Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-07-05
Yes" was the firm reply.

let us be gone.
Just then the goats, aroused by the
unusual stir at so carly an hour, began
to move restlessly This seemed to re-
mind Domingo of something. He spoke
hcsitatingly.
"Armeda, l did not go after the
goats"
II know. 1t does not matter. They
.7ere not lost. You have been to Man
alillo. | tried to keep you away"
"They were not lost? Good! We are
quits, then"
With this the outlaw bent toward
his companion and drew her toward
him and kissed her on the lips. Then
they settled themselves well in their
saddles. laid the reins loosely on the
neclls of their horses and rode toward
the coming dawn.
For long time they rode silently
neck and neck. When the red streaks
Of the approaching day began to show
across the bare, brown plain the girl
looked about her and shuddered.
Domingo saw and spoke:
ut is the only chance. They dare
not follow here"
Its the Malpais; the Evil Place"
she said.
Then they rode forward steadily and
calmly into the black horror
"He is a long way off," said the
leader of the regulators, halting and
watching the moving specks ahead of
him; zone cannot tell here how far.
Distance cheats the eye-it lies to
one"
lie shaded his eyes with his hand,
and looked a long time toward the
east. and again to the west, from which
they had come.
I'VE will go back" he said, after a
little; Il am ashamed to give up, but
it is just as well-ne is safe-l make
no doubt of that"
He nodded meaningly in the direc-
ton of the riders. Just as safe, he
added, "as though we had a rope
around his neck"
But the girl?' asked one Of the
band.
The leader only shrugged his shoul-
ders 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 un-
slung the leathern water-bottle from
his shoulder which had not been
touched until now, and gave Armeda
drink.
Then he made a motion as IL swal-
lowing some himself. and poured lit
tie of the water into the palm of his
hand and moistened the mouths 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 NAL
pals, it beat down upon them merci-
lessly.
The wind that came across the
dreary waste was blown straioht f.,
a merry furnace. The air shimmered
with heat, and the bright metallic
glitter upon the polished lava burned
upon their eyeballs and made them
reel, sick with a dizzy faintness.
Once Armeda swerved from her sad
die 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 terri
ble than the regulars But they rode
slowly, uncertainty, and the miles
stretched longer and longer; the wa
ter was all gone no v. 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 an
swered him with a look of supreme
content She was willing 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 forward.
At last he, too, fell. Then Domingo
laid the girl on the ground, and
llneeling 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 horror
out from that cursed place tina: had
been named for the father of all evil
the Evil place.
But the Malpais only clutched their
lives the more.
lie rose and lifted the girl in hi:
arms and made forward as best he
could. Weakly, blindly, staggering
and sometimes falling, but always for
ward, with strength born of despair
Leave me-" the girl whispered
again, "and save yourself" :"
But Domingo knew the awful jour
ney was almost done. Before him, il
the white moonlight, a mountain peal
loomed dimly How far it was he
] cOulu nOI btll, DuI oOhiS W hNAS DSeNNNA
| him and it was water.
fhe could only keep on little Longer
they would be saved.
But even in the moonlight there
does distance cheat the eye-does i
still lie TO one. Whenever he raiseC
4 his head and looked across the plain
to the mountain it seemed so far off
so unattainable, that his heart sank.
Still he struggled on through th'
long night. But just before day broke
he fell and lay outstretched beside hi
burden on the black lava.
And then the sun came up and bea
upon them, and they died.
And old Torreon herded the goat
that he had stolen from the English
man, and looked ever away curiousl,
towards the east And the adob'
huts of Manalillo knew again thu
quiet of a hundred years-and th'
Malpais lay and glistened in the sun
G YER the Evil Place.-Boston Globe.
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The Russian government, in order Z
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