Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-01-21

senoras, senoritas, gray haired men and
gay young gallants. There was mo-
ment of clasping, cIinging embraces, of
straining arms and lingering kisses, Of
crowdings and murmurings here and
there, some little sobbing and many
tear wet eyes as the father was finally
hurried down the ladder, and then
there was further delay and shouts for
Escalante, and not until then did Lor
ing, silently watching the animated
throng on the port side, become aware
of two dark forms in the shadow of the
deckhouse on the opposite quarter. One
was that of a slender girl, and she was
sobbing, she was praying in eager words
not to be sent away, she was implOring
pitifully to be taken back to the shore.
Loring had studied Spanish long enough
to understand almost every word, and
even before he realized that he was an
unwilling listener he had heard both
her sobbing plea and the abrupt, almost
cruel answer:
"You have no home, nor has your IA
Their You may thank heaven for the
chance to get away"
The second officer came bustling
round in search of them, and leaving
the girl shrinking and sobbing on the
narrow bench in the shadow the Mex
lean was hurried off. Before the little
boats had fairly cast adrift and the
swinging steps were raised the throb Of
the screw was felt churning the waters
Of the bay, and as the steamer slowly
gathered way and her bow swung grad
ually seward women and girls, ker
chief waving, came drifting back along
the rail, leaning far over and throwing
kisses to the tossing shallops on the
dark waves beneath; then, gathering
about the stunted flagstaff at the stern,
calling loudly their parting words, all
unconscious of Loring, who had step
ped aside to give them room, and SO
found himself close to little Pancha,
lost to every body in the desolation of a
loneliness and grief that Loring could
not see unmoved, yet could not recon
Gle with what he had believed of her
Up to this moment he had heard of
her only as an artful girl, the confeder
ate of thieves and ruffians; up to this
moment he had seen her only once, the
afternoon she threw herself on Blake,
as Blake and he had both come to be-
lieve, to prevent his drawing a revolver
on the two rascals at the ranch. Yet
never had Loring heard such pathetic
pleading; never had he seen child or
woman in such utter abandonment of
woe; never had he thought it possible
that Pancha-the siren Of Sancho's
ranch, cold, crafty, Turing, designing,
treacherous as any Carmen ever since
portrayed upon the stage-could be ca
pable of such intensity of feeling.
Drawing his uniform cape snugly
about him-for now the sharp sea wind
was whistling through the cordage and
chilling his fever weakened frame
Loring leaned against the rail, gazing
back at the receding shores, trying not
to hear the girls sobbing. The chatter
of the flock of women was incessant.
TurnbuIl and two Guaymas merchants
had joined the group, but all were in
tent on those harbor lights now fast
glimmering to nero sparks upon the
sea, and the lonely girl sat there for
gotten. Not once was voice uplifted in
question as to what had become of her.
Every moment now the stern was lift
ed higher in air and then dropped deep
er into the roaring, kissing waters, and
women frightened their hold upon the
taffrail and gave shrill little shrieks
and huddled closer together, and pres
emily one of the elders fell back and
begged to be led below, and then an
other, and by the time the last glimmer
of the town had been hid from view
and only the steady CLEAN of the light
wake the hardest of the gay little par
ty of the earlier evening had been care
fully assisted down the brass bound
stairway, and when five bells tinkled
windily somewhere forward there, with
little hands clasped about the stanchion,
a shawl thrown over her head, that
head pillowed in her arms-there alone
in the darkness and the rush of the
wind and sea-there, the very picture
of heartbroken girlhood-still sat Pan
cha, and Loring could bear it no longer.
He was thinking over his Spanish to
be sure of his words when the star
board doors of the companionway were
suddenly thrown open, and in the bright
light from within two burly forms step
ped unsteadily forth, then lurched for
the nearest support, and Lorlng heard
the jovial tones of Turnbull.
"He must be up here or overheard.
He's nowhere below!" Then glancing
sternward, ooh, Loring" he shouted,
and at the name Pancha's little dark
head was suddenly uplifted, and pair
of black eyes, red trimmed and swollen
with weeping, gazed, startled, toward
the dark figures. For the life Of him
Loring could not answer the hail. Turn
bulls voice and words alone had been
sufficient to rouse her from depth of
woe and to give rise to new and vio-
lent distress. She was trembling, and
he could plainly see it. To answer