The leader., 1897-01-06

Kate had not seen him since his ar
rest; and now, as she looked into his
pale face-into his sad, dark eyes, so diff
ferent from the merry ones she had
parted with-she could have cried out
OF the change. One moment he gazcd
long and earnestly in her face, then he
turned resoluteiy away, and from
thence forward seemed oblivious of her
presence.
The girl was recalled to herself, the
curious crowd in the room, and all the
miserable circumstances by a question
from the prosecuting attorney:
"You saw the defendant enter the de-
oeased's house on the day of his death ?"
Eyes, but 1t was just for fun
"Was the deceased at homer"
"Oh, no-well-why, don't think
So"
did the defendant say he was not ?"
"No-but--why. I know he wasn't,
though"
slow did defendant seem when he
came out?"
why, just warm from running to
catch up with me-"
Rather excited-red in the face. per-
haps?
"Yes, for 1t was very warm"
"What did he say?"
"Only that he had put a cactus in the
old mans bed. That's just how he lost
his handkerchief there. you see."
But the lawyer did not exactly "see"
and he continues:
What did defendant say to the Mex
lean, Garcia, in your presence, about
numbering the man Sandoval?"
AS that question was put to Kate it
suddenly started a clew in her mind.
as fash of lightning sometimes re-
veals person at your window in the
darkest midnight. For a moment the
flash of thought blinded her, and she
could not answer, even stammered and
made so bad matter of it, when she
did, that the poor defendant repressed
groan. Her thoughts were all the
time intensely taken up with this new
idea, even when she heard this young
man sentenced to the penitentiary ten
years for manslaughter.
No one pretended to believe that Lang
ford deliberately planned the murder,
only that it came about from a prac-
teal joke to "a quarrel; thus the SEN
tence.
Kate saw Langford a moment in the
hall, as the sheriff was taking him away,
and so crushed and miserable he was
that her heart nearly broke at the sight
of him. With her eyes streaming with
tears she ran to his side and clasped one
of his cold hands in her hot ones. But
e, en- then he would not allow his mis-
fortune to compromise her. Putting
her gently aside, he said, in tones too
low for anyone else to hear:
"Please pass on. cannot allow this,
Kate. am a jailbird now. Good-by."
The next moment a massive door had
closed between them. Never to meet
again? The grief-stricken girl could
have fallen where she stood at the reali-
cation of it all. Then there was her
part in it! She wondered, in her agony
of fear, how much her words had
! weighed against him. But she did not
lose sight of her clew.
81 can work for him anyway" she
| said.
Langford was innocent, of course.
! Then some one else was guilty, she
reasoned, and she had never forgotten
| the evil, covetous CLEAN in the man Gar
cia's eyes. Nobody else saw it, however,
and nobody took any interest in her
wild words. She must work out her
problem alone, and she began with her
Spanish grammar. Her Spanish studies
| took her into the Mexican quarter,
and long and earnestly she strove to
get a foothold in the man Garcia's house,
but without success; and the way he
| looked at her sometimes made her heart
afraid.
One day. in her little room, she sank
down discouraged, and began thinking
fast and hard. There was one last
thing she could do, but it was a very
difficult thing indeed.
II fear 1 am poor detective" she
said. sadly; "but l can be brave and
faithful, anyway"
The next moment she started up,
her book under her arm. and was of for
| the Spanish quarter.
.If succeed" she was saying. to her.
/ self, Brother Ben will help me; know
he will"
Now. Il is proverbial that no class OF
people under the sun are such super
stitious towards as the ignorant Next
cans. They are never known to pass
q graveyard at night. and violent death
has such terrors for them that, let one
Of their number be murdered, and for
months afterward whole town fuii
of people, men as we'll as women, dare
not pass beyond their thresholds after
dark for fear of encountering the dead
mans ghost. So abject are the inno-
cent, as well as the guilty, in this Pc
culiar terror, that Kate found it
hard task to perfect her important
plan. Finally, for money considera-
ton. the young Mexican with whom she
argued her case began to yield
snow, remember, Jose" she said, n
parting, .the money Is yours when you
i bring Filipe Garcia, tonight. ct mid
night, down the path by the old Sar
Pedro cemetery"
Isl, senorita." he answered, earnestly
IT will get him there
II was uaoonbright night. but very
cloudy for New Mexican sky. The
Il moon passed in and out smong tbs
storm messengers like lantern carried
| through forest on . dark night. nov
appearing, now disappearing. in a.
uncertain kind of way, and giving
shape and ghostliness to the most harm
less things.
The little old cemetery Was just at ths
| edee Of the village. and surrounded BY .
| Mon adobe wall. It was almost exactl,
| the time when the village clocks wers
! striking u that hating, uneven step