The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1895-02-28
EYES," was the Arm reply.
''If you 60 with me now you cannot

ut will be race for life.1
"Yes, yes," she said, impatiently,
let us be gone"
just then the goats, aroused by the
unusual stir at 80 early an hour, began
to move restlesslv This seemed to re-
mind Domingo of something. He spoke
hesitatingly.
"Armeda, did not go after the
goats."
II know. II does not matter. They
were not lost. You have been 10 Man
alillo I tried to keep you away"
"They were not lost? Goodl 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
necks 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; lone cannot tell here how far.
Distance cheats the eye-it lies to
one."
He shaded his eyes with his hand,
and looked long time toward the
east, and again to the west, from which
they had come.
"We will go back" he said, after q
little; II am ashamed to give up, but
1t is just as well-he 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 q rope
around his neck"
"But the grip" 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 motion as if 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.
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 straight from
fiery 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 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
BILE than the regulars. But they rode
slowly, uncertainty, and the miles
stretched longer and longer; the wa
ter was all gone no W, 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 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,
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 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.
He rose and lifted the girl in his
arms and made forward as best he
could. Weakly, blindly, staggering
and sometimes falling, but always for
ward, with a strength born of despair.
Leave me-" the girl VIII spered
again, ''nnd save yourself"
But Domingo knew the awful jour
ney was almost done. Before him, in
the white moonlight, mountain peak
loomed dimly. How far it was he
could not tell, but somewhere between
him and it was water.
If fhe could only keep OH little longer
they would be saved.
But even in the moonlight there
| does distance cheat the eye-does il
| still lie to one. Whenever he raised
| his head and locked across the plain
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