| Show THE VALE OF f JIL F ARAGON A R A G 0 NJ V BV 1 FRED mclaughlin 4 V lauther of 1 the blade of copyright by boliba bobbs merrill co service THE STORY in new orleans in 1821 loren garde recently an officer under general jackson Is surprised by the appearance in ancient span spin I 1 h costume of two men and a woman whose beauty enchants hi him in resenting the arrogance of the elder of the two men garde fights with him and bounds him he learns his opponent Is adolfo de fuentes colonel in the span ish array army in venezuela carde overhears a plot to overthrow spanish rule in venezuela D s covered he fights but Is over covered po vered and made prisoner on the santa lucrecia sh p bearing arms for the venezuelans on board are the conspirators the lady of I 1 Is love her brother po lito and de puentes fuentes from the girl garde learns her name Is duice dulce lin artina he loves I 1 er but does not reveal his love the vessel Is wrecked garde reachel reache the venezuelan shore alone he ile en counte s a stranger and sees see 9 duice dulce the stranger captain monahan of the britch h legion under bolivar directs him to friends in caracas there sup piled plied by monahan with the se cret sign of the patriots he Is welcomed at the revolutionary headquarters garde attends the wedding of duice dulce and de fu entes duice dulce recognizes him and leaves de fuentes at the altar she is torn from garde a arms he ile escapes finding garde duice dulce tells him her wedding to de do puentes fuentes was to have been the price of garde a life they re veal their mutual love garde Is made prisoner from de do fuentes he learns duice dulce has disappeared he Is rescued from prison by a revolutionist manuel and with polito sets out tor for bolivar Bo livars a camp they are intercepted by venezuelan soldiers garde dis covers hl his companion of the night has been duice and is dis bayed by his lack of perception duice dulce escapes but garde Is seized his ills captor Is colonel pint garde Is brought before bolivar CHAPTER VII continued 12 manuiel rides a horse as well nell as he does a ship said raid francisco relief in his dark eyes aye friend of mine I 1 wh espered he Is most opportune for I 1 felt that manuel would save me tt TI e sailor pushed through the crowd of curious indians who had gathered to to k upon the great gen era eral and bolivar str ding forward to dept meet him threw his arms around the broad shoulders my ugly angel be tie cried deep affection in his voice 1 I have not seen thee for months I 1 what brings thee in such haste from caracas manuel grinned at the rest of us 4 caracas general Is bolln boil as ills dancing eyes considered me where Is the senonita Sen geri onta orita aye said monahan laughing did he tie not boast the next man who asks me about the senorita manuel shall feel the we of my fist the sailors been keen insight read the n nenice enace in the air this man gen ral eral belongs to us he Is one of e 6 yet he comes la in the garb of spain A garb that I 1 myself procured you should have seen me he ile laughed I 1 am perched like a rooster on the comb of a roof in the moon I 1 a piece of heavy tiling ID to my hand waiting for a tall spanish officer to pass abenath me I 1 was amael to d scover that caracas Is filled with mith short fat officers lie ile stopped to laugh again finally one a captain approached upon his head I 1 depos cited the piece of tiling and upon his flattened body I 1 deposited myself in two minutes he was minus the lint form the americano now wears which in truth Is grievously inadequate bolivar laughed a rich ringing laugh that meant life to me and the city he said is boiling because of that what more there Is little more general the beautiful senorita lamartina Lamart lna Is lost and all the forces of caracas have failed to find her my part of the escapade of the americano Amen cano who has fumed us tremendously and who comes sen service ice to our cause caus was too evident so further stay in the city was impossible lastly la torre plans a move against the armies of your excellency it Is good news manuel for we shall be ready bolivar considered a long moment what of the span ish officer who rode last night with this americano Amen cano there was no spanish officer gen eral who ho rode with him the re semblance between the senorita and her brother lieutenant polito Is a very striking thing you mean to tell us mannel manuel that she 1 aye general the swarthy sailor laughed ohp used polloi pol to a broken head and his cold and the all en ve loping cloak to hide her identity and she rides a horse as well as ary ar y one bolivar smiled yet the tale that he be brough t us was so impossible I 1 it turned to the liberator if hia his excellency having for forshen glien me cares to make male use of a d clod I 1 would offer service sen ice to him I 1 can at least furnish a man mans s portion of brawn biow bolivar took me by the hani ban ind and smiled into my ees eyes francisco has told roe me much of you if anbrew jackson has looked upon you with faor favor francisco interrupted I 1 haie have the proof excellency I 1 ere in my pocket he ile drew out the tl tun in leathern lei thern wallet tl it at t tad ad been in my I 1 fos os session v hen I 1 had pla ed so poorly the part of ban isidio 0 in that wallet vallet I 1 had carr e el I 1 s nee a few days after the bittle battle of chalmette a p ece of paper torn from the fly leaf of my french giammar upon wh ch cen andrew jackson had written a statement the t he had stay staged ed at my fathers house a state ment vh wah ch worthless in itself has been mv dearest possess on may I 1 r riad ad f lency what I 1 hive have found in the wallet of oung young garde pol var ar turned to roe me AL ie e axcel lency if it will make of me a soldier under your banner so I 1 rin cisco beading in mind the general generals s I 1 mated knowledge of eng lish nad rad it very slowly I 1 toren oren arle ar ie las I 1 is offered ballant senile service to t hii his en 11 try he iiii dougi t with c leao is gallantry at talla ik lega a at ilore hoe rend bend at ii i ant at chalmette V viotti a artl N soi of a v v arthy soldier fa tl ti er it Is ls esnel s ne nel I 1 I 1 francisco sai 1 an n brew lid jai son one coil it I 1 not I 1 HP i come to me said I 1 ol 01 v ir n ore I 1 becom men led if emeral has seen alt t cot cinn in cission you a major surely I 1 an lo 10 no less but F r cellena cel lenc I 1 cr ed it is too m i h t Is 19 more than I 1 deserve I 1 cannot bope I 1 ope it sl s ill le I 1 e done major francisco has said you vou will nuke make a good soldier and T fancisco ran cisco s judgment Is never at fault such was my first meeting with the liberator to whom half of south america owes its independence and all of the western world offers homage colonel pini pint the sophist extended his hand I 1 congratulate you major intuition told me that pini pint would never be my friend a contingency which worried me not at all the weeks that followed my first meeting with general bolivar were busy w weeks beeks indeed for la torre was massing the forces of spain to break the ever tightening republican lines and tl it e liberator moved to meet him my days filled with fe erish actie ity went by and quiet nights cider under the stirs stars were given over to worship at the shrine of love for the face of duice dulce was eier ever before me she lemed to be calling calling and I 1 have awakened crying out her name from dreams that were so a real I 1 could almost have touched her and because of the desperation of my love I 1 became a better soldier knowing that this nightmare of murder as she s L called it wold be over only when bolivar had won for he was not a man to stop short of then could seek her out I 1 met during those days gen dan lei let 0 01 1 eary ir sh soldier and ing figure of the british legion to whom V venezuela cne ene zuela today rend renders e rs homage moore bolivard Bo livars doctor a vivacious engi engl sh gentleman marino his ch ef of staff gen belford wilson veteran and son of sir robert wilson of pen insular fame paez ch ef of the Ila llaneros neros and later pres dent of venezuela more than once and cedeno bermudez plaza and urdaneta the high sound ng rank and titles that they carried took the place of pay they d t receive under us were english irish guese negroes half breeds ind ans lean llaneros llin lia eros neros the in aed riffraff of cit es and a few american adventure ad ventur ers from the states A motley crowd indeed and hardly one that a man might pick to win an empire yet the genius of bolivar won them over touched them with the divine spark of patriotism and made of this compos te crew an array army that finally crushed the power of pain in venezuela one in id may morning as the sun stood an hour above the heights of san Casl casimiro miro we broke through the carabobo Car abobo hills and descended upon tl ti e little city of cura ilava having no gar risen rison it fell ell read ly into our hands then we ve deployed east and west and north to invest the town of M karacay aracay for that was our goal that the first long stride in the race for puerto cabello I 1 remembered well the last worda words of bolivar to him who corn com banded the center of our attaching attacking lines he hid had embraced our colonel and had said Pein remember ember pint we tale tl e town of maracay karacay and bold hold it and colonel pint had id saluted phoud of this glorious mission for pint however much he mav may have ailed failed had no lack of courage on the broad fertile valley that lies iles to the east of I 1 ake valencia we met the enemy alaez I 1 aez east of us and plaza to the west atta attacking clIng at the same time the history of venezuela calls this battle only a skirmish for it failed of its goal because the body cannot go forward if the wings are dragging in our unit were two nun hun dree dred of the british leg on and over four hundred ind ans and despite the drag dragging ing wings we pushed onward until we touched the town which after an hour of fiercely contested fighting fell our ind an soldiers out of hand with joy over this hard hardmon won victory ran yelling and shooting through the narrow streets in an hour they had found wine and rum and other drinks to satisfy them and so became at last more tractable under the corn com mands of their officers I 1 had given strict orders to my bat that no captives wounded or well should be murdered which had been up to this time the general procedure in the frightful war of death that morales had inaugurated and that both sides were waging so squads were roaming over the city carrying cirr ying to the nearest available houses wounded men for treatment at one of these houses I 1 found C cap ap tain monahan lie ile was leaning against an adobe wall bands in the pockets of his tan and gray jacket noisome p pe tilted at a rakish angle and idle eyes upon a western sun IN why by do you stand there I 1 laughed will the poor walls fall if you remove your support I 1 am waiting said he disregard ing my levity for colonel pint to come to his senses then you have a long watt wait my captain for pint will never arrive the lamartina boy la Is inside he pointed over his shoulder with an in different thumb he wants to see you Is he wounded monahan I 1 not much did he say anything about his 1 to me the irishman grinned again I 1 im in not chasing moonbeam moonbeams garde I 1 im m no sighing romeo 1 im in a soldier and a good one my ray friend said I 1 stooping to pass the portal polito very pale very frail lay upon a crude bed of straw his eyes lighted up when he saw me and as he raised a left hand I 1 assumed that his right was useless the the moon wraith he reald said I 1 opened his jacket thrust the shirt aside and found a bullet wound be low the collarbone collar hone not so bad I 1 assured 1 0 t t I 1 I 1 tie tl e I 1 in I 1 am certa n I 1 i 1 0 1 11 ho ba out in a month 1 ai ia n n com con nind und of this sector pol n rif adolfo he heti ti altos P 1 to s lie ile a very sorry effort chy hy dd d il ld 1 d you 11 not 0 t keep her senor when 5 you ou had tl it e chance she rode away from caracas wim with you and I 1 eisent sent her back to tl it e lines of spain realizing too late that she was not yourself the revolutionists approached and her life would have been endangered efy love for her should have seen through figh so simple a masquerade I 1 seem always to fall did she 1 I 1 ad some d with my voice did she marry colonel fuentes he ile shook his head sighing the while adolfo waits he ile offered another feeble smile duice dulce Is biffl cult senor does she speak of of me polito he nodded I 1 think she feels that your regard should have read a mere disguise and so it should senor had I 1 been thinking less of my own affairs forgive me pol to I 1 am thinking aa as usual only of myself I 1 shall see that a medico comes to attend you at once I 1 would repay you he ile thou thought ht a icing moment you cannot hot hold the advantage sou you have gained senor for paez and plaza having failed will permit our wings to close in upon tha the city I 1 nodded your I 1 nes ties of communication once brol e I 1 bodde i again for I 1 knew then why monahan aNial awaited ted the pleasure of colonel I 1 ni tit and I 1 realized the dan I 1 ger of the dili atory tactics cf rf our colonel TO BE CONTINUED |
