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Show By VINGIE E. ROE Copxrlfat. Doubldar. Dora Oo.. In , r CHAPTER XII Continued 12 "Sol" he thundered, "my people talk behind me, do they? They mention men-tion that which is never to be mentioned? men-tioned? I shall deal with you and you, senora later. Now bring me Quince." At that Sonya felt the world go round for one terrible second. She clutched the chair back tightly. And from somewhere at the right there came the sound of marching feet, the swift step of men obeying a master. Through the dappled shade cast by the poplar trees five figures moved Into her line of vision, four who walked abreast In twos and In their midst a fifth Starr Stone as she had seen him last, in cowboy boots and dungarees belted at his lean hips, a faded denim shirt. He was haggard and his eyes were large in his tanned face, and his arms were bound behind him. He was a prisoner with all a prisoner's indignities heaped upon him, but his tall form was erect, his blue eyes dark with the spreading pupils. He strode toward the table with his gaze on Dlablo's face and saw no other in the silent mass. "Senor," he said. "Senor," said El Capitan, and the smile was gone from his face. It was black with fury. "For five years, Quince, you have been with me my best and ablest man. You have done my bidding quicmy. iou nave iea my ruius. iuu have put my merchandise safely through its secret ways. I have called and you have come, always. Always until lately. Lately you have come on laggard feet. You have held back at my orders. You have disobeyed me. And I have now the reason. That reason is a woman. A woman whom you have set before be-fore El Capitan Diablo. Whose word has been more to you than my word. Who, through your Instruction doubtless, has come upon the key of my activities. Who has caught Quatro with the goods in his own store. Who holds Diablo and all his future In the hollow of her hand. Or would so hold him had It not been for Quatro's swift action in the matter. Senor behold the woman !" He had half risen again, leaning with one broad hand on the table. With the other he pointed dramatically dramat-ically to Sonya. And like a flash Starr Stone whirled and saw her. It was the first Inkling he had had that she was not safe in her own country, and her own pursuits, and the shock of it drained his face to a ghastly pallor. "Sonya I" his Hps formed soundlessly. sound-lessly. "Yes," said the girl defiantly, "they took me from my horse two nights ago kidnaped me by airplane air-plane and brought me here because I stumbled on the fact that Parks Is their agent in the smuggling of narcotics across the line. They think you told me that you and I have planned to double-cross this wicked bandit here this beast who says I'm lying I" She waved a hand at El Capitan, nodded her black head toward him. "Ah! A beast, am I? El Capitan Diablo a beast?" "Yes, senor and worse," said Sonya Savarin. "You may kill me as I do not doubt you will but I am an American, and I do not bend to you either In body or soul. We are both Americans." "Oh, Americans I And Americans do not double-cross?" "No, senor." "Well, we shall see. Quince attention. at-tention. What do you say for yourself?" your-self?" The tall man standing In the mottled mot-tled shade looked long in his master's mas-ter's face. What years of wrongdoing, wrongdo-ing, of obedience, of fear, were in that look only they two might say. For a long time It held between the wild blue eyes, the deadly black ones. Then Starr Stone turned to Sonya. "A misstep in my early youth it doesn't matter now what it was put me in the power of El Capitan Diablo. For my freedom's sake I cast in my lot with him. For my life's sake I could never leave him afterward. I have raided, burned, and pillaged, but I have never killed a man nor harmed a woman or a child. I have been his brains in smuggling, his ablest lieutenant, as he says. But now I'm through. "With death as my sure reward for what I'm saying, I say here and now, before these witnesses, that I am done forever. Done with all wrong and all evil. That the leopard changes his spots at last. For the love of you In my soul I am made over new. They will kill me soon, and I hope they'll send you with me with all my heart though hell itself can hold no torture for me to compare with the knowledge that I have brought you to this. That will be more punishment than my lost soul can bear. Oh, Sonya, forgive for-give me for what I've done to you." "Forgive you?" panted the girl, half sobbing. "Forgive you? I f!ory in you I And we'll go together, never fear! If not one way, then another It will not be a long good-by, 1 promise you." "Soul's covenant," said Starr Stone. "Soul's covenant," fwe answered But here El Capitan leaped to his booted feet, his fist on the table "iT'will not?" he rasped. "You think it will not? Carramba 1 E Capitan Diablo has yet the final word. You to the winds and the vultures. Quince, and may you remember re-member many things In the the interval. in-terval. "You," he turned to Sonya and leveled a finger at her, "I give to that one among my men who rises to this Quince's empty place. Manuel, Man-uel, my compliments, the lady. I believe you like a white-skinned woman with curls in the hair. And after you the rest And that, as they say across the Border, is that Take them both away." The four men moved to surround their prisoner, the marching feet passed swiftly, and Sonya watched the tall bronze head go out of the shade Into the sun around a corner. The world and all it held turned dark before her just as the senora reached out a motherly arm. She dimly heard Manuel saying, "Careful, senora, careful she is mine." CHAPTER XIII Love's Sacrifice. WHEN she opened her eyes again it was dark In the deep-walled deep-walled room, and she lay on the ancient an-cient bed. For a while she lay in a sort of stupid peace, gathering her faculties, which seemed to have been scattered to the four winds. And then suddenly the values of life dropped Into their appointed places, like the brilliant colors in a kaleidoscope, and she knew where she was and what had happened. El Capitan had spoken, and she was still a prisoner, the property of a dapper Mexican bandit with predatory eyes and laughing, thin Hps, Manuel the aviator. And Starr Stone was gone oh, heaven! Gone to that ghastly fate which lurked In the poignant words, "you to the winds and the vultures." The wild blue eyes that had darkened and changed under the mandates of life, the long hands with their tender touch, the lips so warm upon her own ! And presently the senora came padding softly to the door on heavy feet, for she was old and excellently ex-cellently fed, and entered to her kindly ministrations. Sonya whirled and faced her, her dark eyes burning in the shadows. "Senora," she said desperately, "have pity on me I Can you not help me? A knife, senora with my next meal left on the tray? In the name of that holy Woman whom you worship, please, senora !" "I cannot, child," she answered gently. "Manuel would kill me. Come, let me wash your sweet white body with fresh water. And there is perfume, and a woman's clothes to dress you in a scarlet dress, and golden shoes for your feet. Tonight To-night you rest Manuel's orders but tomorrow you wear these things for him. You must forget" Forget ! Forget the vultures and the wlndl Forget the stars, the soft winds blowing, the creak of leather, and Starr Stone's hand on hers laid on her pommel! "If you have within you, senora," she said plteously, "any remnant of a woman's pity for another woman lost to all the light of life, leave me to fight it out alone. Leave me now." For a long time the other stood and watched her, calculating, then nodded and turned away. "I have not forgotten for thirty years," she said cryptically. "You shall have your night, querida " The sound of the bolt falling echoed in the empty passage. And Sonya Savarin, who had guarded life so well, now stood at bay, holding her breath, pondering desperately how she might de stroy it. If only she had her bags! Her little case of Instruments 1 But she had nothlng-and Starr Stone was dying now, perhaps, or would tomorrow. to-morrow. There was nothing left to do no foes to face with lifted head,' no schemes of hope to make, no one whom she might coax to help her And so at last Sonya, having exhausted ex-hausted all her resources, scant at best In this terrible situation, made I J t0 ,b0W In resKnatIon She knelt by the ancient bed, which had no doubt seen tragedies before and folding her hands addressed her soul.ts Maker In sorrow an" How long she knelt so she never afterward could recall. Sometimes she prayed, weeping, for that other soul which had so grievously ml" spent Its days, and these were fer- vent prayers, abased and agonized before the heavenly throne, begging for that mercy of the eleventh hour which has been divinely promised; sometimes for Serge and Llla and little Babs, even for Darkness. For herself she asked scant favor. It had been always so with her. Service Serv-ice to her fellow men, comfort for all suffering things, had been her passionate aim in life. Of herself she thought last and least, of Starr Stone most If only they had met In those early days of which he spoke, before that one misstep had put him In El Dlablo's Dl-ablo's power, made him an outlaw, a Border renegade. When the sweetness, sweet-ness, the kindness in him had been paramount. Before sin and wrong had put the leopard spots upon him. But the spots were changed at last when It was too late. To his face he had repudiated El Capitan, signed his own death warrant, for anyone leaving the dark service of this monstrous bandit put himself "on the spot" as truly as any In more modern places. And he had done it deliberately, to prove to her that he was changed even to the death. The courage which had shone In his face at that repudiation had been magnificent. He knew, none better, the fate of El Dlablo's double-crossers, and he double-crossed him high-handedly and with supreme finality. "Oh, Starr I" wept Sonya with her forehead on her clasped hands. "Oh, my man of all men I My one and only love!" In the warm dark silence the heart in her seemed to melt in anguish, an-guish, the tides of life to run swiftly out For her It was the ebb of finite things, the last low hour before the end. In a dull coma of hopelessness, hopeless-ness, her face swollen with weeping, J Through This and the Night Sky Was Above Them. she sank lower and lower against the great bed, her lips apart, her black head disheveled. And into this last deep abyss there dropped a tiny sound. The outside bolt, huge and heavy, slipped slowly in its slot! Instinctively the girl shrank back against the bed. Manuel ! Manuel, her master! She stilled a scream on her open mouth, her hand across it And then a voice, whispering into the darkness, a breath of a voice as lovely as music, said "Senorita !" "Si," said Sonya, gasping, "I am here." There was the murmur of a moving mov-ing form, and Concha knelt carefully care-fully before her. Sonya reached out and touched her incredibly, but the girl drew sharply from the contact. con-tact. "Attend," 6he said, "if you are brave are you so, senorita?" "I am very brave," said Sonya simply. "Then listen. You I hate from my soul's bottom I could strike you now with my two hands but there Is another, whom I love. Oh, Mary Mother! Love!" she said as If to her Inward self. She stopped a moment mo-ment then went on. "If you can follow me without a sound there Is a hope. Can you walk so?" "Without a sound," said Sonya, and bent forward to unlace her boots. Swiftly she took them off. The Mexican girl reached out and took her by the sleeve. That hatred In her would not let her touch her flesh. Softly, step by step, the two young things crossed the silent room, listened at the partly opened door, and slid through It In the long dark pnssnge they listened again, then went south nlong the wall toward a door which also stood ajar. Through this and the night sky was above them, the tall cottou--woods against the stars. Like wraith, of th. gtoTZT out on th,opMii!H, Before the littl. k' the starlight 1 toward it swiftly, ? ' d reached its protect i . stepped out from th.?" Wnd; a tall B, 1 waist, his headbaTut,!' man who was pr,p&r A, ! tag up" onthej'n, drew them both ship's side. mt "Sonya " he whlspere(1 yl" Then, "UsJ" chance In a million, n, " tffl warm from a this afternoon. x g:-about g:-about dark." 0 " It is fueled. Thev . Thank God-anrL ft' here I have Just aiMble 'V one, I think, though no ,! ' nently as I could 'w, to take that on. chancel ' our only one. Get In ,7 With his band, under hf , Sonya went np along dropped into the littl, l( , swiftly for the 8afet, ' ;;Safe?''themauwhlSMts.L iafe, she answered pui, buckle tight Then she saw Starr Stout Concha and take her In u, t. "Concha," he said IOfti, ta ' enough for Sonya to hearth-pered hearth-pered words, "I leave thee. ;: fate. But never will I ot!(-nor ot!(-nor this thing which jmkr Always while I live I will reir Adios, little one." And, bending his tall heii kissed her on the lips. "Ready," he said, and, P the girl beyond the plane'u::; he caught the propeller's Wife TTti otA A l.. yjy uu uuwu ue IWUDg It-; two, three, then a fourth ife time, and came llthelj npu! Into the pilot's seat as the m the catching engine thundered the night There came the little surft' ward, the heavier one, the t; the tall as they rocked iwi; i the field, the gathering s(tftA. then the soft wave of inline they lost contact with theejii-sailed theejii-sailed away Into the starry tier And Sonya Savarin, lookicj : with wide drawn eyes, had mi:. as they surged for the start, i red spurt of flame where Cc. stood In the shadows, heard, i the roar of the motor, the sharp crack of a shot "Oh, God!" she cried, awl i throat "Oh, God I Conchita :" Conchita, who, saving her lore could not save him apart fro: . had made the last great sacrut love Itself. The pouring crowd that 1 along the field, lighted oo, i wreak no vengeance oo he, Concha, too, was gone a; stars. CHAPTER XIV On Lone Mesa's Top. SONYA clung to the cockpit';-with cockpit';-with clutching fingers, to burned dry of sudden tears -on the future, If future tfc': to be. The aching sorroufc-lovely sorroufc-lovely Mexican girl who hJ Starr Stone sank deep la to--never to be Quite eradicated Life that could do such f-things f-things to Its poor devote; calling from the starry sM were free, together, she it-scarecrow it-scarecrow man with thei!-hair, thei!-hair, the naked torso, the and she asked no mo ' The memory of all dered things was dim aodfs- - the ranch house that ra the faces of Serge and LUi-child. LUi-child. And Rodney Blake! TO1' she remembered Mm- He was a stranger to could not recall bis clearness. There was oo ;;-. clear to her. The faceol-so faceol-so miraculously snatcne' to life, this man who ship through the Howard Ho-ward life and love ao I;; Presently, watching ie-saw ie-saw the great pale r1 Rio Grande. The Border! The International 11 She held her brea passed above It, " lcl great sigh. El Capitan Diablo , strange adobe 9' grovethey a JV become unreal, Uk a frightful dream. t A little longer, an be safe. Safe and home. (tcJ- More than ,r-.- ments made by prlJ (,; ,n ,e collections of tan Institution |