Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-03-26
COPYRIGHT, 1897 on THE AUTHOR.


white and tragic, had stood, as If turn
ed to stone, holding back the trailing
tendrils Of a madeira vine with one
long, jeweled hand, as she gazed in dry
eyed CONSERVATION at the slowly NOV
ing column headed by her father-in-
Law. Rebecca, rotund, plebeian, sim
oere, had voiced her misery loudly and
shrieked adjurations and counsel after
them until they were hidden. Liza
alone had stood inscrutably smiling,
bright eyed and composed
Forward, in ~reverie, to the long tedi-
NJ night, when, favored by the dark
ness, they had launched their feet of
flats and swiftly placed the rushing wa.
ters Of the Mississippi river between
themselves and home. Captained and
piloted by four r~esolute spirits Of the
dominant race, manned and propelled
by sullenly acquiescent slaves, standing
confused on the borderland between
bondage and liberty, the feet crossed
the swift current and touched the far
Their bank, reluctantly moving back.
ward, still backward-who knew? Per-
haps forever out Of reach Of the angel
Of liberty, whose reckoning hand they
had discerned al yet but dimly upon
the horizon Of their future.
Then had come the parting with the
governor. When this day, that had just
gone down in lurid m~agniflcence, had
been young and jocund, the governor
had given his parting injunctions to
Overseer Martin and taken leave Of
them all in his kindly, stately fashion.
You'll get these fellows out to Lake.
lock, Martin, and as soon as you have
housed them pitch a corn crop Never
mind about cotton. The place is so in
formally far back from anywhere that
you couldn't get it to market If you
made it. But 60 in for food crops. Keep
them at WORK feeding themselves until
this id nonsense has blown over
and we'll settle back N the old footing
/ am glad Strong is going with you.
Don't shove The OK teams too hard"
Then the white haired old a~ristocrat
had ridden away from them as gayly as
q troubadour going to do battle for the
guerdon Of a lady's love, shifting all
responsibility for the we'll being Of his
slaves upon Eben Martins we'll paid
shoulders
How Strong had envied that old
man Of the privileged class riding
away to enroll his name among the as.
pirants for military renowni
1.-THE old man seems real glad togo,''
said Eben, looking after the slender,
STOPPING form reflectively. land yit I'm
sho' his heart worn't in this thing at
the fust Of it. Is'pose he feels like he
mus go In fur his country, right or
wrong. I reckon it's somethin, like II
you or Seth was to git into a quarrel
with an outsider and Charlie there was
to stan of till he inquired inter the
merits Of the case. / think it'd be mo-
lax my boy Charlie to pitch in and fight
for his brothers fust aud then talk about
it later on. Hey, Charlie!"
At which home thrust Strong had
WINGED. The recollection Of it brought
the hot blood to his cheeks. He had not
cared to remind his father that q better
simile would have been Charles inter
ference in an alteration between his
brother and himself, for he was going
into this fight himself as soon al he
should have helped locate the colony on
Lakelock, and he did not care to submit
his own motives to the chilling inau-
ences Of discussion.
Tomorrow night my duties as q
slave driver will end-and then !, too,
shall enter the lists"
With violent start he came back in
to the present Why did he not hear
some sound from the looked for cara
want Could that imbecile Sandy have
misdirected II? he was unwilling to
tax his horse for the return ride. He
would need its services indefinitely In
to the future. The suspenn grew unen-
durable He walked swiftly toward his
horse. Hh hand was upon the tether.
ing rope. He stood still in the darkness,
listening. II no sound from the advano.
ing caravan was TO be- detected above
the clamor Of the frogs and the shrill
voices Of countless insect rovefs Of the
night he would turn the tired brute's
head toward the mystery and ride to its
solution.
He did detect another sound. Vague
and uncertain at first, then definitely
hurrying feet bearing down upon the