Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-12-15
A B HEROINE.


Why, of course I'll tell the story if you
care to hear about it; don't suppose any
body better knows the details Of the affair.
The Acquackanock was attached to our
b~lockading squadron, U. s.. S. Aoquack-
anock, according to the official register,
but, in spite of high sounding title, only a
mean little seagoing tugboat with q l
FOUNDER mounted on the roof of the pilot
house. Ensign Duncan was skipper, and
a better seaman or cooler headed fighter
under fire / never want to sail with.
One day we We're running coastwise at
half speed. None Of the other blockading
vessels was in sight The part of the is.
land along which we were cruising was
practically untenanted, owing to the Span
ISL Recommendation orders, and there were
nc Notifications that amounted to any
thing for 20 miles either way. With the
exception of those actually engaged in
navigating, our whole crew were taking
it easy, Struggled in shady corners and
otherwise recuperating after night of in
cessant watchfulness. I happened to be
lying on top of a lot of commissariat stuff
that occupied our after deck. From my
position, which was of course a consider
ably elevated one, 1 had a pretty wide field
of vision by simply turning my head in
any desired direction.
''Say, Landiss," called our skipper from
the shaky old deck chair on which he was
reclining, "what do you make out of that
bright red thing down near the edge of
the water, about three points on our qua
ter?"
"Looks as if it might be a woman, sir"
l said at a venture. "Those Cuban girls
are fond of bright colors when they can
get them, and perhaps it is her dress. I'll
take a look through the glass"
The binoculars were good ones; had to
be for our business. l suppose I must
have gazed steadily through them for five
minutes at the very least. At any rate the
skipper got impatient and came up along
side Of me.
"You're taking long enough to see right
through the island and half way across the
Yucatan," he says %jokinglike. MAY I
inquire the reason of this intentness?"
"You may, sir, replied, handing him
the glasses as I spoke. "But the best an
swer 1 can give is to let you look for your
self. If that sight doesn't glue your own
eyes for a dozen DOCTORS watches, I'm no
Judge of petticoat folk"
1t was this way: AS pretty a girl as I
ever want to look at-big eyes, black hair
and face just like an angels taken bodily
out Of some great painting-was standing
there upon the sand beach gazing directly
OF us, and at the same time waving slowly
to and fro a big red thing which turned
out to be a blanket. Even at that distance
l fancied that I could detect a sort of wild
longing in the expression Of her face. The
skipper must have seen as much, if not
more than I did. Anyway he took the
glasses down from his eyes only long
enough to order our course changed so as
to head directly for the spot where she was
standing, and then recommended his in
spection through the lenses until we were
near enough to use the naked eye to better
advantage.
"Landiss, you and I will go ashore in
the small boat and see what this scarlet
signal MEANS" said the skipper, "The
rest of you boys keep your eyes peeled for
treachery, and If any Spanish soldiers try
to rush us just drop a shot from u main
battery where it will do the most good"
The men cheered him, and even before /
got we'll to work sculling the boat in /
heard the snap of the breech block on the
little / FOUNDER, which said in the plain
est kind of language under the sun, "Now
I am all loaded and ready for business"
The skipper sat up III the bow of the
skiff, Which was just a little dingey such
as harbor tugboats usually carry, and told
me how to head her. Luckily there was
no sea on to amount to anything, and wa
made the landing without getting very
wet.
II that Cuban girl looked a real picture
through the glasses, a point blank sight at
her merely improved the effect, IL such q
thing could be possible; not but what she
had a sort Of pitifully haggard look, and
besides her skimp dress was torn to a
But somehow even such disadvantages
could not queer her style Of beauty. She
might have come out a shade prettier
when all logged up In ball folderols, al
though l doubt 1t. But I'll stop describ-
ing her to you, for I couldn't do the Sub
ject justice If l tried.
It was a mighty sad story she told the
ensign, half In broken English and the rest
in her own lingo. l picked out enough Of
1t to size the whole thing up. Her people
had been we'll of, and she was partly edu-
Gated in the States, but the rebellion came
along, and her brothers Joined the jnsur-
gents, and the S~paniards burned down their
plantation and looted everything-the
same old story SO far. But this girl-her
name was a longish one and hard to pro-
nounce. The skipper got it down fine, but
we always just called her "the senorita.
She certainly was as plucky as they make
them. Her father and mother and half a
dozen aunts or servants of one kind or an
other were all old and pretty nigh help
less, SO when the Recommendation edicts
went into effect they simply could not
obey. So what does she do but pitch in
and rig up o little hut in among the trees
and lug them all there and tried to
provide for them. It must have been a
tussle to keep out Of reach Of the dons, let
alone finding food for half dozen mouths
besides her own in a country that was well
nigh devastated. But she did 1t somehow
or other. Then came sickness to vary the
routine, and now her father and mother