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Show Flame of the Border hazard face Wtien she took them In to the hidden hogan in the canyon. CHAPTER V Deep Things B:gin to Glimmer. That little mutter proved almost more than she could stand, however, for the Indian mother, watching the east continually since her previous visit, having taken her advice lit"rally, collapsed at sight of her children, and Sonya had a brisk half hour In bringing bring-ing her round again. When she was able to clasp them In her shaking arms the sight was enough to wring a heart less soft than Doctor Sonya's. But all's well that ends well, and the girl finally rode away, leading her extra horse with a smile on her lips and the deep light In her eyes that Hod Blake called fanaticism. Maybe jt was. but It made her foolishly fool-ishly happy to see this poor family united again. And Hosteen Nez hnd looked over his woman's head at her exactly as Two Fingers had and called her Blue South Woman in the Sun. It was all he said, but It was pregnant with deep things, and Sonya knew it so. So she opened her lips and sang. And then she came to the canyon's mouth and caught her breath sharply, for a man sat there on a golden horse. He looked like a young god with the sunlight on his hair, and his eyes as blue as the heavens, and the grave look on his handsome face. "Forgive he," he said quickly, "for being in your trail again." "Why?" she said as quickly. "It is free country." "Yes, I know. But 1 promised to stay away." "That was from Lone Mesa." "The Intent was everywhere. I meant It, too was goin' going to with those awful retributions across the Border of which the Servant had hinted? What did the strange old man know about him? The henchman of Beelzebub he had called him for no other In all this country answered to the description of the Blue-eyed One with Bronze-colored Hair. Sonya felt cold, as If a wind of portent had blown across her spirit. And swift on Its heels a sadness came, the odd. unaccountable unac-countable feeling of personal loss and sorrow which had assailed her that night at Myra's. She shook herself, mentally and actually, and was angry at herself again, and when this man spoke she listened, forgetting. "I'm a violent man, Miss Savarin," he said strangely, "and my life won't bear th' light but a thing like that makes my blood boll. There ain't no manner of use hurting something that can't fight back, and a woman an' a child well, they're set aside, someway, some-way, like a starvin' kitten, or a dog that no one wants. No kind of a man would do them a harm not an' be a man." "You think that honestly?" said Sonya. "Right in your heart?" "Why, of course," he said surprised. "Don't you?" "Yes, oh, yes. a woman feels like that, but men are different. I just wondered." "Have you been back to Lone Mesa?" he asked presently. "No," said Sonya, "I haven't. I've been pretty busy. Housecleaning and sewing. Have yon?" "Twicet. At night. Watched th' moon come up across th' desert, and It was wonderful. A man can't describe de-scribe it like new life comin' to a dead world." "1 know," said Sonya, "I've seen It from there myself." "Alone? My G d. Miss Savarin, you shouldn't be goin' around this country by yourself like that!" "Why not? I'm perfectly safe. Everyone Every-one knows me, and there isn't a Navajo, Nav-ajo, drunk or otherwise, who'd say a word to me." "Not th' Navvys, no, ma'am," he said painfully, "but they ain't all there are, you know." How well she knew ! But she was sorry the inference had been drawn. "As for being drunk will you believe be-lieve me when I say I haven't touched a glass or a bottle since since that day on th' cliff? Every time I've tried, your face has come before me plain as plain the white fury of It, the courage G d! I choke an' quit try-In'." try-In'." "I'm glad," she said. "Didn't I tell you it was never too late to look up? Didn't I?" "Sure you did, but that don't mean anything In this case. I'm just telling you that your face stopped my liquor." "It'll stop a lot of things for you," the girl said in a rush and was astonished as-tonished at herself. "What do you mean?" he said slowly. "I oh, I don't know I" said Sonya, trembling, "only I know you've got to stop stop that Border stuff. That you've got to change the leopard spots." "You," he said, wetting his lips, which had suddenly lost their color, "you want me to do that?" "Yes," said Sonya thickly, "yes." "Then, by G d !" he said through his teeth, "I'll " What he meant to say was not apparent, ap-parent, for at that moment they both heard what they had been too tensely strung to hear before the roar of a motor In the sky. A small gray ship slipped down directly over their heads and dropped to a landing on the desert out beyond. The man took one look, and reaching out an arm, he pushed Sonya and Darkness back into the canyon's mouth, Dn d'Oro shielding them both. The touch of his breast against her shoulder, the scent of him, tobacco and sweat, the nearness of his bronze cheek, sent a wave of weakness over the girl. "Get back !" he rasped, "for th' love of heaven! Go in deep, please, an' don't come out till It's gone." Then he had struck his heels to Un d'Oro's shining flanks and was out like a flash across the sand. For a moment Sonya sat where he had left her, shaking as with a chill, bewildered and a little scared. What was this? What had driven the blood from his face? And why did he go straight to the plane if he was frightened? Here was the answer to some of her questions, that she knew Instinctively. If only she could go out there herself! her-self! She could not even see from where Darkness stood, so prompt and so efficient had been his action. Bnt she must see. Sonya's lips set, as they did when she faced a crisis for her skill, and she dismounted and. dropping Darkness' rein, went forward carefully the few steps that separated her from the sheer edge of the canyon's can-yon's mouth. Taking off her hat, she carefully leaned along the rock until her line of vision reached the open and the plane. And what she saw bewildered be-wildered her more than she had been before. The Blue-eyed One was off Un d'Oro, and one man was on the ground beside him, while another was bent down In the after cockpit. This one rose, as she looked, and gave something some-thing to the other, who in turn handed it to the rider. And he, with care and swiftness, put it In his saddlebags. Three times the transference of something from the plane to Un d'Oro's saddle took place. Then the stranger climbed back In the forward cockpit, the plane, which had never stopped Its engine, roared a moment, slid along the sand a little way, picked up its taP and took off. And Un d'Oro was lop ing away, headed for the town TO BB CONTINUED By VINGIE E. ROE Cotyrlfht, Doubledar. Doran Co.. Ina. W.NU Service SYNOPSIS Beekln death by throwing herself from Lone Meea, to escape dishonor at the hands of a drunken desperado, Bonya Savarin allows herself to be rescued res-cued oy her suddenly repentant at-taclur at-taclur The girl la a self-appointed Physician to the Navajo Indians, living on an Arizona sheep ram:t with her brother Serge, his wife, Llla, and their small daughter, Babs. She is engaged to Kndnoy Blake, wealthy New Yorker, but her heart Is with the friendless Navajos and she evades a wedding. ' Sonya pulls Little Moon, wife of Two Fingers, a Navajo, through the crisis of an Illness. Two Fingers Is deeply grati-ful. Blake returns to New York, declaring he will give Sonya six more months and then demand she keep her promise to marry him. Sonya again meets the man whose advances she hftd ri-imlsed on Lone Mesa. He tells her he bitterly regrets his action. Sonya Is affected, but unforgiving. She hears rumors of a Border bandit "El Capltan Diablo," and vaguely connects him with her attacker. On Lone Mesa he again comes upon the strange young man, but she no longer fears him. When he reiterates his sorrow over his misconduct, she Indicates forgiveness forgive-ness and assures him a man can always al-ways change for the better. CHAPTER IV Continued 7 Sonya was as good as her word. On Wednesday of that week she took the disreputable old car and set out across the wild and lonely land in the general direction of the government govern-ment school for which Satter was the gathering agent. . She had never been there, but she knew where it was, and she had once met the superintendent, a polished, hard eyed efficiency expert who had gone out of his way to attract her attention. at-tention. He was a widower and seemed to fancy himself considerably, which was more than Sonya did. The large rooms were sweetly cool in the early summer heat, and she took oft her hat and leaned back In her chair in grateful enjoyment. She had not long to wait, for presently pres-ently the superintendent, a Mr. Claude Spartow, came In briskly with extended hand. "Why, Miss Savarin Doctor Savarin, I should say, though the austere title don't seem to belong to a girl like you this is a pleasure, I assure you 1 Come right into my office." He led her Into his private office, a spacious, comfortable place, its walls lined with filing cases, and pulled up the deepest big chair. "There!" he said. "That's better. Now relax. You must be tired." "No," said Sonya, "I'm not, and I'm In somewhat of a hurry. I've come for the two children of the Indian, Hosteen Hos-teen Nez, over in the big cut beyond Lone Mesa, just on the line of the Reservation. This case is rather pitiful, piti-ful, Mr. Spartow, and I'd like to enlist your attention to it Mr. Satter will remember. I came upon him taking the children, not so many weeks back very near the end of the term and the parents are 'wild Indians.' They don't understand either the necessity or the methods employed in the matter mat-ter of giving up their children, and I begged off the littlest one from Mr. Satter. The mother had run herself nearly into collapse, hanging on the buckboard's tail. She is in a serious condition now, with the grief over their disappearance. Doesn't eat. Looks awful. And Mr. Satter had forgotten for-gotten to tell them where to come for the children. It is rather hard, when you think of it, on parents, you know, either red or white. As it would take the Hosteen some days to get here and back with his horses to fetch them, I'd like to take the children to them myself. my-self. I will be responsible to you for them." As the girl talked the man's sharp yes regarded her with an alertness of expression that changed to guarded-ness guarded-ness as she mentioned Sattcr's lapse of memory. Now he leaned toward her, smiling. "Why, how kind of you, my dear Miss Savarin!" he said. "Few women of this day would take so much trouble for Ignorant Indians. Of course you may take the little ones. But surely you're not starting back today? You'il stay with us for the night and get a good early start tomorrow, if I have my way." "Oh, my, no!" said Sonya. "I'll get on my way as quickly as possible. Will it take long to get them ready?" "If you really think you must go," he said regretfully, "I'll have them made ready at once. It won't take long." The two were presently brought to her, their belongings in a neat bundle. They still looked as they had looked that day In the buckboard, like frightened fright-ened quail Sonya smiled at them, took their unresisting un-resisting hands. Then she smiled at Spartow. "I thank you, 6lr," she said gently, "and I shall not forget your kindness In letting me take them. I hope you'll ask Mr. Satter to tell the fathers next time, will you please, Mr. Spartow?" Mr. Spartow returned the smile with a look that promised to ask the government gov-ernment for a million-dollar loan if she thought it necessary. And presently Sonya Savarin was driving clown across the Illimitable levels with joy in her heart and the hushed little Navajos huddled in against her with instinctive trust. She was thinking what fun she would have watching Cactus Flower's Three Times the Transference of Something From the Plane to Un d'Oro's Saddle Took Place. keep my word, but I seem to come back regardless." Sonya sat and looked at him steadily, stead-ily, her sweet face grave too. He bore her scrutiny quietly, though a muscle twitched in his cheek, and there was a seeming of strain in his face. "I've thought a ldt about you," the girl said presently : "why, I don't just know. I shouldn't, by all the rules of my life's game, but I have. Tell me if you care to where have you been since I saw you last? Where do you live?" He moved in his saddle, put his hat back on his head, laid his hands on his pommel. "Miss Savarin," he said, "1 can't tell you. A lot of places for th' first question nowhere for th' last one. I told you before, I wasn't fit to talk to. I am a drifter, if you like, just goin' through th' country." "Oh, no, you're not," said Sonya, "the day you came in the store you were familiar with the place and had been there before. Don't you think I know a few things?" "What do you know?" he asked quickly. "Nothing concrete, only I know a stranger when 1 see one by his very actions. Well, we won't talk of that," she added gently, "where are you going go-ing now?" "Why, nowheres. That Is I was just ridin' around for exercise, sort of. Un d'Oro, here, he needs a lot of exercise." ex-ercise." He smiled and patted the shining neck at his saddle bow. "Un d'Oro Golden One," said Sonya. Son-ya. "What a lovely name. And what a wonderful horse. He's the most beautiful beau-tiful thing I ever saw done up in horsehide. You love him, don't you?" The man's face lighted as with In ner fire. "Well some," he said. For a while they sat in silence, at a loss for something to talk about, and then Sonya told him about Cactus Flower and how Mr. Satter had taken her children. "TJ n !" he said flushing. "Excuse me but some people just ain't human. hu-man. I'd like to see that agent on " He stopped, and Sonya felt her heart contract, for she knew he had almost said "a cross." What was this man? What was In the soul of him? What strange contradictions? con-tradictions? What savageries and contritions, con-tritions, what sympathies and cruel ties? What connection did he have |