| Show fe OF A LOVE AFFAIR at day I 1 noticed drop bolts that had been dug in the bya child cald an american engineer who has been loaded tot many years at bafo atlas Sl erico they reminded me of something in the sand 1 I got into negates northbound one spring evening in I 1 kaew the sheriff ot noales Noa jes a missourian named jim after supper I 1 went over to the prison to call on jim and hear him talk kota Engl leh I 1 was just out of old mexico tor first almo in two years and consequently a lot lonesome for the sound of theUn ted slates language 1 I chatted afan for a couple 0 hours and then wo fiddled around with a uette two handed poker two alta limit to pass the time it much ot a prison even for a placer like there were only five cell the end cell of tha tier looked non tho otaw in which jim and I 1 riffling cards there as a man in that cell lie leaned against the hara and watched our friendly pame oc draw with a cheerful smile showing a mouthful of uncommonly fine teeth ha was a half avery man f he had iad beads of a rosary as asat oa he tige of his bunk with a very and coatter of fact air while am and 1 were talking ft over but as I 1 say when we rhe tang game of draw ha tucked the rosary in his shirt and leaned a abo bars anil watched us smil hil after a wallo sheriff jim looked up at the halfbreed half breed want to fill in he aked tha prisoner of a jayme jasd the prisoner 1 I like yes I 1 lute stood oh abud hey said the sheriff unlocking and throwing open the door of the cell well well go you a allt lle twist of and then jose seeing as how and here he broke off well as are as howare ho yare he concluded jose had a bag of mixed gold and coins he played stud for a while jim dealing there winning or losing there came a moment though when jose mighty confident and bet pretty strongly you sure mat have one buried jose I 1 said to the prisoner my remark had a curious effect upon him he flushed anil then paled a bit two senor hebald he sald to me after 1 buried senor a pause I have the sheriff avoided my eye while joe was saying that A little while later the game broke flip the sheriff locked joee back in his ceo and then walked over to the dobe hotel with me in the moonlight 1 kind 0 hate to hang jose said the sheriff to me a little regretfully when we got out othe prison but of course i v hang jose I 1 said surprised not that decent appearing greaser that sat in with us yep said jim sententiously same greaser jose salazar wheelwright and blacksmith and good one too ill be hanging jose day after tomorrow morning going to be around no thanks said I 1 some of josea coins were in my pocket at that minute and they suddenly felt heavy there sheriff jim sat out in front of the dobe hotel and told me about it jose he said went down to chihuahua about a year ago and brought back abife pretty girl named sonora gaoa looker graceful like borne lizards are jose had the dobe all fixed for her it was alongside his blacksmith thop they seemed to get along all right together did in fact until one of these pretty vaqueros ros fellow aames eduardo palma came along the silver bells jingling on elu ardea hat must ha kind 0 hypnotized bonora joses wife and eduardo was biell v e mandolin besides anyhow 7 0 o became it not long after le in in the camp knew if at j that except jose salazar jose was not next until sonora and eduardo bad framed the job up on him the baby was born little less than three months ago and for two day after it happened jose was running around like an idiot making cigarettes and then throwing e daway before lia lit them jn his excitement never paw a roan white or halt breed so tickled over a kid well a couple of weeks after its birth the baby died a lot sudden the mother raced over to the alcade shrieking that jose had smothered the child as it lay in the cradle told him that jose had been jealous of the attention she gave to the baby from the hour that it rame into the world and that in a fit ot ungovernable rage ho had that morning thrown a blanket over the infants head and smothered it sonora wa san ingenious liar and great actress ac tresa her tale was believed I 1 never would pave believe it myself tor I 1 had been josea almost imbecile happl nesa when the tyka was born but sonora got herself believed so they rounded the frantic but bleech efm jose up and brought him along to me he was charged with murdering his baby ahrn jose became calm and that took him a good week he aaa on the of his bunk and told me that it wa all alie but he had no ned to do that I 1 knew it all ot those who kaw about eduardo suspected it too but JOM had to be held tor trial it would all coma out in the testimony it was figured and then jose would aft booe by that time it waa thought that sonora would have executed her getaway with eduardo the but abo she remained kronid noales lamenting her baby to be more or lesa women folks and waa more often with haf than atoo people liked but theres a hull lot ot gul bono around here a you know and BO nothing was done with bonora or eduardo well one night I 1 baw a hellish BRAem the window of josea cell wont to tho coilet wat cage etue window looking out on tha boote joee over bout mid that he was all engg joee wad standing on the benth out ot the window with iila bk to me I 1 callol out to him three or four times but he hear me or not to 1 so I 1 climbed upon the bench alongside ot edse and looked out of the window too to see what he was look ang at that had made him BO deaf he never moved when be felt mo ll 11 he du feel me alongside him there oi the bench but with hla chin in both hta handshe hands he just dazed quiet aa the apostle paul jn painted plaster of paris out of the window into the bright moonlight sonora and eduardo were out in tha road not twenty feet away from he window cavorting tn the moonlight dancing and caressing each ather and only stopping their performance for mance once in a while to make leering faces at jose whose head they saw framed in the cell window with his chin resting in his two hands jose was just watching them I 1 knew then why he heard me when 1 called him he had awn busy sonora and eduardo hand tn hand danced gayly down the road turning to make mocking grimaces at jose a little while after I 1 had started to look over joses shoulder out of the window when they bad disappeared in the moonlight jose turned to roe with a smile never saw such a smile as that one on a mans face and never want to again the moon she bright this night ed jayme jose said to me that Is he sort 0 gasped it but as I 1 looked him over curiously I 1 help but think how id hate to be in So noras and eduardas Edu ardos moccasins in case jose should ever get loose well jose got loose about five nights later hed begun to saw his way out the very night ot that road performance of sonora and eduardo took ft piece of steel out of his shoe for the work he was a handy man at kind of thing too being a blacksmith and he worked all the time that I 1 around so he got through the window on the fifth night after sonora and eduardo had danced in the moonlight for him lett a clumsy note for me saying that ho bated 10 get his good jayme in trouble by going that way but that he had a thing to do that must be done and he might come back too later he added well jose told me all the rest of it he had gone straight from the jail to his dobe surprising eduardo there with sonora it was a detached dobe on the edge of the desert trail and a thousand feet from any other shack jose put eduardo and sonora under the gun he had got his shooting tools out of the shop before entering the dole and brove both of them before him to the shop he had already lighted a in the blacksmith shop jose still keeping them under tha gun up a three quarter inch chain from the floor and commanded eduardo to make a loop of it around the beseeching So noras neck the pretty vaquero was a craven and be sides this made it look to him as if jose was only going to take vengeance sonora and perhaps let him eduardo go so eduardo fastened the chain loop around the walling So noras neck and clamped the loop when that was done jose suddenly jumped upon eduardo eruardo was a baby in joses hands jose held him down while he made a loop around eduardas Edu ardos neck with the other end of the chain thus he had them securely fastened together chained by their necks fastening the middle 0 the chain to the the shot jose hitched his sliver gray jennet to the wagon then he lifted the neck chained sonora and and ednardo into the bottom of the wagon from aba back one by one after a spade into the front 0 the wagon jose climbed onto the seat clucked to the jennet and drove off upon the stars into the desert jose drove eight rouen befaro pull jennet up it pay much to ma about how sonora and JB duardo had pleaded for their lives but I 1 tell them he explained to me when they beg lt la oh jesu how they beg that they had both dance on my heart under the BO bryght moon aad so why should I 1 give them lie well eight miles out into the desert jose pulled up and abt out and began to clr in the sand with alg spade he dug two deep holec they must have been at least seven feet deep right alongside each other the work took him two hours then jose told sonora and eduardo thattie would ev minutes in which to pray he knelt down with them while they prayed and crossed himself when they did he told me that be felt a little sorry be said while they prayed to mother 0 berries Mer ries yet he had hla duty to perform and had they not danced on on josea heart out in the road under the moonlight jose buried B luardo alive first hia idea being probably to show sonora what a really insignificant person her pretty vaquero was ho camped tamped and patted the band above eduardas Edu ardos head good and firm then he kissed the imploring sonora quite affectionately at the same instant humanely stabbing her to the heart with hla knife then he buried sonora standing up like eduardo beside her rover and camped tamped the sano over her head ha drove his spade into the spot to mark it ihen jose climbed dark into his aart and kept on across the desert making the long drive to chihuahua lo 10 his old mother he told his old mother about what sonora and the vaquero had done to him and about the baby and what had happened lo 10 sonora and eduardo ten days later salazar came to mo at the prison mounted on his almost dead jennet joses old mother ba told in haa had a vision of the holy virgin the holy virgin had insisted that the old mother advise her son to give himself up to justice and throw himself upon the mercy 0 god and BO jose obedient to hla old kothera mo thera ad vice and command returned and gave himself up to me the bodies of sonora and eduardo were sent tor the spade still marking the spot in the sand the bodies re calved decent burial but in unconsecrated ground the old priest held that sonora and eduardo had been guilty jose plead any other way except guilty and there was nothing for it but to sentence him ive hung a fot of greasers oro honest enjoyment than im going to have in stringing up joee jose was strung up aa per schedule thirty six hel been playing stud with sheran and me concluded the engineer from his hanging cost me a whole pocketful of gold and silver coins I 1 separate the coins I 1 had woi from jose from ray own and BO I 1 was compelled to drop the whole bunch into the plate of the little no galas church to the intense surprise and delight 0 the old priest who did not know of course my motive I 1 never much cared to pack around a dead mans money tha two big holed aug in the atlantic city beach sand reminded me of sheriff jim dedwell of nogales and his account of jose and sonora and the pretty vaquero eduardo dallas texas may 6 no particulars have been obtained of the tornado reported last night in the panhandle pan handle district all wires leading to that part of the state are down and telegraph facilities in alt directions ara seriously impaired |
