The record-union., 1891-03-29
ears, and the stage lunged more swiftly
r1 into tho CIo,o1.

ears, anu tH6 Stage lun26u more swiftly
forward into the shadow.
The girl leaned forward with strained
eyes and ears. Would that sudden, re-
sistless dash carry them past? Then
several quick, confused shouts, and then
a pistol shot, followed by a long. low cry
of agony and despair. Then the stage
stopped.
The moonlit air grew black to the girl,
and she cried out herself with a piercing
shrek, all thought of self-control lost in
her passionate Spanish soul. She knew
1t was her fathers voice, and even before
the road cleared to her eyes, she shook
the reins, and clung blindly to Pedro's
back as he flew over the ground towards
the huddle of stage and men.
The horse checked himself abruptly,
trembling little, as he came upon the
excited group. The men who stood about
something on the ground wheeled sharply
to look as she dashed down upon them :;
they east weird shadows in the clear
moonlight as they stepped forward and
stopped, recognizing the girl and looking
at her with more amaZement than before,
as she slid down from the horse, and with
out paying any attention to them stag
gered across the moonlit space, dropped
down beside the prostrate figure and put
her arms about it.
The old man lay stretched out in the
dimness, between the moon and the shad-
carried him and laid him with his head
on loosely rolled horse blanket. His
eyes were closed, and the blood trickIed
from wound in his left shoulder, max
ing an Ugly red track in the soft white
dust. The half-breeds were nowhere to
be seen-they must have shrunk back
and scattered away across the fields at the
first sign of resistance. The men stand
ing about drew away, half respecting
the girls despair half eager to tell their
story to the women who waited fright
ened yet full of curiosity in the stage
Only the driver stood close by to enforce
his claims on the robbers person, lest
Juana should dispute them-understan
ing at once, now he had seen old Pablo's
face, how much the girl had concealed,
and guessing her relationship to the
rancher.
Juana looked up. She knew enough to
know that Pablo was not dead, after she
had seen the wound, and as she saw the
man standing grimly by, it flashed across
her what he was there for; and the whole
sequence Of prison and shame, crowded
from her mind by the more imminent
fear OF death, rose up before her.
With dry, fearless sob and passion
ate movement of despair, she sprang up
and flung herself before the man, break
ing into wild pleading.
Leave him with me, senior % she cried.
Leave him with me, po1' Dlise1Tcordia de
Daos! You are safe, senor-see, no one is
the worse for mi padre, mi po6rc; why
must you take him? what good? Give
him to me-do not convey him to prison.
He is an old man. See his gray hair,
senior, and the blood. He is hurt already
spare him, por DioS! You shall have
gold, all you want; there is no one but
me, and l care not if there is nothing left
for me; but leave my father, senor.,
She broke her English, in her excitement,
with the Spanish phrases of her home,
which she was not accustomed to use
among the Americans.
The driver was not hard man, and the
girls piteous' voice and great pathetic
eyes did not fail to move him; nor was
he possessed of SO rigid sense of civil
responsibility as to make him think that
1t was his duty to resist her in the inter-
est of the laws rights. None of the pas
sengers knew the robber, or knew that
he had recognized him. The gray hair
that Juana appealed to brought to his
mind his own gray-haired father. He
looked at her and the robber, and turn
ing around left her kneeling in the dust,
and walked away without a word He
would not have known what to say if he
had to speak any reasoning word to her.
A minute more, and the stage had re-
solved itself into cloud of dust, fast dis
appearing down the dim stretch of road.
katherine DU Bots, ~, Overland Monthly.