Show ow THE VALE 0 OF F ARAGON by FRED mclaughlin T author of the blade of copyright by merrill co servia woma THE STORY at nightfall in the old CRY city of now new orleans in the year 1821 loren garde recently an officer under general beneral jackson to IB surprised by the appearance of throe three fugures in ancient spanish costume two mon men and a woman whose beauty enchants hini him ite he renting the arrogance arro sanca lot 0 me elder of 0 the two men gardo tights fights a duel with tim with swords and wounds him blin after ward hard he learns his opponent Is adolfo rie do fuentes colonel in the spanish army in von venezuela azuela gardo garde leea flees from sons gens darmos darmes taking refuge in a garden where he overhears over henra a plot to overthrow spanish rule in venezuela discovered he be fights but Is overpowered recovering consciousness to find and himself it pris prisoner on the santa lucrecia Luc spanish ship bearing contraband arms and ammunition for the veno vene under on board are the conspirators he had overheard the lady of his love her brother polito and do puentes fuentes an a attempt to seize the ship falls falli from the thel garde learns her name Is dulce lamartina Lamart tam ile does not tell her of his love but feels she Is not indifferent to him the vessel la Is wrecked during another attempt to seize it and larde garde thrown overboard reaches the venezuelan elan shore alone CHAPTER III 5 bucayan the morning sun dried my clothes and filled me with comfortable warmth except for inconsiderable soreness from the buffeting of tile storm and a tender spot on my head that kept adolfo in my mind I 1 was waa none tho the worse tor for the extraordinary experience in which I 1 had reached the shore of venezuela that I 1 had an implacable enemy in the person of adolfo do de fuentes was somewhat disquieting quieting for spain ruled venezuela and it if do de fuentes survived the wreck ray my stay in the country would be to me a constant source of danger yet to leave venezuela would be to turn my face from the lodestar of lovo love that had directed ray my actions since that night of moon madness in the place barmes dAr it if the senorita dulce lived she was even now in venezuela and where the senorita was there I 1 would be also I 1 turned my face to tb the e and moved through the solemn silence of primeval forests I 1 left the jungle floor at last and climbed the timbered slopes eloper to the crest of a mountain range rang i that paralleled the coast E extending Z far fai to the south I 1 saw BOW the checkered green and brown of cultivated bated fields and the irregular outlines of a few tiny villages and even farther southward yet the forested slopes began again to disappear in ti the le misty distance I 1 musing I 1 looked upon this land of beauty where peace should have reigned supreme but did not because i bolivar a and nd hla his revolutionary army contended for or its possession against la torre the of 0 ferdinand VIT VII august king of spain even as aa I 1 stood lost in admiration of the lovely scene the clank of arms anas came to me and the clattering of shod hoofs spona up ona rocky road A body of soldiers mounted on mules passed in single file 1116 along a narrow way that the un der brush had hidden from ray my view I 1 watched them from the concealment of if a great celba ceiba tree A sweet reception said a voice in in spanish to ite our colonel 1 I wonder it if be lost his ladylove lady love A thing of no importance said another there are many more and nofuentes de Do Fuentes Fu entea never lacks a ladylove lady love then adolfo had been but the senorita dulcea ali ah had bad tho the sto storm rm after all claimed that lovely lady my mad worship would not hot let me believe it surely the waster master of our souls would not have brought roe me through and taken her well I 1 would know for they were evidently going to adolfo now they were traveling west and the colonels destination bad been caracas caracas ewas I 1 was easl cast after the sounds of their passing I 1 had bad died away I 1 descended the rocky declivity to the road and bent voy my steps to ahe east I 1 heard after three hours of rapid walking the mingled noises of a town so BO leaving the road I 1 beat back into the ae forest and cassea passed north of the set settlement tl ement which I 1 was to learn was maracay karacay Mar acay a city on the lake just before the sun went down J 1 came to a v village unexpectedly be cause it did not offer the mixed noises that indian villages always have the village lay under abder the somber silence of a tomb I 1 was in it before I 1 realized that any settlement ent was near the first few jacala I 1 passed were in ruins and neither dogs dog gs nor children ca came out t lu greet nse me I 1 began to won wonder on er if the starn had reached this r w i mint neriss a prone figure in the path a flattened figure with face pressed against tho the earth carth us its though he were endeavoring to look through it I 1 had seen dealt dead men before I 1 had seen scores of them upon tho the battlefield now other fugures a woman rind and it child lay before me and now ive five men upon it ft single gibbet and a boy of ten en or less hanging by a yino vine around hla file neck tits his slim bare feet pointing pathetically toward the earth every house was waa down burned or crushed as though a giant hand had pressed upon thorn them and every occupant was dead I 1 went through the awful length of that silent village which must have had three hundred souls soula with a dreadful desolation dosola llon of death around me and dropped to my knees at tho the end of tho the street of terrors and raised my faco face to tho the graying sky A figure rose rosa up beside me rose up slowly the horribly emaciated figure of an all aged man whose unseeing eyes were nil upon space and whose choso thin lips were forming faint words sly my wife ho he whispered anti the two boys and n R girt girl P ile ho w was is silent a moment gone all gonel gone I 1 I 1 who did 1011 1 I inquired in the I 1 name of god senor who could have dono done tills this tiling thing morales lie ho gasped ile he drew draw in a long breath for one last effort raised a right hand in half a salute find whispered viva Boll bolivar varl I 1 vow now like a man possessed I 1 got to my feet and ran through the wood ran madly wildly stumblingly fren wringing my hands and calling down the curses of god upon a people who would so atrocious a tiling thing through the long night I 1 went pavlo ravlo raving 9 1 until I 1 fell at last exhausted and awoke with the blessed sun upon my face with much labor for my body seemed to in bo be tho the habitation of a hundred aches I 1 got to my iny feet find and stood in a wide aldo road flanking the rond was waa a broad ragged hedge over which aarian leaned 0 who o considered tile me with mild concern in tits blue eyes ile iio pointed the long barrel of a gun in rny my general direction upon lila ills head flood he wore a wide sombrero and on tits hla profusely freckled face a friendly arl grin ill III towhead said lie he and while I 1 ls stared turku marveling lie ho continued are beds beda so scarce you must sleep beside tho the rond road and pillow your licad head upon a stone stenot name of G d dl I 1 I 1 gasped for tho the horror of the night still bore upon me ine french 11 ile iio thought a n moment oh well if its french you 0 o ol 01 S 4 0 1 1 I 1 wondered even more until a giant wave receding left me MB stranded in a tree w want ant here goes though it seems little odd that an irishman from london should bo speaking french in venezuela to an american I 1 wits was sure euro then that I 1 was awake awak 0 and that the figure beyond the hedge was no apparition 1 I am not french I 1 explained though I 1 have lately come from france you gave me ine so BO severe a shock that I 1 reverted to the tongue of my mother a thing I 1 often do besides I 1 have juet left a village of death deatti and the terror of the thing Is still with me bucayan Tu cayan he be said Bl morales passed that way two days ago such Is the spaniards method no man in his bis path to Is left alive 11 the last man in bucayan died in my arms I 1 said cald sandwith and with hla his last breath he whispered viva Boll 11 simon bolivar has so great a hold bold upon hla his people bo will wk win some da day ills blue ees went over me appraisingly I 1 think I 1 read aia approval there tall he mused with shoulders and a light in the eye knows the woods and tho the sea I 1 take it and may have had a turn at soldiering may I 1 ask you who you are the continent of australia was not I 1 discovered until just before the american revolution louis de torres soft ing from peru in IGN thought the northern queensland c east coast was waa another of those island groups tho the Marque sas soloman solamon new hebrides through which he be had passed the dutch proceeding from java jaa several times met tho the west and north of aus but reported a barren wild country inhabited by barbarous cruel black people abel tasman Tas coan in 1012 1042 10 12 found van clemens land tasmania and left in disgust in 1088 william dampier Dar opler an english buccaneer landed in west australia and the following year mapped the coast in his bli report to king william he described the I 1 land und waterless with stunted as sa sandy ady trees inhabited by the tha assuredly I 1 am loren boarde my father la Is norse a planter of tho the lower mississippi SIPPI valley and my mother in her youth was ana the belle of vieux carro 11 lie ile leaned the gup against his shoulder norse norsa and french such auch a combination ought to make you fight and love liko tho the devil davill I 1 1 I fear I 1 have lind had ny my share of lighting fighting I 1 admitted but as aa for love M I 1 sighed because I 1 visualized tho the glorious if you have conio come to venezuela to fight the ranks of simon bolivar are open to you and I 1 can prom promise tj you francisco intimated much tho the saine thing there was studied calculation in his survey of me you tou know francisco berczy 1 I tiara have como come from now new orleans with him on tile the cbanta lie ile twisted a finger in hla his ear balmy lie he said a touch of the sun aun lie ile looked nt at mo me with professional sympathy did you say any the santa lucrecia Luc would I 1 no not t know tho the naino og 0 tho the ship that brought roe me from now new orleans Orlean sl I 1 oil sure 11 lie ho laughed only the lie santa Luc lucrecia line has not been sighted when it la is I 1 shall hear it a whistle from tile tho cast and when J 1 hear it I 1 shall faco face west and whistle and another ann a kilometer fromherz from hero will send tho the signal along on the puerto cabello road other sentinels will signal to ono one another and on the valencia rond road and tho the road to barcelona and roads roada to CaIn bozo and acu A man stationed upon the heights will sight it as it enters tho the harbor harlion afla of la anatra which Is the port of Cur caracas ricas anti and in civo minutes every follower of bolivar within fifty miles shall know it and soldiers will spring up the spirits out of tho the earth for tho the santa Luc lucrecia brings a cargo of arms and knives and ammunition pum clent for an army and then we will take if tho the men of bolivar can whistle the santa lucrecia Luc into tho the harbor ot of ln la gunara guaira my freel freckled cled patriot or into any other port except that dreadful port of missing men they mai may take tile tho prize na as tile the champion whistlers of tho the ages for only two til nights lits and a day clay ago tho the leek deck of that unfortunate ship was the scene of ati BIU j tiny and a tropical storm came up and washed tho the palm of victory upon a 0 reef As I 1 tell fell into tho the water I 1 saw thorn them working with tho the lifeboats A friendly spar and the wind and waves carried mo on to tho the land lie he stood long in thought then francisco and tho the cargo P lie stopped alert for tho the road gave out tho the gounds bounds of approaching horsemen I 1 pushed my way IVRY quickly through tile the hedge and crouched beside him as tho the cavalcade camo came into view adolfo led the van ho he rode in silence tits his heavy features exhibiting lines of grimness tho the senorita rodo rode beside him A buldo length behind them rodo rode polito a voluminous band age around his head ayea upraised to fleecy westward winging clouds and upon lupon his ats lips a softly whistled tuno tune there was something about tho the boy that made one love him two other women and two men doubtless sur our of the wreck trailed along and a score of soldiers brought rear now my eyes went back to the tha Sen orlia who had comb coma out of the storm and into my arms I 1 drank deeply of the beauty of her I 1 exulted in my dreams and gasped at my recollections A wild exhilaration seized me and I 1 came up slowly to find myself shoulder to shoulder with the he irishman from london whose eyes were gleaming whose breath was waa hissing through tits his teeth and whose gun was rising carefully to bear upon de fuentes no I 1 whisp whispered pred no I 1 J 1 grabbed him and arwe contended grimly and in silence for possession of the weapon the cavalcade passed on then him and witted waited what a powerful brute aou you arel are I 1 and then 11 11 lie he gasped you yott poor doodle I 1 that man Is in de fuentas aide of morales and a a greater butcher by far than the intanious infamous butcher himself 1 I 1 you might have missed him I said and killed theady the aeY 11 oh the lady I 1 humph t yes the lady besides adolfo be longs longa to me 1 lie he found his bis sombrero and viled pulled it down oven over 1 tumbled red hair arso S adolfo belongs to you my eyal ayel he cried yet de fu funtes entes went wentlo to spain to get a bride and i I 1 can say this much for him ile he has surely A picked the fairest flower anthe in the span ish gardent garden I 1 oits its a long way from spain to the cathedral I 1 said oaid TO BB 1310 CONTINUED explorers too ready to pass up australia people jn in the world A hundred years later the english under captain cook revealed the presence of wide belts belta of fertile ferilla land and his landing at botany bay sydney april 28 1770 resulted in an other continent for or the bri british tish crown |