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Show & '. V ' ''''' '''' -----..... .. j I The Land of Broken Promises lj 3""" S . . By DANE COOUDGE 3 A Stirring Story Author of v ma ' "Thm Fighting Fool" or the Mexican "Hidden wafn" "ss r I """" ' ' Thm Tmxican, ' ' Etc. Revolution , , .. , n . . Illustrations by Don J.Lavin (Copyright. 1914. br took A. Uusacy) CHAPTER XXIV Continued. Up along the hillside and after the "fugitives they ran with vengeful eager-Dens, eager-Dens, racing each other for the higher ground and the first shot at the rebels. reb-els. Klrst Alvarez on his white horse would be ahead, and then, as they encountered en-countered rocks, the Yaquis would nurgo to the front. It was a race and at the same time It was a rout, for, nt the first glimpse of that oncoming 'body of warriors, the cowardly followers follow-ers of Hernardo Bravo took to their Jiecls and fled. Hut over the rocks no Chihuahuan, no matter how scared, can hope to outdistance out-distance a Yaqul, and the pop, pop of rilles told the fato of the first luckless fitragglors. For the Yaquis, after a hundred and sixty years of guerrilla warfare, never waste a Bhot; and as savage yells and the crash of a sudden sud-den volley drifted down from the rocky heights the men who had been besieged be-sieged in Fortuna knew that death was abroad in the hills. Fainter and fainter came the Bhots as the pursuit led on to the north and, as Hooker strained his eyes to follow a huge form that intuition told him was Amigo, he was wakened suddenly from his preoccupation by the touch of some unseen hand. He was In the open with people all about him Spanish refugees, Americans, triumphant trium-phant miners and their wives but that touch made him forget the battle above him and Instantly think o Gracla. He turned and hurried back to the corral where Copper Bottom was kept, and there he found her waiting, with :fier roan all saddled, and she challenged chal-lenged him with her eyes. The sun ..steamed from a pistol that she held in her hand, and again from her golden :hair, but he saw only her eyes, so brave and daring, and the challenge 'to mount and ride. Only for a moment did he stand before be-fore her gaze, and then he caught up his saddle and spoke soothingly to his horse. They rode out of the corral -together, closing the gates behind .them and passing down a gulch to the rear. All the town lay silent below them as they turned toward the western west-ern pass. The time had come. Well he knew the, dangers that lay between them and the American line. Dangers not tor him but for her. In the hills and passes and on the cactus-covered plain were thousands of men with whom she' would not be safe for an iinstant. and against whom he must Lguard hr that she might be delivered safely to Phil. And he loved her then as he had not believed it possible to love a woman. He loved this woman that he was attempting to save for .another man, a "pardner" who had .at the best been reckle6s of every trust, who had been unfaithful to ev-. ev-. ery promise. And across the border ' this man was waiting for the woman : Bud Hooker loved. That he take her i to him was a more severe test of his manhood than any to which he had before been subjected. That he be untrue to the trust she reposed in him never entered his mind for a moment. mo-ment. With a strong man's love for tier he thought only of how he was to -conduct her safely out of the dangers which surrounded her. Soldiers, miners, and refugees, men, -women, and children, every soul in Fortuna was on the hill to see the last .&t the battle. It had been a crude affair, but bravely ended, and something some-thing in the dramatic suddenness of this victory had held all eyes to the close. Bud and Gracia passed out of town unnoticed, and as soon as they bad rounded the point they spurred on till they gained the pass. "I knew you would come!" said Oracia, smiling radiantly as they paused at the fork. "Sure!" answered Hooker with his good-humored smile. "Count me in on anything which way does this trail go; do you know?" "It goes west twelve miles toward Arispe," replied Gracla confidently, "and then it comes into the main road that leads north to Nogales and Gadsden." Gads-den." "That sounds about right for us," replied Bud. "Gadsden's the place we want to head for, and we want to get there mighty quick, too, if them rebels reb-els will let us, an' I guess that's what they'll have to do whether they want So or not." They rode on together for some distance, dis-tance, the girl seeminfelv oblivious of the dangers which surrounded her. nd Hooker watching carefully for every ev-ery sign of difficulty. "What is there up here?" inquired Bnd, pointing at a fainter trail that led off toward the north. "This country coun-try is new to me. Don't know, eh? Vell. if we followed that trail we'd ran into them rebels, anyway, so we tninht as well go to the west. Is your saddlo all right? We'll hit it up then I'd like to strike a road before alark." They hurried on, following a well-narked well-narked trail that alternately climbed ridges and descended into arroyos, on til finally it dropped down into a -Vrecipltous canon where a swollen zeajn ruthf d and babbled and, while they still watched expectantly for the road, the evening quickly passed. They had no opportunity for conversation, conver-sation, for the trail was too narrow to permit of their riding side by side. Bud was thinking not only of the dangers dan-gers that surrounded them, but of this errand on which he was engaged, and what the end of it meant to him. First the slanting rays of the sun struck fire from the high yellow crags, then the fire faded and the sky glowed an opal-blue; then, through dark blues and purples the heavens turned to black above them and all the stars came out. Thousands of frogs made the canyon resound with their throaty songs and strange animals crashed through the brush at their approach, but still Hooker stayed in the saddle and Gracia followed on behind. If she had thought in her dreams of an easier journey she made no comment com-ment now and, outside of stopping to cinch up her saddle, Bud seemed hardly hard-ly to know she was there. The trail was not going to suit him it edged off too far to the south and yet, in the tropical darkness, he could not search out new ways to go. At each fork he paused to light a match, and whichever way the mule-tracks mule-tracks went he went also, for pack-mules pack-mules would take the main trail. For two hours and more they followed on down the stream and then Hooker stopped his horse. "You might as well get down and rest a while," he said quietly. "This How to Waken Her, Even That Was a Question, trail is no good it's taking us south. We'll let our horses feed until the moon comes up and I'll try to work north by landmarks." "Oh are we lost?" gasped Gracia, dropping stiffly to the ground. "But of course we are," she added. "I've been thinking so for some time." "Oh, that's all right," observed Hooker philosophically; "I don't mind being lost as long as I know where I'm at. We'll ride back until we get out of this dark canyon and then I'll lay a line due north." They sat for a time in the darkness dark-ness while their horses champed at the rich grass and then, unable to keep down her nerves, Gracia declared for a start. A vision of angry pursuers rose up in her mind of Manuel del Rey and his keen-eyed rurales, hot upon their trail and It would not let her rest. Nor was the vision entirely the result re-sult of nervous imagination, for they had lost half the advantage of their start, as Hooker well knew, and if he made one more false move he would find himself called on to fight. As they rode back through the black canyon he asked himself for the hundredth hun-dredth time how it had all happened why, at a single glance from her, he had gone against his better judgment judg-ment and plunged himself into this tangle. And then, finally, what was he going to do about it? But he knew what he was going to do about it. He knew he was going to take this girl through to Gadsden and to Phil, and his loyalty was such that he would not admit, even to himself, him-self, that Phil did not deserve her. ' Alone, he would have taken to the mountains with a fine disregard for trails, turning into whichever served his purpose best and following the lay of the land. Even with her in his care it would be best to do that yet, for there would be trailers on their track at sunup, and it was either ride or fight. Free at last from the pent-in canyon, they halted at the forks, while Bud looked out the land by moonlight. Dim and ghostly, the square-topped peaks and buttes rose all about him, huge and impassable except for the winding trails. He turned up a valley between two ridges, spurring his horse into a fast walk. From one cow trail to another he picked out a way to the north, but the lay of the ground threw him to the east and there were no passes between the hills. The country was rocky, with long parallel ridges extending to the northeast, and when he saw where the way was taking him Bud called a halt till dawn. By the very formation he was being gradually edged back toward Fortuna, For-tuna, and it would call for fresh horses and a rested Gracia to outstrip their pursuers by day. If the rurales traveled by landmarks, heading for the northern passes in an effort to outride out-ride and intercept him, they might easily cut him off at the start; but if they trailed him and he devoutly hoped they would then they would have a tangled skein to follow and he could lose them in the broken country to the north. So thinking, he ut grass among the rocks, Bpread down their saddle-blankets saddle-blankets and Matched over the "browsing hor-es while Gracla stretched out on the bed. After a day of excitement and a night of hard riding rid-ing there is no call for a couch of down, and as the morning star appeared ap-peared In the east she slept while Bud sat patiently by. It was no new task for him, this watching and waiting for the dawn. For weeks at a time, after a hard day's work at the branding, he had stood guard half the night. Sleep was a luxury to him, like water to a mountain-sheep and so were all the other useless things that town-bred people required. People like Gracia, people like Phil they were different in all their ways. To ride, to fight, to find the way there he was a better man than Phil; but to speak to a woman, to know her ways, and to enter Into her life there he was no man at all. She trusted to his courage to protect pro-tect her, and that he could do, but it was to a man such as Phil she would give her love. Phil could not love her more than he did, but Phil's ways could be more attractive to her. His adventurous life with his father had not been such as to cultivate the Utile niceties that appealed to women. It was only his privilege to serve, but he gloried in that privilege now as he watched beside her as she slept, and his vigil but strengthened his resolution res-olution to see her safely through to Phil. He sighed now as he saw the first flush of dawn and turned to where she slept, calm and beautiful, in the solemn light. How to waken her, even that was a question, but the time had come to start. Already, from Fortuna, Del Rey and his man-killing rurales would be on the trail. 'He would come like the wind, that dashing little captain, and nothing noth-ing but a bullet would stop him, for his honor was at stake. Nay, he had told Bud in so many words'. "She is mine,-and no man shall come between us!" It would be hard now if the rurales should prove too many for him if a bullet should check him in their flight and she be left alone. But how to wake her! He tramped near as he led up the unwilling mounts; then, as time pressed, he spoke to her, and at last he knelt at her side. Say! he called, and when that aid not serve he laid his hand on her shoulder. "Wake up!" he said, shaking her gently. "Wake up, It's almost day!" Even as he spoke he went back to the phrase of the cow-camp where men rise before it is light. But Gracia woke up wondering and stared about her strangely, unable to understand. "Why what is it?" she cried. Then, as he spoke again and backed away, . she remembered him with a smile. "Oh," she said, "is it time to get up? Where are we, anyway?" "About ten miles from Fortuna," answered an-swered Hooker soberly. "Too close we ought to be over that divide." He pointed ahead to where the valley val-ley narrowed and passed between two hills, and Gracia sat up, binding back her hair that had fallen from its place. "Yes, yes!" she said resolutely. "We must go on but why do you look at me so strangely?" "Don't know," mumbled Bud. "Didn't know I was. Say, let me get them saddle-blankets, will you?" He went about his work with embarrassed em-barrassed swiftness, slapping on saddles sad-dles and bridles, colling up ropes, and offering her hi3 hand to mount When he looked at her again it was not strangely. "Hope you can ride," he said. "We got to get over that pass before anybody any-body else makes it after that we can take a rest." "As fast as you please," she answered an-swered steadily. "Don't think about me. But what will happen if they get there first?" She was looking at him now as he searched out the trail ahead, but he pretended not to hear. One man in that pass was as good as a hundred, and there were only two things he could do shoot his way through, or turn back. He believed she would not want to turn back. CHAPTER XXV. Though the times had turned to war, all nature that morning was at peace, and they rode through a valley of flowers flow-ers like knight and lady in a pageant The rich grass rose knee-deep along the hillsides, the desert trees were filigreed with the tenderest green and I twined with morning-glories, and in ' open glades the poppies and sand-verbenas sand-verbenas spread forth masses of blue and gold. Already on the mesqult-trees the mocking-birds were singing, and bright flashes of tropical color showed where cardinal and yellow-throat passed. The de-w was still untouched upon the grass, and yet they hurried on, for of evil, and they thought only to gain the far pass. Beyond that lay comparative safety, but no man knew what dangers lurked between them and that cleft in the mountains. Del Rey and his rurales or Bravo and hi6 rebels might be there. In fact, one or the other probably prob-ably was there, and if so there would be a fight, a fight against heavy odds if he were alone, and odds that would be greatly increased because he must protect Gracia. To the west and north rose the high and Impassable- mountain which had barred their way in the night; across the valley the flat-topped Fortunas threw their bulwark against the dawn; and all behind was broken hills and gulches, any one of which might give up armed men. Far ahead, like a knife-gash between the ridges, lay the pass to the northern plains, and as their trail swung out into the pen they put spurs to their horses and galloped. Once through that gap, the upper country would lie before them and they could pick and choose. Now they must depend upon speed and the chance that their way was not blocked. Somewhere in those hills to the east Bernardo Bravo and his men were hidden. Or perhaps they were scat-tered, scat-tered, turned by their one defeat into roving bandits or vengeful partlzans, laying waste the Sonoran ranches as they fought their way back to Chihuahua. Chihua-hua. There were a hundred evil chances that might befall the fugitives,, and while Bud scanned the country ahead Gracia cast anxious glances behind. be-hind. "They are coming!" she cried at; last, as a moving spot appeared in the rear. "Oh, there they are!" "Good!" breathed Hooker, aa he rose in his stirrups and looked. "Why, good?" she demanded, curiously. cu-riously. "They's only three of 'em," answered Bud. "I was afraid they might be in front," he explained, as she gazed at him with a puzzled smile. "Yes," she said; "but what will you. do if they catch us?" "They won't eaten us," replied Hooker Hook-er confidently. "Not while I've got my rifle. Aha!" he exclaimed, still looking look-ing back, "now we know all about it that sorrel is Manuel del Rey's!" "And will you kill him?" challenged Gracia, rousing suddenly at the name. Hooker pretended not to hear. Instead, In-stead, he cocked his eye up at the eastern mountain, whence from time to time came muffled rifle-shots, and turned his hors o go. There was trouble over thore to the east somewhere some-where Alvarez and his Yaquis, still harrying the retreating rebels and some of it might come their way. With Rel Rey behind them, even though in sight, he was the least of their troubles, and could be easily cared for with a rifle shot if they could not distance him. Hooker knew that the two rurales with him weald j not continue the pursuit if their lead- j er was out of the way, so that it would not be necessary to injure more than one man. "Ah, how I hate that man!" raged Gracia, spurring her horse as she scowled back at the galloping Del Rey and his men who were riding onward on-ward rapidly. "All right," observed Bud with a quizzical smile, "I'll have to kill him for you then!" She gazed at him a moment with eyes that were big with questioning, but the expression on his rugged face baffled her. "I would not forget it," she cried Impulsively. Im-pulsively. "No, after all I have suffered, suf-fered, I think I could love the man who would meet him face to face! But why do you ah!" sbe cried, with a sudden tragic bitterness. "You smile! You have no thought for me you care nothing that I am afraid of him! Ah, Dios, for a man who is brave to rid me of this devil!" "Never mind!" returned B"0 hls voice thick with rising anger. "If I kill him it won't be for you!" He jumped Copper Bottom ahead to avoid her, for in that moment she had touched his pride. Yes, she had done more than that she had destroyed de-stroyed a dream he had, a dream of a beautiful woman, always genue, always al-ways noble, whom he had sworn to protect with his life. Did she think he was a pelado Mexican, a hot-country lover, to be inflamed by a glance and a smile? Then Phil could have her, and welcome. Her tirade had lessened his burden. Now his fight was but a duty to his pardner in the performance of which he would be no less careful, but to turn her over to Phil would not now be painful. "Ah, Bud!" she appealed, spurring up beside him, "you did not understand! under-stand! I know you are brave and if he comes" she struck her pistol fiercely "I will kill him myself!" "Never mind," answered Bud In a kinder TSIce. "I'll take care o ou. Test keep your horse In the trail,' he added, as she rode on through the brush, "and I'll take care of Del Rey." He beckoned her back with a jerk of the head and resumed his place In the lead. Here was no place to talk about men and motives. The mountain moun-tain above was swarming with rebels, there were rurales spurring behind yes, even now, far up on the eastern hillside, he could see armed men and now one was running to intercept them! Bud reached for his rifle, jerked up a cartridge, and sat crosswise in his saddle. He rode warily, watching the distant runner, until suddenly he pulled in his horse and threw up a welcoming welcom-ing hand. The man was Amigo no other could come down a hillside so swiftly and he was signaling him to wait. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |