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Show with the cessation of the sickness, she turned her eyes toward the future and what It held. "Now," she told Starr Stone, "we'll begin to think of us." But Starr Stone shook his head. "I," he said, "must think of you. My reprieve is over was over some days ago. I'll be going back to where I belong." But Sonya smiled. It did not occur to her that anything could be so dark and strong that she and her strength could not conquer It. "We'll not talk of that just now," she said, "let's ride to the top of Lone Mesa. We owe It something the mesa." "I owe it something," he said passionately pas-sionately "owe It my everlasting apologies, my undying reverence. It was there I saw creation as It was meant to be in your white face on the cliff." So they swung south from their trail that day and climbed the ancient path in the stark precipice. There was the long stretch of the western edge where Darkness had fled full speed, a horse and rider at his flank. Where the wild face of a drunken man had blazed at the woman wom-an on his back with every evil passion of the soul. There was the spot where the man had pulled the slim girl from her saddle, where she had fought like a fury in his arms, where, at the last she had pulled free and flung herself, In one wild leap, over the mesa's brink. As they reined up at the great rock's edge they both sat silent, each with unspoken thoughts plain to be read. "Sonya," said the man at last In a strangled voice, "I have no words there is nothing I can ever say nothing noth-ing I can ever do to wipe that memory mem-ory away." But Sonya turned and laid her hand on his, and there was a soft smile In her eyes. "There is no need," she said. "No need I The greatest need I'll ever know I And It can't be filled! I'll have to leave you soon, forever, with that on my conscience, on my heart I" "Leave me? No, you will not. Not ever, Starr Stone. You are my man from the beginning." "The soul in my body if I have one will stay with you while life lasts. I hope you know that. But the body Itself Is another matter. I think we'll be saying good-by up here. Here where we met in in disaster and I want you to know, Sonya, that If there Wirn a strangled cry 8onya threw her arms around him. "Why? WhyT she pleaded. "Why will you not stay here and go forward with me, into life? Don't you love me?" "Love you? My G d; It's because I love you, adore you, worship you, that I'm taking myself out of your life before it Is too late. I don't want to see you" "See me what?" "Nothing. Let's go. Let's go now." He turned Dn d'Oro sharply and headed for the down trail, Darkness following close. Sonya sat rigidly in her saddle, her throat swelled painfully pain-fully with the dark realization that her dream of love was done for, that this man whom she had come to love so helplessly was riding out of her life. She could not speak. At the mesa's foot they set out across the levels which were once more darkening Into a starlit night In dreary silence. And before they had said another word, before they could say that last farewell which comforts the heart bereaved, fate was upon them. Out of the shadows of a clump of juniper four men suddenly rode across their way. Four men on good horses, clad In dark garments, their wide hats pulled low over their dark faces, guns frankly showing at their thighs. And at their head rode that huge figure of a man which had loomed on the dance floor that enchanted night and called Starr Stone as a master calls his dog. He sat now and looked at him with black eyes burning in the gathering darkness. "Hombre," he said again as he had said before, "three times In as many days have I sent for you, and you did not come. This Is the reason," He nodded toward Sonya. "Yes I" cried the girl like a shot, though her voice shook. "Yes I I and a better oue. I first, and the car Ing for those who died, second. I am a doctor, and there has been a great sickness among my people, the Indians. In-dians. This man has stood with me shoulder to shoulder in a fine thing. Together we have saved many lives. That's why he stayed." There was a note of defiance In the trembling voice. "Oh, so that ees why, senorita?" the stranger said, changing from the Spanish Span-ish to broken English, "why he disobeys dis-obeys hees h'orders? For you, eh, an' for thees dirty Navvys? Well, he goes now, an' don't you forget ltl An' remember, re-member, Senorita Savarln, that If he comes to you, ever again, that will happen to you an' yours which will be a price. A fair price for thees Insult to me, In that you keep my best lieutenant lieu-tenant from hees work. Adios, senorita. Do not forget." He raised his sombrero with a gallant gal-lant gesture and whirled his horse away. And this time Starr Stone, following, looked long In Sonya's white face with eyes In which all the tragedy trag-edy of life lay stark and awful. Then he was gone, and only the soft sound of loping horses in sand came back to her. Until the dim shapes were lost In the night the girl sat still, listening, her mouth open, her hands on her rein cold and nerveless. That which threatened had struck at last. And presently she drooped forward with her face In Darkness' mane and fell to such weeping as only a heart cleaved to the quick can know. When she rode Into the patio at home an hour later a man came swiftly swift-ly from the lighted doorway, his hands reaching up for hers, his face glowing glow-ing with Joy. "Sonya I Dear heart I" he cried, and, "Rod !" said Sonya before she crumpled crum-pled and slid limp Into his reaching arms. "She's fainted!" he cried. "Lila Serge quick !" He carried her to the door and In, laying her down on the living room couch, and Lila was at his side In a flash. "Get me some water," she said. But Sonya, strong creature that she was, did not need It Her senses, reeling from grief and fear and the sudden sight of Rodney Blake, who was the last man she wanted to see In her present trouble, righted themselves them-selves swiftly. She moved, opened her eyes, sat up a bit unsteadily. "Why, what a silly thing I" she said tremulously. "And Rod how In the world " "Steady, dear," said Rod. "I just dropped In by plane and car from New York Williams got a man to bring me over. Us rather. Have a friend with me. But don't talk now. Lie down again." "Piffle!" said Sonya. "I'm all right A bit tired, I guess." "She's been riding day and night foi a month." said Lila, looking at Blake. "Epidemic, you know." "Dam' Indians again," the man thought "They'll kill her yet" But Sonya was on her feet stripping strip-ping the kerchief from her neck, rolling roll-ing back her shirt sleeves. "I'm O. K.," she said. "I'll just go and clean up a bit." And she walked steadily to her own room. Inside Its shielding door she clasped her hands together, stood a long moment mo-ment staring Into the darkness. The fight of life which she had vlsloned, of which she had spoken to Starr Stone, was on, and she had lost the first battle to that black force across the Border. TO BE CONTINUED. Flame of the Border ' By VINGIE E. ROE Copyright, Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc. WNU Service SYNOPSIS Seeking d&ath to estape dishonor at the handa of a drunken desperado, Bonya Savarln allows herself to be res-iued res-iued by her suddenly repentant at- nd taoker. The girl Is a self-appointed physician to the Navajo Indians, living pn an Arizona sheep ranch with her - brother Serge, his wife, Lila, and their Ismail daughter, Babs. She Is engaged to Rodney Blake, wealthy New Yorker, but her heart Is with the friendless Navajos and she evades a wedding. Bonya pulls little Moon, wife of Two Fingers, a Navajo, through the crisis " of an Illness. Two Fingers Is deeply y grateful. Sonya again meets the man whose advances she had repulsed on Lone Mesa. He tells her he bitterly regrets his action. Sonya is affected, i0y but unforgiving. She hears rumors of i a. Border bandit "El Capitan Diablo," mi. and vaguely connects him with her attacker. On Lone Mesa she again d comes upon the strange young man. & When he reiterates his sorrow over his f: misconduct, she Indicates forgiveness 'r and urges him to abandon his life of lawlessness. From concealment, Sonya "L witnesses the transference of objects " from an airship to her attacker. At a dance she demands that he tell her his name. He says he Is Starr Stone, that his mother believes htm dead, and that he goes by a different name in this region. He leaves the dance with a tall, fierce Mexican, with whom he Is mysteriously associated. Sonya real- lies she Is falling In love with a man whom she can only class as a renegade B and outlaw, and that she can never marry Blake. An Influenza epidemic among the Indians keeps Sonya busy, nd She and Stone declare their love for tie ach other, all doubt in the mind of the girl being ended. CHAPTER VIII " 11 Clouds of Portent. a3 In the hard days that followed, he Sonya knew a fire of ecstacy among te the dark shadows of disaster. Wher- 3n ever suffering and death entered the lowly hogans, there the steady hands of Starr Stone were a bulwark and tj a help. They rode together In the dawns, meeting on this and that high t ! level, and at the twilights, when they i ( separated, she to go back to the ranch, he to that mysterious limbo from f which he had emerged. Where he j spent his hours away from her Sonya J, did not know and was afraid to ask again. She only knew that his long hands were gentle as a woman's with "i3 a hungry child, holding a cup to 're parched lips, bathing hot dark faces at with a little rag, and once he brushed end braided the black hair of a dead mahala before they buried her. H And that day Sonya wept against his shoulder for sheer misery at the tragic fate which had made of this man an outcast and a pariah. s So the hectic days passed, with little J'3 count of them and these two working m" together at their humble tasks. Once 3e the girl told him, "You're no lost soul as you'd have me think. You're of that m brotherhood of which Christ spoke when he said, 'If ye do It unto the least of these, my brethren, ye do It unto me.' Servers of the world." And he had made no answer. They kissed each other now at parting, part-ing, softly, as If the thing they held between them was so precious that a careless touch might destroy It utterly. To the man there was tragedy and Btark sorrow In every touch of Sonya's e lips, her hands, the tender brushing of her cheeks against his. He was blessed beyond all dreams, humbled beyond all Imagining. And he know how fleeting this paradise para-dise must be, how soon life and Its mandates must take him away from her forever. It was this knowledge which made the enchanted days so short, so unreal. And by the end of that week the strain lessened. Everywhere her people peo-ple were getting up from their hogan 2. floorB, thin brown shapes with big eyes In their dark faces, and no more jn were lying down. The epidemic was jyj dying out. Those that were left be- j. gan to be busy making new hogans by before the summer should be gone, for top they would not live In any house where death had been. They feared the tchlndis, or ghosts of the dead, and or malevolent spirits. But they looked cie at Sonya and Starr Stone with long jjJJ looks, unfathomable looks, and some-or some-or times a woman touched the girl's hand Jj tentatively, or a man said some clipped, guttural word which the latter could (J not understand and Sonya Interpreted. "Hosteen Little Man says we are the - "" Healing Winds." Or, "Our medicine is c'" better medicine than Yellow Buck's." And Yellow Buck had been very busy In all the hogans where Sonya was rap. no performing ceremonies, singing lTe. chants and making medicine of his a1'3 own. And now Life made ready to take its 0 reckoning. She had lived in these ' 1, rushing weeks, lived very fast, very full, known the dark of sorrow, of pity, and the light of great joy, the pleasure pleas-ure of good work well done. She had are bloomed In the glow of such love as -0ng she had never dreamed of, what time rind she could spare to It, and felt as e iB though she were richer, more vital, In all the reaches of her nature. Now. Climbed the Ancient Path In the Stark Precipice. Is such a thing as redemption of a man's inner self, I have been redeemed by knowing you. All my Instincts, all my desires, all my outlook on life itself, have changed. When I'm with you my speech, even, Is changed back to what it once was. The Border and all It has meant to me In my wlldness, my devil-may-care, has lost Its charm. I'd leave It all everything for a different life, If I could." "Oh, Starr," she said tremulously, "can't you tell me? Won't you tell me what It is that threatens you us?" "Impossible," he said quietly. "My lips are sealed for your sake more than mine. What I know would be dangerous knowledge for you. What I have done being with you, coming back to you against against orders has been a danger for you. I knew It but was too weak to go my way, never to see your face again. I could not, in this strange transition which has been taking place in me. But strength has been growing In me of late, like a great tree standing against the wind. Do you see, Sonya, what you have done for me?" he finished earnestly. "I know," said Sonya, "I knew from the first, almost, that It would be so. That the good was In you under under un-der whatever It was that hid It. That some day It would come out, that the evil would fall away, leaving you as you were meant to be." "You knew? How early? When?" "The second time I saw you at Two Fingers' hogan In Chee wash. I think I knew It then, dimly, when your face flushed red on seeing me. The good was struggling with the bad that minute." "You're right. It was. And has never ceased to struggle since." "And you're not going to go back!" cried Sonya passionately. "Not going to throw It all away I I will not let you I" The man sighed, wet his dry lips. Then he leaned toward her and took her against his breast "My darling," he said gently, "please kiss me once more." |