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Show FOURTEENTH EPISODE A Modern Joan of Arc. While the Major, -with his brnve little lit-tle band, wns making their last stand agalnsf the lnsurrectos, In Diablo pass, Liberty, escorted by the small detachment detach-ment of Mexican soldiers was on her way to the prison at Chihuahua, accused ac-cused of having murdered Manuel and Therese. As she rode silently along, with a grim-faced greaser on either side of her, sho wondered whether this was the work of Lopez. Possibly he had sent the Mexicans to the hut for the purpose of charging her with the crime, in order that he might have her at his mercy, and thus seek to try and obtain I from her a liberal sum for her freedom. free-dom. She could not lead herself to believe that these Mexicans really considered con-sidered her the guilty one. And yet, If they really were serious In their accusation she had little hope of establishing es-tablishing her innocence. As far as she knew, no one but herself had seen the tragedy, and to combat her story of how It all occurred was the revolver, revolv-er, which belonged to her and had her initials on It. This Indeed was a verj damaging piece of evidence. There were two roads leading to Chihuahua, one of them was cut along the rocky gorge, rising at times several sev-eral hundred feet above the fertile valley val-ley below, and the other crossed the mountains, to the eastward of Diablo pass. It was this road which had been chosen by the Mexicans, and It took the party through some of the loneliest sections of the country. A a flm yryana AnrrrrnA nlnn "1 r t --"J "'i jufefecu uiuug Lilt: cans were Jabbering among themselves In their native tongue, pausing occasionally occa-sionally to cast furtivo glances at their beautiful prisoner, who appeared to bo uninterested In them. Suddenly the little party ascended ono of tho hilltops and, as'they turned a sharp bend In the rond, a clear view was obtained through an opening between be-tween two peaks. Great clouds of smoke were rising from below, and attracted at-tracted the attention of Liberty and her captors. As they, watched, the sound of guns reached their ears. Tho Are was Incessant, and aroused tho curiosity cu-riosity of tho detachment. One of their number leaped from his horse, and, getting down on his hands and knees, crept to the edge of the steep cliff and looked down. Far below him, In the valley, a party of Mexicans, fully ful-ly two hundred strong, were battling with a handful of Americans. Tho flro of the Mexicans was terrific, and, In addition to their regular armi, mates his debts at $185o.21 and his assets as-sets at $832.49, of which he claims $120 to be exempt. Alex McMaster, attached to the of- ' flco of the probation officer of the juvenile court in hfs petition for relief re-lief from his debts stated that he owed $-180.95 and that his assets were $2225, all of which comes under the exemption clause. they were using machine guns, while the Americans were depending only on their army rifles. With such tremendous tre-mendous advantage, the Mexicans were, nnturally, driving the little column col-umn back. The American camp was flllcd with dead and dying, while the enemy had lost only a few. The other members of the detachment, detach-ment, with the exception of two, who were left to gunrd Liberty, jumped from their saddles and ran over to where their comrade was sprawled out, and throwing themselves on their stomachs, they stared down into the valley. "The gringos arc getting benten this time, eh?" said one of them. "Yes, damn them," replied, another. , "We show them the Mexican can fight!" shouted n third. "Seel Seel There goes some of them down 1" "That's Winston's band," said one of them. Liberty heard this, and the news crushed her more than the realization of' her own position. Lopez must have succeeded In making the attack, as planned. But, she wondered, what had, happened to Pedro? He hnd started to warn the Major, when he escaped, and, surely he must have had time to reach the camp before Lopez and his followers began their march for Diablo Diab-lo pass! She knew the Major was far outnumbered, for Lopez had been planning for this attack for two or three days, and had re-enforced his band for this purpose. If the Major had been warned he would have managed man-aged to escape; for he know that Lopez Lo-pez had more arms and ammunition, In addition to machine guns. Liberty concluded something had gone wrong, somewhere, but the more" she thought of it, the more she felt convinced that Pedro had never reached tho camp. Her fears were realized a little later. The Mexicans finally returned to their saddles, and the entire party were descending de-scending tho opposite side of the hill when one of the horses In front shied at some object lying beside the road. It was a man. He was lying face downwnrd, and to all appearances "The Gringos Are Getting Beaten This Time." was unconscious. His clothes were covered with mud and dirt. He had probably been thrown from a horse, or had been robbed and killed by one of the prowling bands of bandits which Infested the Chihuahua mountains, lying ly-ing in wait for Mexicans en route across the border with their belts filled with gold. The Mexicans pulled up their horses and several of them slouched over to the poor fellow. They spoke to him, but he did not answer. Then one of them stooped and turned him over. As he did so, Liberty, who had been watching them, immediately uttered a cry. It was Pedro I An ugly wound on his forehead, from which trickled a tiny stream of blood, explained why he was unconscious. He had probably been thrown from a spirited horse while on his way to Major Winston's camp. While the Mexicans stood gazing at ( the motionless figure, Liberty spoke to the leader. "Let me help him," she urged. "You, nurse?" he inquired grin-nlngly. grin-nlngly. 'Tm sure I can help him," insisted the girl. "All right," replied the Mexican; "we see." Then he Instructed the others to unbind Liberty, who, when she found herself free, leaped from the saddle and ran to the side of her slave, while the others stood, lazily looking on. She raised Pedro's head and rested it gently In her lap as she studied the wound. It was not a bad injury. He had probably hit his head on a stone, as he fell from his horse, and been knocked unconscious. Liberty handed her handkerchief to one of the Mexicans Mexi-cans and directed him to go and wet it In a stream. When he returned she bathed the wound, carefully and ten-derly. ten-derly. The cool water refreshed Pedro. Pe-dro. He moved about restlessly for a moment, and then gradually opened his eyes. As he saw his mistress ho rallied quickly. "The Major Is he," but Liberty hastily put her hand over his mouth, as she bandaged his wound. "Sh , bo careful, they will hear yon," she whispered. Tho leader, who had been standing a few feet away, saw, her movement and shuffled over to the pair. He 6tood for a moment looking down into the face of Pedro, who was now being helped to his feet, with the nid of Liberty. Lib-erty. "So, you wanted to nurse him, eh?" lie began, as he stared angrily at the 1 girl. "Now I understan'. He is Pe- dro." I ; ; "Well, what of It?" inquired Liberty, i ) as the slave stood up. ,. ! , "He, y,our slave," replied the Mexl-J t can, "the black dog." ' , Pedro, as "vvcnk as he was, made a1 rush for the fellow, but Liberty pulled hlin back. "I break you In two I" yelled Pedro, anxious to get at the burly brute. ' ' "Don't, Pedro," whispered Liberty.! "If you do anything now you will spoil! i It all. These Mexicans are taking mo' to Chihuahua prison. I will need ' your help later." '1 The poor slave listened to her, and Immediately his whole attitude, changed into one of submlssivencss. ' "Here, you, senorlta, get back on the' ' horse," commanded the Mexican as he 'r motioned to his men to put her back in the saddle. After Liberty had ) obeyed him, and the Mexicans had tied ' her hands again, he turned to Pedro, "I think we take you along," he said. ; "You are better with us than alone. I know you, you are not to be trusted."' ; ; Then he took a lariat from his sad- i del, and, with the aid of two of hla men, he tied the slave's hands securely ' r together and made the other fast to ' his saddle. "You can walk," he sneered as he leaped onto his horse. i It the Mexican thought he was punishing pun-ishing Pedro by taking him along to, i Chihuahua, he was badly mistaken. The old slave was always happy when he was near his mistress, for, as long as he was near her, he felt certain he, r could protect her from any great harm. , He was somewhat dazed and, as he walked along he tried to recall Just ' what had happened. After he escaped ) from the lnsurrectos he ad taken ' one of the best horses he could find In the camp, and rode away in a mad ef. fort to reach Major Winston and inn form him of the proposed attack. Tho ; horse, glad to feel the cool night breeze in his nostrils, had dashed : away madly, and it looked as though i ': he would reach the American troops L. in time to warn the Major of the com- i Ing of Lopez and his band of Insu i rectos. Then, just as he saw the camp ahead of him, he was startled by see- Ing a dispatch car, which had been ( ahead of him all the way from the time he left the lnsurrectos' camp, go 1 plunging over the embankment. As ; he reached the place, his horse be - came frightened at something in the i road, and with a sudden plunge threw ' him from its back. FrOm then he re ; membered nothing until ho awoke, i with Liberty bending over him. Now he was puzzled about his mis- tress. Why were these Mexicans tqk- Ing her to Chihuahua? What had be- ; come of the Major, and where was : ,: Rutledge? These were some of the : ; questions which ran through his poor brain. A terrible fate must have befallen be-fallen the American troops at the ; hands of Lopez. However, he was not so certain about the fate of the brave . captain of the rangers. ; ; At thnt moment, Bob, who ad been ' I ; held at bay by a detachment of in- ; i surrcctos, was bsy planning to es- i ! cape. With his handful of rangers he ' occupied the ruins of nn old mission on the brow of a hill. The lnsurrectos had taken up their position on a hill j directly opposite. ' ,' ; Every time a ranger shoved his head above the old stone ruins, a bullet whistled overhead. It was simply a : question of which side would be able to hold out the longest. Bob had very j little ammunition left, and he felt cer i tain the enemy was well supplied. Hq ' sat with his back to the wall, dlscour- ' aged and despondent, hungry and thirsty. Even a cigarette would have proved a solace to him. There was a small opening In the renr of his crude fort, and, If he could direct the attention of the lnsurrectos ' to the other side, with a brisk fire, keeping it up for several momants, he might possibly escape through this opening, tho ruins shielding him from f their view. 1 He would try It. Calling his small band together, he told them of his in- tentions, and all agreed to try this piece of strategy. They loaded their l guns and placed them on the walls ad ; . they fired. It would have meant cer ) tain death if they raised their heads, so they were content to merely fire In the direction of the lnsurrectos. For several minutes they kept this up, and j every time they fired one of the rang- 13 ers would creep slowly towards tha M opening. The bullets rained all about . them as they fled ; but, once they were 1 ouside. with the rear walls shielding jl them, they were able to rush down the r slope out of sight of the enemy. ; ) ; This was kept up until there was ; ; only one ranger left with Bob. He gave the follow instructions to fire A as rapidly as possible at the insurrec- tos, and before the smoke raised to make n dash fnr thf ronr Thotr hnth ' did this, and when the walls were en- i. ft shrouded with white vapor both dropped their guns and ran for tho j opening. Bob made It safely, but his ' B comrade was hit by a stray bullet and ' 2 dropped in his tracks. ; I Reaching the outside, Rutledge kept -: under cover of the rear walls and ; j dashed down the -slope which brought p him Into Diablo pass. As he looked ' 2 ahead of him he suddenly stopped short, u 'i For he was amazed at the scene before .ft him I h (TO BE CONTINUED.) J |