The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-26
HOTEL AND CORRIDOR.
Observation-Disclosures srr>rc

The singular name Vertima Andrew.
was written in fine English characters
with foreign slant across the page of
the Knutsford last Friday. No place OF
residence followed in the spacing where
ordinary persons are apt to identify them
selves. but It was discovered. later. that
the person who acknowledges TO such odd
baptiSmal responsibility. was not an or
binary character in any sense
Pasteboard was submitted on a platter
Oy Dell boy and the reporter was in
genderless name. So far as sex was con-
cerned. that perplexity was not even
brushed wholly aside until the reporter
was assured that Vertima Andrew was
woman 1t was necessary to accept
this explanation since Miss Andrea was
clad in garments that bespoke feminine
inclination. If not by their cut. An at
tempt to describe them with anything like
fidelity would prove a miserable botch.
They followed the modesty of lire de-
manded of woman, yet were biased to-
ward masculinity. Other details about
Miss Andrew were noticeable. She was
not prepossessing, and she admitted it,
but for all that no traveller who has
happened through Salt Lake for ever SO
LONG, has related a tale more out of the
beaten hotel talk than did the little
woman with the conundrum name. 1t is
not necessar- to say more than that
she claims Itatuki as her home Where
on the vast surface of the planet ItatuiI
might be would haze fooled more geo
graphical experts than a solitary news
paper man. ItatuH. then. IS not q city.
nor p town: ii is greater than either in
that IL Is an island anchored in the south
ern Pacific somewhere in the vicinity of
Tahiti, and not far from Rarotonga.
which are similar divisions of the earth'S
surface isolated by the warm waters
of the same great ocean.
ltatuki is the paradise of earth accord
ing 10 Miss Andrreu who. in way was
('hriSf0-lhQr nf he pll
What she does not know about Itatuki,
Raratonga, Tahiti and several hundred
smaller particles that form the Australian
archipelago is not worth the mentioning.
but the selection of her ocean residence
is not half so curious as the manner
whereby she came to pick 1t out. Miss
Andrews life IS = romance after the
fashion of romances as set forth by Marie
Corelli. only nothing that Corelli over
conceived is half so enhancing as Miss
Andrews tale.
Thirty-two years ago she was born in
small village of Andulusian Spain. of a
parentage that combined the blood of the
Moors and the peasant class of Bascans,
who dwell in the Sierra de Christie. Close
ly connected with her immediate rela-
tiyes was bandit and smuggler chief
tain, known TO the authorities as Fra
Francisco de Caoello.
g @ 9
The band of de CoDello. so called from
peculiar caps worn by them. Piled an
sometimes making a rich haul of booty.
if diligences containing fat purses came
their way through the white dust of
certain pass IN the Sierra de Christie.
There We're many ready ..nistoIes., in tn
gang and many daring spirits So
thick We're the ties of blood between de
CaDello's band and the inhabitants of
the Bascan territory that il was next to
absurdity for the soldiers to attempt a
capture, so that nothing short of an
unusually barbarous outrage ever in
he f-I, xN..sw =
to venture out on a campaign among the
rocks. After such a trick Francisco and
the band would make themselves scarce
in the secret gorges of the Sierras trust
ing TO their extensive relationship for
FOOD.
Miss Andrews sympathies were never
with the order of people among which
destiny had cast her portion Her re-
pugnance to low association with thieves
and cut-throatS bred in her a secret re-
solve to seek her own mission amid more
congenfal surroundings. 1t has been said
that her resolution was a secret one, for
her father was one who harbored Captain
F'rancisco's stolen property and was IN
fact the person who disposed of the most
of It. besides she had a RAMPANT lover
among the band. Miss Andrews mother
died = year before she seriously con-
sidered the project of getting out of the
The. conspiracy through which she
eluded both her father and lover was
devised at the time the young woman was
but It IS best to allow Miss Andrew to !
relate the unparalleled adventure by |
which it was successfully attained
q q
The success of the plan was wholly /
due to superstition. thanks to the ig- /
norant fear of the Spanish peasants. NV /
Iather was naturally the very incarnation |!
Of suspicion. His calling made him so I
For a long time unbelnown to me. he |,
had been watching me furtively and de- /
tected some unrest in my demeanor He /
knew that detested the life he was lead /
ing and loathed my gallant. staggering /
bully of lover. although to avoid his /
furious jealousy I pretended to regard |
his suit with favor.
AS have said. my father discovered /
my preference for finer thoughts and a /
cleaner life. One day 7 observed him and !
Lopez. the young troubador of my vexa-
non, engaged In low and earnest CONVEX
sat.or This was seen through my lat
ice The absence of animated gestures |
peculiar to the temperament of that race
made me suddenly and curiously alert
There flashed through my mind the pre-
sentiment of some evil intrigue. ! crept /
rom my position to another lattice di-
-ectly in the angle of the wall where they
we're plotting: caught the words:
Size can be taken with you after the
diligence is bucked. term used by the
bard TO signify a robbery. It was my
'arher's voice. Lopez seemed overjoyed
II the information.
You think she will leave?' he asked
I can read the girl my father an
;wered
THAT was enough. | comprehended
rom those sparse sentences that another
'obbery was to be committed soon and
lat l was TO be carried away into the
of the band
Il determined to hasten my departure
'ut was sorely puzzled to know how to
AIRY out the plans-what plans / had
zone now that suspicion had been direct
ID to me. Two days later I learned. af-
er eavesdropping at another interview |
hat Captain Francisco had ordered my
emoval. fearing that l would divulge the
ecrets of the band.
- g
Here is where a superstition implicitly
believed by the de Capello band worked
ny salvation. Francisco had a dream
ONE years before the time of the con-
piracy against my liberty. In the vision
lie thought he was robbing a diligence.