The National tribune., 1894-11-15

Few have ever crossed the MaIpais and
lived to tell it. But yOu-they will not
harm you. Will you go back ?"
The girl shook the reins on her horses
neck and urged him forward. a. will 90
where you 60" she answered.
And so they rode on and on into the ter
rible burning desert, into the black lava
beds--whose blackness was only relieved
by the whitening bones of men who had
died there of the awful thirst.
HE is n long way Off" said the leader
of the regulators, halting and watching the
moving specks ahead of him. "one cannot
tell, here, how far. Distance cheats the eye
1t lies to one"
He shaded his eyes with his hand and
looked a long time toward the east, and
again to the west from which they had
come.
"We will go back" he said after little /;
. am ashamed to give up, but it is only
death to go further. But it is Just as well
he is sate-I make no doubt of that"
He nodded meaningly in the direction of
the riders. Just as saie," he added, " as
though we had a rope around his neck"
" But the girl?" asked one of his band.
The leader only shrugged his shoulders
in answer and set his face to the west.
When the fugitives, looking back, could
see their pursuers no longer they rested a
little. Domingo unslung the leathern water
bottle from his shoulder, which had not
been touched till now, and gave Armeda to
drink.
Then he made n motion as if swallowing
some himself, and poured little OF the
water into the palm of his hand and moist
tened the months of the horses with it,
The midday sun rose high overhead, and
as they rode on through the long afternoon,
on through the scorching desert, on through
the terrible Malpais, it beat down upon
them mercilessly.
The wind that came across the dreary
waste was blown straight from fiery fur
mace. The air shimmered with heat, aud
the bright metallic glitter from the pol
ished broken lava burned upon their eye
balls and made them reel, sick with
dizzy faintness.
Once Armeds swerved from her saddle
and would have fallen but was stayed by
her companions hand. He gave her more
water to drink.
And when the moon came up again they
yet rode-riding for life. They rode now
from something more terrible than the ven-
geance of the regulators But they rode
slowly, uncertainty, and the miles stretched
longer and longer; the water was all gone
now, and their mouths became dry and
parched and cracked, so that they could not
talk.
But the outlaw touched the girl gently
now and then, and she answered him with
a look of supreme content. She was will
ing to accept that which the saints should
will.
Finally her horse stumbled and fell and
could not rise again. Domingo caught her
in his arms.
Leave me, and ride" she whispered
But he only raised her to his own saddle,
and the good Juan bore them both for |
ward.
At last he, too, fell. Then Domingo laid
the girl on the ground, and kneeling beside
his horse, called him by every endearing
name, conjured him by all the dear saints
to rise, and carry them out of the black hor-
ror. Out from that cursed place that had
been named for the father of all evil-The
Evil Place.
But the Malpais only clutched their lives
the more.
He rose and lifted the girl in his arms
and made forward as best he could. Weakly,
blindly, staggering, and sometimes falling,
but always forward, with strength born of
despair.
Leave me-" the girl whispered again,
and save yourself"
But Domingo knew the awful journey
was almost done. Before him, in the white
mountain peak loomed dimly.
How far it was he could not TELL but some
where between him and it was water.
If he could only keep on little longer
they would be saved.
But even in the moonlight there does
distance cheat the eye-does it still lie to |
one Whenever be raised his head and |
looked across the plain to the mountain, it |
so far Off, so unattainable, that his |
heart sank.
Still he struggled on through the long |
night. But just before day broke, he fell |
and lay outstretched beside his burden, on |
the black lava.
And then the sun came up and beat |
upon them and they died.
And old Terreon herded the goats that he |
had stolen from the Englishman, and |
looked ever away curiously toward the |
east. And the adobe huts of Manalillo /
knew again the quiet of a hundred years
and the Malpais lay and glistened in the
;un-eyer The Evil Place-B0stoR Globe.