glad to see y J ou There s plenty of feed In th the barns yonder Put up y our an come on In Supper lJ 11 soon be ready Good day my daughter said the theold theold old man shaking hands wIth her Im glad to be here too The road Is long sometimes Ive I've come from Juniper Tank today Whew I 1 whistled Myra That That Is Isa isa a long trail an a hard one especially for burros Oh they do well my little fellows They re true servants ot of the Word newer neer complaining always willing TheIr reward Is certain Im I'm sure It If I weren't Id I'd be unhappy they are so patient so gentle genUe He looked at Myra anxiously with his faded old dark eyes Sure said the woman hastily sure they it II be rewarded Just as lure ture as anything The Servant smiled I knew you OU d understand Mrs Lit LittIe Littie tIe he said Some people don t They smile when I tell them that Now I ii go o put up A little later they aU all sat down to a meal and Sonya studIed him hl m with careful glances Site She had bad beard hear d so much about him Where he had come from the coun- coun country country try did not know or where here he mad made his habitat or It if he even had bad one In I rain and shIne summer s heat and an d wInters wInter's cold he rode the lonely stretches on his tiny mounts carry Ing in g his BIble and his first aid kit Dian Diana y a life lICe he had saved In many a difference he had pItched patched tip up many a bit ot of courage he had put In l n some failing heart they called him himfar hi m far and wide the Servant short from The Servant or of time Lord and he had no other name but that t soubrIquet He as as very ver verold y old and the rIgors of his life lite had ha d leaned him to the bone its s Buns uns hunted his wrinkled skin to the th e color cotor of at old leather But there VolS i In n bla face faca a flame Oame that shamed the ev 11 By VINGiE E ROE Copyright ht Doubleday Doubled Doran a Co no lao Sonic out of men beholding hard cynical as they might be beHe beHe He was known among time the ranchers half balf hilt affectionately as the Holy Chuck line Rider since be had no money ever and could not have spent It It if he had They put him up and fed his burros and listened quiet quietly I ly Iy the e dirk hard rIding men of cat cattie cattie tie camp and sheep camp while he told them ot of theIr sins and the Hope ot of the World ne newer neer er died How much of It went In he never neer knew since they are a silent lot but It was not his Job to know That to gIve the Word that only So now v Sonya him aim smiling a little In gentle s sympathy and re re recalled called the stories of hIs goodness and his unbounded courage which she had heard A strange little old filled with undying zeal his spirIt a 8 fire of c pl ang-pl like llIe those padres Rho ho had walked tIle the West In an earlIer day he commanded the re- re respect re spent or of all came In contact with time him gentle mad old Servant ot of the I bid or d And presently Myra h ra took them out In the windy yard to Sit shout about the doorway and rest with the dying day After Atter the manner manne of stamen omen In far places she began be an to draw from him the neon pens s of time the country The sun went down entIrely and the vast spread of the sandy let ems els clothed c themselves In ro royal al purple be be- beyond yond y ond a painters painter's drums The world was a 8 lovely place the Servant said In i n his soft old voice fit footstool forthe for forthe the feet ot of God There was no evil In i n It ot of Itself Only man made et e elI lI 11 Man with his greed and his cruelty Beelzebub was abroad In the land Beelzebub and his henchman He had seen them with hIs own eyes he hethe hethe the Sen ant of the Lord to In humble plaCes They traveled together by y t rf j I 4 y yI yI I s 's k km kf m f a y W Presently She Left the Ancient Tank and Went On Toward the North night and an danger waited on them death and danger and It had struck just across the Border In that stark form hung upon a cro cross s sIt It was no common thief ho rotted there In the windy sun but one who hid betrayed his mister Beelzebub himself that master dark and cold I and wicked as Infernal fire lIe was a power and a force not to be reckoned with or questioned Thought Though sew se eral hundred miles lay between the Bor Border Border der and thIs spot still the finger er of 0 the One could reach even en here The old min hind had seen shad oss 8 Many Chief of them the Master s eyed blue henchman No good staved where the c Blue ed One sent ent ty by He had heard of hire him across the theLIne th LIne last year the toll tall one colored hair who ho s as always s seen see n when disaster was to follow A sIgn and a symbol of disaster this till ODe on with the on lId e eyes es And he had ceen see n him thine ee days back riding down the th e trail to Red led Hock Hoch canyon on n a hor hors e ot of solid gold So did time tIle On One e mount his followers Well It l growIng late Inte and he h e was tired The old sere ere alwa always s tire 1 tire l So he would find his blankets ond on d sleep If his friends permitted He rose and bossed bo ed ss Ith a lent I grace vague remnant of some for forgot forgotten ot otten ten time and went away to ard th the camp he had made with his packs an d his weary burros and Sonya Sonva n sat still In every atom of her bod y v with a strange stillness s It seemed 1 as If a hushIng hand had been lab laid d upon her spirit something cold and an d sinister come do down don n upon her like a cloud Es U 11 seemed to fall with the th e night and the old mans man's words and an d presently she shivered and d her arms across c each ench other as If to t o shut It out Then she shook hersel t and listened to Myra ro hn was saying g how hose mad the Servant was ab A strong strange old creature Gentle and kind and an d quite quite mad so Myra I 1 ra thou thought ht But Sonya Ion a thought he was wac somehow w akin to her In thI this qUixotic against suffering Only he had bad added adde d sin as we well And he seemed to have a vision It was a this prophetIc vision g so closely with her own sense of dis disaster di s aster concerning certain thins thIn h seemed to fall upon her bor with so EO chIlI chIlIa chi Il a touch I Piffle 1 She was getting old herself l I lIt It as the night and the silence of the vast country under Its great stars Whit were rumors of a Border bandit to her A dark renegade who crucified his bis double l 1 Nothing She forget the dim chill It gave her Shed She'd be all rIght by day And so she was vas vI visiting with M Myra rat laughing and happy hatching the Servant ride away his saddlebags bUlgIng wIth Myra Little Littles s generous gifts of food She stayed two daj days s at the BlackSheep Black BlackSheep Sheep and left carlyon early on the third much to MJ Myras Myra's ras ra's who held her hand as she leaned from Darkness saddle and talked till the thelast thelast last minute CHAPTER IV I I The Spots of the Leopard At the home ranch Sonya found two air man mail letters from Rodney Blake Blako Vo completed her entire return to the commonplace She smiled as she rend read them and for the first time It seemed as If there might be a charm or two In the great city he be depicted so colorfully I She rode over to Chee s ash Ish to see Fingers and Little Moon the next day and found the IndIan woman up and about time sImple matters of her hO ln her rug and her family It gave the girl a thrill to see her so the bush of jo joy that such flea of her work alon a s brou brought ht There Thereas has as something In the knowledge that she had saved a life that made her ber one with the great work worl of crea- crea creation creation tion Itself She was poor as the goods of this world orld went they Here ere all fair Iy so Serge and LIla and little blabs Babs but she felt very rich Inside her ar an arrogantly rIch and she could smile shills up SIt at th the blue heavens with a secret sense of fellowship So she left her last Instructions with the little family at the hogan Kogan patted the thc cheek check of the youn youngest est round eyed child chUd and rode away erect tn in her sad saddIe saddie dIe and pretty well satisfied on Ith her herselt herself self and time the world at large It was In this mood that she came under the tall face of Lone Mesa As she S Sun un round Us its southeastern side she decided to go up The trail cut Into the sheer face by those long dead Inhabitants of the pueblo went up from here an angling sharply and so steep that none but the level headed dared to make it She was such and so nas the good horse under her though they had both S Seated In a cool day the first time they had at attempted attempted tempted It it It gas as a stiff and slow climb cUmb but presently they thc gained time the top and scrambled up imp through h the sma small defile that was the steep trim send sendAs s end As they gent ent forward Sonya felt the surge and thrill she alwa always s felt at sl sight ht ot of the list reach of the world about tier her spread out so far below Taking off her hat she sat long In con contemplatIon her hands and the lint hat rest In l ag on her pommel For a lon long time she sat so then reined a assay ay to the tight light She would cIrcle the mewl mel look at the silent houses their flat fiat roofs still amazingly Intact look at atthe atthe the great stone basin which was near near- nearly nearly ly always s with water caught In Inthe inthe the J yearly early rains Presently she left the ancient tank tanh and went on toward the north norh circling the huddled houses and on as turning ard around them when she stopped dead stIll stillA A horse stood there In the blue shadow ot of the silent sills Ills and a man mansat mansat sat on his haunches smoking a cI cig cigarette arette The hors horse sas as golden as a araw raw law Ingot and the min was bronzed and lean lLan The lIght of his bIs bare held shone In the cool shade lIe He looked up and Son Sonya a looked do down don n and the gals gul s e eyes es dilated Ith a swift S e cIte cIte- ment So she said coldly hu her lips sud suddenly suddenly denly tight lou l ou come here again 1 The man arose a single motion beautifully correlated Son Sonya I not conscIOUs of s shat hat she was as doing sat looking at him and presently he looked up at her a look humble and still like I the mesa he saId Its so high and austere so Q far Car from from-from em e rj I-rj thin At the contact or of his glance the strange tense feeling this man mans s hid caused at every meeting took hold on Sonya It sas as not fear fear- It had never neer ne er nor been repugnance nor the anger s had stirred her but a lIttle of all shot hot through with something which she could not DOt define a sense of prophecy Il a forecast of destiny It chilled her thin and sent Il a IlVa Va wale e ot of fire across the chill chili and for tor a will wild moment she felt as If the solId rock sere falling failing av a beneath her Then she caught herself together severely and lifted Darl Danl ness nes rein and the man spoke again Please he said please Miss Sa dont don't go away u I II go right gladly lie He reached for time the bridle ot of the golden olden horse and drew It to hits hIm toting I know Inow I Ise e got no right even to speak to you he said or look at you that after day up here bere but ut It if I was to be hung for tor It nest second I couldn t help It And I dont don't I cant ant to cause you ou another minutes minute trouble or unhappIness It If this here me mesas l s a favorite place of yours I II never come corne again Dont Don't stay away yourself It Its s too s sweet to be lost nut But you'd lose It Sonya said against her TO U D |