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Show ; By VINGIE E. ROE ! Copyright. DouMeday. Doran Co.. InO. r CHAPTER XIV Continued i 13 What would It mean to her and to Starr Stone? The stern face of her brother-Rod brother-Rod Blake who had so grimly promised prom-ised that no people, no country, no man should ever take her from him and Marston of New York, the man who came to find who sent the contraband from Mazatlan to the sonst I They had not cheated destiny after aft-er nil. They were headed straight for this, and Starr Stone knew It I For that he would not leave her to save himself she knew full well. Confronted with this new knowledge knowl-edge of disaster Sonya wet her dry Hps, cast desperately about for something she might tell these three grim men, and found nothing. But she would not give up, she told herself again, would never sink. They had passed through too much to fail at last. Something would uuppeu ; gome way -wouiu u. And then, leaning her face across the cockpit's polished edge, she became be-came conscious of something; felt something of a seventh sense. Exactly Ex-actly as a dog senses danger which he cannot see, so this girl of the wild land sensed new danger now. It was as If the hackles of her spirit rose. What could it be? She looked at the back of Starr Stone's head, Its bronze hair whipping whip-ping In the backwash of wind behind be-hind the low windshield, and wished she could see his face. If she could have done so she would have seen it set like a mask, for long before she felt the presence pres-ence of this unseen danger he had been conscious of it. He knew that not far behind them, not so high above, another little lit-tle ship droned. steadily out of the south that Nemesis incarnate was on their trail. He knew that in that ship there was, in all probability, a machine gun in the hands of El Diablo Di-ablo himself, who was an expert In its use. What the end would be, he did not know. Only that it would be an end. There was no doubt of that. El Capitan would never in this world let him get away with what he had done, with the knowledge he had, with the stand he had taken to forswear him and all his works. He meant to kill him to kill them both, if no other way was possible to shoot them down, If they would not land. And where could they land with any chance of safety? Well, It was fate as he had told poor Conchita. And then Sonya looked up and back and saw. Saw the soft silver thing that followed fol-lowed like a pointed sword. She did not gasp or cry out, but watched It with wide eyes and a hand across her mouth. After all I After all the monstrous anguish, the fear, the sorrow, and the hopel Verily Starr Stone was paying for his sins, and she paid with him for that love which had redeemed him to manhood's high estate, which had made of her a fugitive, an outcast out-cast from her own, but which burned In her soul with indestructible indestruc-tible beauty. So be It, thought Sonya Savarin, so be it. . Down In that dim world below, the last act of this drama of the sage land was preparing for enactment. enact-ment. Posse after posse, scouring the lone levels, had turned back toward to-ward the railroad and the town. Baffled, wondering, they sought new reinforcements, made more extensive exten-sive preparations to search the canyons can-yons and the Bad Lands country. Only Serge Savarin, the two men with him, rode and would not give up. Two Fingers, Hosteen Nez, Hos-teen Hos-teen T'so hunted patiently In ever widening circles that had covered all the face of the flat land. In the quest of these three silent trailers there was more than a mere search for a lost white woman. There was the dim and gentle shadow of that legendary deity the Blue South Woman who "made her hogan" In the white girl's heart. So the Navajos rode steadily, would ride until they found her! either living or dead, If she was anywhere any-where in the wild land, and destiny came to meet them. They had done with the sagebrush levels. Lone Mesa loomed before them. Silently save for the click of the climbing hoofs, they ascended, fantastic figures from a long dead past, the low moon red behind them. And in the magnificent heavens Starr Stone, looking desperately down ahead, caught the dim outline of Lone Mesa's crown, Its shining white stone level. Here was a landing place. Here were walls against which a man might make a stand if he were armed, find shelter behind which If he were not, providing he could get the time to leave his plane and gain them. , , And Sonya too saw and recognized Lone Mesa. It was almost level with them was so the ship was leveling off. distance, height, had dropped away they were skimming the mesas surface touching bouncing on the uneven rock were still. Behind them that other was at the very edge above them passing over. Starr Stone, with his arms about Sonya, dragging her over the side, cast one flashing glance ahead. "Kismet I" he said with white lips. "They beat us after all! They're down between us and the pueblo 1" So they were, the rocking gray ship still a hundred feet beyond. And El Diablo, Manuel, deadly shapes of menace, were climbing out, coming toward them. Calmly Sonya stood beside her man. "Come back," she said, touching him, "toward the cliff. It is our only way." With his arm around her Starr Stone turned, and, stumbling, hurrying, hur-rying, they crossed the space between be-tween them and that sheer lip where once, ages ago, It seemed, they had looked Into each other's tragic Jiaces and found their destiny. des-tiny. "Darling," the man said softly, "hold to me tight don't be afraid." Sonya Savarin laughed, a little low sound. "Afraid?" she said, running. "With you?" "Halt!" came the great voice of El Diablo. "Halt! Or I fire!" ' There was yet a moonlit space for the running feet. Death might " Mb yj&f.-peg i'1t) Cast His Shrieking Burden Far Out to the Empty Space Below. catch them before they leaped to meet it. Crack! Crack I Crack! The sharp barking of an automatic, automat-ic, not the machine gun. Bullets whined about them, clipped Into the rock beyond. And Sonya Savarin looked up for the last time Into the face which had filled her heart, her soul, to the exclusion of all else since that wild day In the spring here on this wind-swept height, when she had first beheld It. The man looked down, slowed In his stride. One moment more a kiss, maybe, may-be, and this glorious adventure would be done forever sealed like a deathless 'flame In the casket of eternity. And then, high on the thin blue air there came a sound as old as the ruined walls behind, a sound to chill the blood, to shock the vary soul. Clear and high and savage primitive as life Itself, the war cry of the Navajos. It pealed above the cracking gun, stopped the man and the woman like a hand upon their shoulders. And out from the dusky shadows of the crumbling walls three shadows shad-ows came like darting flames. In the very act of whirling to meet them El Capitan and his henchman were caught In their onslaught went down beneath them Then, as Starr Stone ran' toward them, as Sonya followed, tall Two hemh3 T wlth the daer P"t held by the neck In his powerful hands. Behind him Hosteen Nez fi ' ,Hn r,great bU,k f E1 Di"l s2h a flCDd betweea tlie- bouth Woman," said Two Fingers, Fin-gers, "what have these two done to you and to your man?" He spoke In Navajo, and Sonva answered, panting. ya "They would kill us both-be- e know too much about them -fey are breakers of the law-outlaws law-outlaws across the Border. Me thev To Id n66 n,fht8SO-,ymnn 5 ould hang m the sua to die the slow death and me they would give to this one and to their followers fol-lowers after." Two Fingers looked at her with quiet eyes. "It is good," he said, "that we come." "Oh good !" she cried. For another moment the tall Indian In-dian looked at her. Then he stooped and caught Manuel Man-uel as one takes a child and raised him cross-wise above his head. Two Fingers was a tall and powerful pow-erful man, and he looked like some ancient god of his fathers as he strode toward the mesa's lip. In one horrified second Sonya Savarin saw what he would do, and a scream escaped her, but Starr Stone turned her face. And Two Fingers, walking steadily toward that sharp rim, paused on Its edge and cast his shrieking burden far out to the empty space below. Hard on his heels Hosteen Nez and Hosteen T'so, with El Diablo, fighting every inch, between them. "Quince!" he cried as he passed. "Snvo me and all I own is yours!" "Remember those who fed the vultures, senor," said Starr Stone, "whose bones dried in the sun. Remember Re-member the women ! the children starved! It is your fate." "Save me Quince save " But the wind of his falling snatched the last word from his mouth. And there was silence on the mesa's rim, five people standing still for one breathless moment. And then three horsemen came up over the debouching lip of the ancient an-cient trail; while a fantastic form with long white hair on its shoulders shoul-ders was seen to emerge from some hidden cranny of the pueblo. Serge Savarin, Rodney Blake, and Mr. Marsten rode forward In astonished haste; the Servant of the Lord came up between them all. "Sonya!" cried her brother. "Oh, my God! Where have you been? What's happened to you?" But Rodney Blake sat silent, his narrowed eyes taking In- the group before him : the haggard woman, the scarecrow man with his right arm around her, the Indians, and the mad old preacher of the Word. And Sonya Savarin looked back, her mind racing for the words which she must say, the tale she must tell. With guarded eyes she glanced around: at Two Fingers, at Hosteen Nez, at Hosteen T'so; these three who had cleared the world of danger dan-ger for her, who had saved her and hers from death. These three whom no one must ever know had done what they had done. "I," she said, wetting her dry lips again, "I have been In Mexico kidnaped kid-naped by two men who have died. I escaped I and Starr Stone here In this plane, but they followed us across the Border to catch and kill us both. We landed here but they mistook the height They they struck the edge, and fell." She. looked bravely in the three men's eyes, her low voice clear and quiet, even though she could not help the little gaps between her lying words. "Is it not so?" she asked of Two Fingers, turning. "It Is so," the Indian replied. "And you, Hosteen Nez, Hosteen T'so? Have I not spoken truly?" "Truly," these said quietly, nodding, nod-ding, their English limited. "My heaven !" said Serge Savarin. "My heaven! But who Is this man with you? It seems I ought to know. Where have I seen him?" "You have never seen him," said Sonya swiftly, "and he Is my own man. I've known him since the spring. I've meant to tell you, Rod, for months that you must let me go that I can never marry you. I think I never knew what love could be before. Now I am Irrevocably lost to you, my life set to this man's life. Forgive me." Rodney Blake did not move, his hands clasped on his pommel. "Sonya," he said, "I know this man. I saw him once at that Indian's In-dian's hogan. I felt a presage of this moment then. But that is neither nei-ther here nor there. I do not release re-lease you. We're taking you home with us now I'm taking you to New York as soon as possible. Away from this fantastic country you'll return to sanity, to your normal self, and shudder nt this memory. Come along, Serge." And he started forward, flung himself from his saddle. Marston followed him ; Serge Savarin Sav-arin hesitated. Eut here for the first time Starr Stone spoke, moved from Sanya's side. "Not quite," he said, "my friends." And In his extended hand was that excellent nutomatlc which El Capitan Diablo would never need again, trained on them bolh. At that grim command Rodney Blake slopped In his tracks, the other behind him. "Vou. Mr. Savarin, have a rljjht to know that your sister 7 the wlud to choose-hQr riisi you my word that shesilaV gret her choice through life IswlthnIgive J't: again that it .hallb make It with my heart', tb? J But she shall choose. member, you are free" "Free!" the girl lei have already chosen! T 1 of life I choose you, Starr 61 Once more the other tar ?i:' head, put his free ar" smiled down with his wUd bl ki' that were midnight dark by L'm Then "Padre," he said , Servant of the Lord, "can v , the marriage service?" !l! "Surely, my son," the old swered softly. " "VVI11 you say It here and,,,, for her and for me?" ' "Gladly. The young heart , have its mate while the world"; new. All things lose their J-ness, J-ness, and youth Is short al be- The shabby, thin old figure- forward with a strange dNli, "Thy right hand, 'child," hew, to bonya, "and thine, son. hv shaking his silver locks, "not , j that engine of destruction In If' So Starr Stone changed the K from his right hand to bis H but its blunt nose never warerli from its mark. He took Saw, hand, and with his eyes fiied'n the faces of the three men held bay before him he began to mv the lovely questions of the ancle" ritual. "Wilt thou, Starr, take this an, Sonya, to be thy lawful ft, to love, cherish, and protect," ui tender words went on, "till oai do you part?" "I will," he said. "And wilt thou, Sonya, tale llj man, Starr, to be thy lawful na-band na-band to love, honor and obey,,: Sonya'a clear "I will" sounded li the high silence like the tones ol a distant belL Then Starr Stone uent andfel her swiftly." - ".The covenant," he wbisperti, "forever and forever." "Forever," she repeated. "Padre," said the man, "for h service I give you my deep thank Some day I'll give you gold. Ge tlemen, I warn you, stay where jm are. I'm leaving with my wife." And backing away, Sonya la Ita circle of his arm again, he wa step by step toward the plane. Once In Its shadow he lifted 1?: to her seat, reached for the hi; drew the buckle. Sonya clung about his ceil, laughter In her throat, tears on te cheeks. "Where?" she cried. "Oh, Stn. where?" "To a new life," he said ste;t Ily, "to a new world to the W "Wait," she said, "one niias while I leave the old." She leaned out and called IS the silver shadows where the Ite men stood. "Serge, dear," she said clear!;, "don't forget me ver and (?' me If you can. My love to yon t ways, and to Lila and to Ba Keep Darkness for me. RoiHSs Rod forgive me too. Mr. Misfc If you're quick enough and sfi' enough, you may find that one sends the contraband to yourdtj-at yourdtj-at the store In town. Co Sergesome day I'll t WV back. Until then, God keep J She changed swiftly to "Two Fingers," she called, teen Nez, Hosteen T'so-m? t-on t-on my heart to you-o? P;-my P;-my friends. I shall not forget And presently there was the ;-of ;-of the motor, the trembling her as the little gray ship a--pulsing life, Starr Stone lot's seat, the moving of t -lit rock of the mesa's toftW the surge, the gathering ir. -11ft, the thrill of tMj contact and sailed awr , mesa's rim. Swiftly tW the tall stars came dovra -them, glorying. As they had faced tosf' ly death and danger,, so now they faced tose b life and all It held (or tw flame of Immortality W -all mortal flesh, true THE E.ND-l |