Show 7 THE TH VALE OF ARAGON osy PRED FRED mclaughlin T I 1 author abhor of cf the blade of by merrall co service THE STORY at nightfall in the old city of 0 N new e w orleans in t the year 1821 loren garde recently an officer under r general jackson Is surprised by the a appearance p ot three figures in anc ancient en t spanish costume two mon men and a woman ivies whose beauty enchants him re arte tenting the arrogance 0 of the elder ot of the two men garde lights fights a duel with him w with ith swords sword 8 and wounds him afterward h he B learns learn a his opponent Is adol adolfo f 0 do de fuentes colonel in the spanish S li army in venezuela gardo garde 11 lees 01 from sens gens darmes taking refuge in a garden where he overt overhears beare a plot to overthrow spanish rule in venezuela discovered he be fights but Is overpowered recovering consciousness to and nd himself a prisoner on t the he S santa ant a lucrecy Luc I 1 spanish bearing contraband arms and and ammunition tor for the vene under bolivar on board are the conspirators he had overheard the lady of his love her brother polito and do de fuentes Pu entea an atta attempt rapt to seize the ship falls from the girl garde learns her name Is dulce lamartina Lamart lna lie does notto not tell ll 11 her of hla his love but feels sh the 1 Is not indifferent to him im ti the 10 vess vessel e I 1 la is wrecked during another an 0 ther attempt a aten apt to bel seize z 0 it and nd G garde thrown overboard reaches the ve venezuelan elan shore alone CHAPTER III 5 bucayan the morning sun dried my clothes and filled me with comfortable warmth except for inconsiderable soreness or eness from tile the buffeting of the torm storm and a tender spot on my head that kept adolfo in my mind I 1 was node none tile the worse for the extraordinary experience in which I 1 had reached the tha shore of venezuela that I 1 had an implacable enemy in the person of adolfo de fuentes wits was somewhat disquieting for spain ruled venezuela and it if de fuentes survived the wreck my stay in the country grouia bt be to me a constant source of danger In nger yet fet to leave venezuela would be to turn my face from the lodestar of love that had directed my actions since that night light of moon madness in the place darmes dAr if the senorita dulce dalce lived she ehe was even now in venezuela and where the senorita was there I 1 would be also I 1 turned my face to the southward and moved through the solemn silence of primeval forests I 1 left the jungle floor nt at last and climbed the timbered slopes to the ills crest of a mountain range that paralleled the coast extending far to the south I 1 saw the c checkered eckeren preen green and brown of culli bated fields and the irregular outlines outline of a few tiny villages and even een farther southward yet set the forested slopes sloped lieban began again to disappear in the misty distance 11 musing using I 1 looked upon this ills land of beauty where peace acice should lia have ve reigned supreme but did not because bolivar and his revolutionary army contended for its possession against la torre the right hand of ferdinand VII august icing of spain ien even as I 1 stood lost in admiration of the lovely scene the clank of arms came to me and the clattering of shod hoofs upon a rocky road A body of soldiers mounted on mules passed in single file along a narrow way vav that the underbrush der brush had hidden from my view lew I 1 watched them from the concealment of n great celba tree A sweet reception said s ild a voice in in S spanish aft ight to our colonel I 1 wonder if lie he lost his ladylove lady lidi love 11 A thin thing of no importance said another there are many more antl and do de fuentes never lacks a ladylove lady love loe 11 then the n adolfo had been saved saed but th the a senorita dulcet dukel ah had tile the torm after nil all claimed that lovely lady sly bly mad worship would not let me ino believe it surely the master alaster of our souls would not have brought me through ant anil taken tier her well I 1 would would know for they were evidently going to adolfo now they were traveling west and the lie colonels destination had been caracas caracas therefore was east cast after the sounds of their passing had died away I 1 descended the rocky declivity to the road and bent my steps to tile the cast I 1 heard after three hours of rapid rabid walking the mingled noises of a town so leaving leading the road I 1 bent beat back into the forest and passed north of the settlement which I 1 was to learn was claracay SIar Blar acay a city on tho the lake just before the sun went down I 1 came to a village unexpectedly because it did not offer tile the mixed that indian villages always have the village lay under the somber silence of a tomb I 1 was in it before I 1 realized reali sed that any settlement was near TI the e first few jacala I 1 passed were in ruins and neither dogs nor cor children came out to greet me I 1 began to boncler if the storm had readied reached this fur v imp neros sn a prone figure in the path a flattened figure with face pressed a against the earth as though he were endeavoring to look through it I 1 had seen dead men before I 1 had bad seen scores of them upon the battlefield now other figures a woman and a child lay before me and now five men upon a single gibbet and it a boy of ten or less hanging by a vine around his neck ills his slim bare feet pointing pathetically toward the earth every house was down burned or crushed as though a giant hand had pressed upon them and every occupant was dead I 1 went through the awful length of that silent village which must have had three hundred souls with a dread dreadful ful d desolation esola tion of death around me and dropped to my knees at the end of the street of terrors and raised my face to the graying sky A figure rose up beside me rose up slowly the horribly emaciated figure of an aged man whose unseeing eyes wore were fixed upon space and whose hose thin lips were forming faint words my wife lie he whispered and the he two boys and a girl lie ile was silent a moment gone all ionel gonel who did it I 1 inquired in the name of god who could have done this thing 11 morales lie he gasped lie ile drew in a long breath for one last effort raised a right hand in halt half a s salute flute and w whispered viva bolivar nol harl I 1 now like a man possessed I 1 got to my feet and ran through the wood ran madly wildly stumblingly frenziedly wringing my hands and calling down the curses of god upon a people who would do so atrocious a thing through the long night I 1 went raving ra ing until I 1 fell at last exhausted and awoke with the blessed sun upon my face with much labor for my body seemed to be the habitation of a hundred aches I 1 got to my feet and stood in a wide road flanking the road was abroad a broad ragged hedge 0 over er which a man leaned who considered me with mild concern in his blue eyes ees lie ile pointed the long barrel of a gun in my general direction upon ills his head he wore a wide sombrero and on its his profusely freckled face ft a friendly grin hl HI towhead toft head said lie he and while I 1 stared ar he continued are beds so scarce you ou must sleep beside the road and pillow your sour head upon a stone name of G dl I 1 gasped forche for the horror of the night still bore upon me humph II french ile he thought a moment oil oh well if its french rou I 1 I 1 5 U I 1 wondered even more until a giant wave receding left me stranded in a tree want here goes though it seems a little odd that an irishman from london should be speaking french in venezuela to an Amp american rican I 1 was surp sure then that I 1 was awake anake and that the figure beyond the hedge was no alpar apparition 1 I am not french I 1 explained though I 1 have matej lately y come from france you gave me so severe a shock that I 1 reverted to the tongue of my mother a thing I 1 often do besides I 1 have just left a village of death and the terror of the thing Is still with me auca tuca yan he said morales passed that way two days dass ago aeo such Is the Span spaniards lards method no man in his path Is left alive the last man in bucayan died in my arms I 1 said and with his last breath lie he whispered viva Boll varl simon bolivar has so great a hold upon his people he will win some day ills blue eyes went over me appraisingly I 1 think I 1 read approval there tall he mused with shoulders and a light in the eye ei e knows the woods wood and the sea I 1 take it and may have had a turn at soldiering may I 1 ask you who you are ak X V tv V 4 assuredly I 1 am Loren garde my father Is norse a planter of tile the lows lower mississippi valley and ray my mother in tier her youth was the belle of vieux carre lie ile leaned the gun against his bis shoulder norse and french such a combination ought to to make you fight and love like the devill devil I 1 1 I fear I 1 have had my stare share of fighting I 1 admitted but as tor for love I 1 sighed because I 1 visualized the glorious lamartina Lamart lna if you havercome have t come to venezuela to fight the ranks of Simon bolivar are open to you and I 1 can promise you on francisco perez intimated much the same thing there was studied calculation in ills his survey of me you know francisco perez 1 I have come from new orleans with him on the santa lucrecia ue ile twisted a finger in his ear balmy he said a touch of tile sun i he looked nt at me with professional onal sympathy D did d you vou say the santa lucrecia Luc rocla exactly would I 1 not know the name dome of tile the ship that brou brought glit me from new kaw orleans olt oh sure bure lie ile laughed only the santa Luc lucreda has not been sighted when it Is 1 I shall hoar hear a whistle from the east and when I 1 hear I 1 car it I 1 shall face west and whistle istle and another man a Jill ometer from here will send the signal along on the puerto cabello road oth other r sentinels will signal to one another and on the valencia road and the road to varca lona iona and roads to calabozo calibozo Cala bozo and acu mare A man stationed upon the heights will sight it as it enters the harbor of la gualia guaira which Is tile the port of caracas and in five minutes every follower of bolivar within fifty miles shall know it and soldiers will spring up like spirits out of the earth for the santa lucrecia Luc brings a cargo of arms and knives and ammunition sufficient for an army and then we will ta take ket if the men of bolivar can whistle the santa lucrecia Luc into the harbor of la gualia guaira my freckled patriot or into any other port except that dreadful port of missing men they may take the prize as the champion whistlers of the ages for only two nights and a day ago the deela dec of that unfortunate nate ship was the seeps scene of mutiny and a tropical storm came up and washed the palm of victory upon a reef As I 1 fell into the water Is I 1 saw aw them working with the lifeboats A friendly spar and the wind and waves carried me on to the land lie ile s stood long in thought then francisco froncisco and the cargo lie stopped alert for the road roalf gave out the sounds of approaching horsemen I 1 pushed my way quickly through the hedge and crouched beside him as the cavalcade came into view vicia adolfo led the van he rode in silence his heavy feature exhibiting lines of grimness the senorita rode beside him A mules length behind them rode polito a voluminous bandage around ills his head eyes upraised to fleecy westward winging clouds and upon his lips a softly whistled tune there was something about the boy that meide made one love him two other women and two men doubtless survivors of the wreck trailed along and a score of soldiers brought up the rear now my eyes went back to the senorita who had come lafof out of the storm and into my arms I 1 drank dran deeply of the beauty of her I 1 exulted in my dreams and gasped at my recollections A wild exhilaration seized me and I 1 came up slowly to find myself shoulder to shoulder sli with the irishman from london whose eyes were gleaming whose breath was hissing through his teeth and whose gun was rising carefully to bear upon de fuentes no I 1 whispered riot no I 1 I 1 grabbed him and as we contended grimly and in silence for possession 0 aslon 0 of f the weapon the cavalcade passed on then I 1 loosed him and waited what a powerful brute you arell are I 1 and then 11 11 lie he gasped you poor doodle I 1 that man Is der de fuentes aide of morales and a greater butcher by far than the infamous butcher himself you might h have ave missed him I 1 said and killed the lady oh the lady humph 11 yes the lady besides adolfo belongs to me ile he found ills his sombrero and pulled it down over tumbled r red e d hair S so 0 adolfo belongs to you my aly eye I 1 he cried yet de fuentes went to spain to get a bride and 1 I can say this much for him he has surely picked the fairest newer flower to in the spanish garden 1 V its a long way from spain to the cathedral I 1 said TO BB 1310 CONTINUED ia X |