The free press., 1895-03-14


haystack going after the COW. mary
at home, or not at all.
Pretty Marcelena controlled her.
self as best she could, and in a mo-
ment of loneliness consented to attend
ball with former lover Senor Filipe
who had sworn to himself that she
should never marry another man.
But of this the New Mexican girl was
quite unconscious. She arrayed her
self for the ball in an elaborate dane
ing skirt of gay striped stuff, embroid-
cred in many colored beads and silver
sequin in strings down the breadth,
Her dainty feet were encased in soft
moccasins for this was an occasion
when she wore her tribal dress and
she carried the castanets bequeathed to
her by her Spanish mother. So ac-
coutred she accompanied Senor Fill
ipe.
That night Marcelenn was as usual
the belle of the ball. It was not at all
surprising that she should accept the
homage showered upon her, but her
heart was not in it, and at midnight
she stepped to the open door of the
dancing hall and looked far over the
shining plain, and thought of her
lover lying in the ward of the hospital
perhaps dying under the same glorious
moonlight. Blanca her friend had
taken the last dance for her, and she
stepped out to breathe the welcome
tonic of the night air.
Some one was singing GEL Borrachi-
to-" giving the refrain in English,
badly broken:
"And passion for woman caused it
ALL"
The Borrachito-''th man who is a
little drunk" was the cavalier Filipe,
who had brought Marcelena to the
ball, and who was now ready to take
her home, swung to the same saddle,
mode of convenience not only proper,
but popular among the Pueblos. He
was looking into her eyes with that
dashing daring audacity which was her
need of homage. She curled her red
lips just little at his too ardent gaze,
but he was accustomed to that-only
there was that in his mind tonight of
which she knew nothing.
The rest of the company were out
watching the pair on the fleet Mexican
horse.
"Some day." says one of the reject
ed, she will run away with her!"
"That fiery Filipe--no. She is too
tame. He knows she will marry the
Yankee schoolmaster - poor little
one."
The flash of silver on the girls
dress dazzled their eyes in the moon
light.
Her handsome arms clasped the cav
alier Filipe, but not too closely, she
was in hurry to get some one to pray
for her "Jamez.
They dashed into the moonlight and
across the plaza, through the plain be-
yond, over fields of cactus, startling
tho jack rabbits and the piping quail,
and away like the wind, but in an op-
posite direction to the home of Mar
celena. At first the girl did not notice
it, but Filipe, flushed and fearless,
called out:
"To Acoma, gazelle, to the country
of Filipe, and you will never see your
puny American again!'
There was wild cry of despair, as
the girl tried to throw herself from
the flying horse, but could not free
herself for a moment from the pas
sionate grasp of the Mexican.
"l1l kill you'll! she SAID between
her teeth.
"Kill away, my pretty one, but you
shall be my wife first.
On and on, with the speed OF the
wind, went the fleet horse, and they
were nearing the little cemetery in the
valley when Marcelena's arms relaxed,
and her head dropped on the shoulder
of Filipe. He believed she had tainted
and attempted to change his position
when like flash of lightning, the
steel poinard in his belt cleft the AR
and descended-noti in his treacherous
heart, but in the soft breast OF the
beautiful and desperate Marcelena.
At that moment company OF
United States soldiers came pouring
out of an ambulance which was slowly
passing on its way to Fort Bowie.