Show flame i the th ic border alder SYNOPSIS seeking becking death by herself from tho summit of 0 lone blepta me to escape cape dishonor at the bands of 01 d drunken desperado sonya sony S 1 ILI her sud 1 l I 1 low own her herself se if to be rescued by denly sobered and repentant attacker the girl is 1 a solf ek appointed physician living alne on 0 an to the navajo indians arizona sheep ranch with her brother broth llla and their small wall serge bin hi wife daughter daughter dabs bab for a year the abe his wealthy athy boon been ealr encased aged to rodney blake now new yorker ker but her heart 1 Is with the friendless ri endle and 0 8 he o evades 1 1 I little moon bloon wife am wedding sonya pulls pull of two Finx fincers ers a navajo through the crisis crier of 0 an illness two fingers Is deeply grateful blake returns return to new york declaring he will give sonya six 1 mors inor months montha and then demand ne keep h her er promise to marry him sony again meets meet the man adian cea he she ah had repulsed on lone mesa he tells telli her he bitterly regret 1 his action sonya la Is affected but unforgiving she bears rumors ot of a border bandit el 1 capitan diablo who vibo cruci crucifies fles his hl i double and bagu vaguely deiy connects him with her attacker CHAPTER III HI C continued S no maybe not knowin you I 1 know not but I 1 think you were wrong sonya bonya even so whatever might have happened to you would have been outside your power to prevent no fault of yours an think what a ghastly waste it would have been your broken body at the mesas foot your kindly soul gone from this earth which needs such so bad no she finished shaking her head you should not have tried to kill yourself well the girl lau laughed bed 1 I so ao that and myra mra I 1 wish you could have seen his face I 1 never saw a drunken nan man get sober so fast in my life what did he look like asked my ra curiously was he a cow cowboy boyl sonya considered well he was dressed like one yet 1 wondered what outfit he could work for since were all sheep over there you know and he was good to look at tall and slim hipped with the strangest long blue eyes I 1 ever saw odd eyes that could change in a second they were fierce at firsts first like a hawks reckless and selfish they made me furious just to look at them and then when he saw I 1 was in dead earnest about about this thing they turned perfectly terrible with anglety ant lety like a mans who sees a child dying and cant help it if you see what I 1 mean well anyway its ancient history and I 1 hope I 1 never lay eyes on him again the good for nothing and now tell me about yourself hows flows the ranch going and myra fell into the usual train of trivial happenings which had filled the recent months as the afternoon wore away and the sun went down the west it was twill twilight ht when they came out into the ranch yard and some one was coming into the round stockade corral where the ba big tanks shimmered with their sweet waters from the well under the windmill this was a strange creature if ever there was one that sat wearily on his little gray i burro leading another and hazing a third ahead of him a thin stooped figure in rusty black garments that bore about them something of the dig fifty of chancel chance and sacristy A wide brimmed black hat bat sat squarely on the head of long white hair that fell la in dusty ringlets to his shoulders the tired burros drank as if famished end and the master stepped off the one he rode standing patiently beside it while it slaked its thirst myra laid down her pan and went toward this newcomer her hand extended li hello bilello sir she said were glad to see you theres plenty of feed in th barns yonder rut put up your stock an come on in Sup perU soon be ready good day my daughter said the old man shaking hands with her im glad to be here too the road Is long sometimes ive come from juniper tank today whew 1 whistled myra that Is a long trail an a hard one especially tor for burros oh they do well my little fellows true servants of 0 the word never complaining always willan willing their reward la Is certain im sure it if I 1 id be unhappy they are so patient so gentle lie ile looked at myra anxiously with his faded old dark eyes sure said the woman hastily sure bure the be rewarded just as ure sure as anything the servant smiled rel leverly lev edly 1 I knew understand mrs little littie he said some people donethey dont donL they smile when I 1 tell them that now ill 1 11 go 90 put up A little later they all sat down to a simple meal and sonya studied him with careful glances she had heard so BO much about him where he had come from the country did not know or where here lie he made his habitat or it if he even had one in rain and shine summers heat beat find and winters cold be rode the lonely stretches on his tiny mounts carrying his bible and his first aid kit many a life lie he had saved in emergency many a difference he be had patched vp up many a bit of courage he had put 14 in borne failing heart they called I 1 jin him far and wide file tile the Ser servant short ened from the servant serian t of 0 tile hie lord 1 end and he had no other name but that fantastic soubriquet lie he was very old and the rigors ot of his life had bad leave leaned d him to the bone its pitiless buns burned his wrinkled iken to the coor color rif nf old leather but there was in toll bib face a 8 flame that shamed the evil by VINGIE E ROE copyright doubleday dorm doran co lav ino service out of 0 nien men beholding hard cynical as 88 they might be ue he was known among the ranchers half satirically half as the holy chuck line rider nider since he had bad no money ever and could n not ot have hare spent it if lie he had they put him up lip gad ad fed his burros and listened quietly these dark hard riding mm men of cattle camp and sheep camp n while idle lie he told them of their sins and the hope of 0 the world that never died how flow much of it went in he never knew since they are a silent lot but it was not his big job to know that was to give the word that only so 80 now sonya watched him smiling a little in gentle sympathy and recalled the stories of 0 his goodness and his unbounded courage which she had heard A strange little old man filled with UrI dYing zeal his big spirit a ire fire or of evangel like those amazing padres who had walked the west in an earlier day he commanded the respect of all who came in contact with him the gentle mad old servant of the lord and presently myra took them out in the sandy yard to sit about the doorway and rest with the dying day after the manner of women in far places she began to draw from him the news of the country the sun went down entirely and the vast spread of the sandy levels clothed themselves in royal purple beyond a painters dreams the world was a lovely place the servant said la in his hi a sort soft old voice fit et footstool for the feet of god there was no evil in it of itself only man made evil man with ills his greed and his cruelty beelzebub was abroad in the land beelzebub and his henchman lie he had seen them with his own eyes he the servant of the lord in humble places they traveled together by A I 1 xv presently she left the ancient tank and went on toward the north night and danger waited on them death and danger and disaster it had struck just across the border in that stark form hung upon a cross it was no common thief who rotted there in the windy sun but one who had betrayed his master beelzebub himself that master dark and cold and wicked as infernal fire bre ne ile was a power and a force not to be reckoned with or questioned though several hundred miles lay IRY between the border and tills this sheltered spot still the fin finger finer b er of the wicked one could reach even here the old man had seen shadows many shadows chief of them the 11 asters blue eyed henchman no good stayed where the blue eyed one went hy lie he had bad heard of him across the line last year the tall one va with ith bronze colored hair who was always seen when disaster was to follow A sign and a symbol of disaster tills this tall one with the wild eyes and he had seen him three days back riding down the trail to red bed rock nock canyon on a horse of solid gold so did the wicked one mount his followers well it was growing late and he was tired the old were aliv always aag tired so he would find his bis blankets and sleep it if Ms his friends permitted he be rose and bowed with a lann grace vague remnant of some forgotten I 1 ell time and went away toward the camp he had made with his packs and ills his weary burros and sonya sar savaran arin sat still in 1 every atom of her body with a strange stillness it seemed as it a hushing bushing hand had bad been laid up upon in her spirit something cold and sinister come down upon her like a cloud evil sc seemed amed to fall with the night and the old mans words and presently pre she and wrapped her ber arms across each other ai if to r shut hut it out then she shook hershf ana listened to myra who was saying how mail mad the servant was A strange old creature gentle and kind and quite quite que mad so bl 1 myra thought but sonya thought he was somehow sol lehow akin to her in this quixotic crusade against suffering only he be had bad added la in as we well and he seem seemed ed to have a elsloo it acs tills this prophetic vision to so closely with her own sense of di als a concerning c ertain certain things thing alch abt er 61 teemed to fall upon her with so chill a 4 touch piffle I 1 she was getting old herself I 1 it was the night and tile the silence of the vast country under its great stars what were rumors of a border bandit to her A dark renegade who crucified Us jis double Not Noth bine lne she would forget the chill it gave her shed be all right by day and so she was visiting with slim myra laughing and happy watching the servant ride away his saddlebags bulging myra littles generous gifts of food she staged two days at the black blach sheep and left early on the third much to myras dissatisfaction who held her hand as she leaned from darkness saddle and talked till the last CHAPTER IV the tha spots of the leo leopard pard at the home ranch sonya found two airmail air mail letters from rodney blake which completed her entire return to the commonplace she smiled a at q she read them and for the first time it seemed as if there might be a charm or two in the lie great city he be depicted so colorfully she rode over to clive wash to see two ivo fingers and little moon the next day and found the indian woman up and about the simple mat matters of her bogan began her rug rag and her family it gave the girl a thrill to see sec her so the lush flush of joy that such tion of her work always brought there was something in the knowledge that she had saved a life that made her one with the great work of creation itself she was poor as the goods of this world went they were all f fairly a ir so serge and llla lila and little dabs but she felt very rich inside her arrogantly ro rich and she could smile up at the blue heavens with a secret sense of fellowship so she left her last instructions with the little family at the began patted the cheek check of the youngest round eyed child and rode away erect in her saddle and pretty well satisfied with herself and the world at large it wap wao in this mood that she came under the tall face of lone mesa As she swung round its southeastern side she decided to go up the trail cut into the sheer face by those long dead inhabitants of the pueblo went up from here angling sharply and so steep that none but the level headed dared to make it she was such and so was the good horse under her though they had both sweated in a cool day the first time they had attempted it it was a stiff and slow climb but presently they gained the top and scrambled up through the small defile that was the steep trails end As they went forward sonya felt the surge and thrill she always felt at sight of the vast reach of tile the world about her spread out so far below taking off her hat she sat long in contemplation temp lation her hands and the hat resting on her pommel for a long time she sat so then reined away toward the right she would circle the mesa look at the silent white houses with their flat roofs roof s still amazingly intact look at the great stone basin which was nearly always sweet with water caught in the yearly rains presently she left the ancient tank and went on toward the north circling the huddled houses and was turning eastward around them when she stopped dead still A horse stood there in the blue shadow of the silent walls alls and a man sat on his bis haunches smoking a cl cigarette the horse was nag golden as a raw ingot and the man was bronzed and lean the light of his bare lead head shone in the cool shade lie ile looked up and sonya looked down and the girls eyes dilated with a swift excitement so she said coldly her lips suddenly tight you come here ag again alro the man arose a single motion beautifully correlated sonya not conscious of what she was doing sat looking at him and presently antly he looked up at her a straight look humble and still 1 17 I like the mesa he be said its so high and austere so far from from everything at the contact of ills his glance the strange tense feeling which this mari maua io presence had caused at every meeting took hold on sonya it was not fear it bad never beebi nor repugnance nor the anger which had stirred her but a little of all shot through with something which she could not define a sense hense of prophecy a forecast of destiny it chilled her within and sent a wave of tire across the chill and fa for r a wild moment she felt as if the solid rock were falling away beneath her then she caught herself together severely and lifted darkness rein and the man spoke again please he said please miss ln dont go away aw ay ill go right gladly ile he reached for uie the bridle of th the golden horse and drew it to him best tatang 1 I know ne ie got no right even to tc speak to you he said or look at al you after after that day up here but it if I 1 was to be hung for it next aw second I 1 help it and I 1 dout doul want to cause you another minu mInute tei 9 i trouble or unhappiness if tills this here hen mesas a favorite place of yours ill il never come again dont stay away yourself its too sweet to be lost but lose it sonya sale said against a her aall TO lk ha fg |