The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-27

l mountain Of which ms estdte IS the
 crown and glory.
 Patricia, his only child, IS, with sloe-
 black eyes, hair like a storm cloud and
 the oval, luminous face of Botticelli
 Madonna, had spent three years with
 the ladies of the Sacred Heart in Paris.
 She had seen the boulevards and sniffed
 from afar the gallantry and gayety of
 the French capital. Therefore she
 yearned and moped amid the desolate
 splendor of her Mexican home.
 Have you ever seen the queer little street car line with it's tandem of small | brown mules that runs, or rather
 creeps, between the Hotel Hidalgo on
 the Plaza in Monterey, down through
 the narrow streets, away across the
 dusty fields, where sage and cactus
 dry and gay, cover the rising plateaus
 with desolate monotony; out past the
 beetling buttes of Casas Hacienda | which tower, red and hot in the sun
 to the uprising canyon that leads to l Topo Chico, the boiling spring, the health giving waters in whose fountain | pool Aztec and Indian, peon and patri- elan, have sought and found both health l for thousand years? This Topo Chico | is the terminus of the little narrow 1 gauge street car line that starts in 1 Monterey. It's single car, with open seats running across the width of 1t, is seldom crowded In the morning few | tourists bound for the baths smoke and | idle through the tedious trip, but in the evening, when the summer sun sinks behind the green cool shoulders | of Del Casas, the lone car is always empty except for the driver or an er- rant shepherd returning from market in Monterey.
 It was this time in the evening that Patricia chose for a little jaunt on that queer little street car. With ancient Madre Anselma her nurse when she was a romping child, her governess, maid and uenna by turns as the girl
 grew to womanhood, Patricia would
 1amble down the long stone stairway
 and in the purple shadows of the road
 eide thicket wait for the empty car to
 come droning out of the haze. Anselma
 neither spoke nor understood English,
 and so it was her wont to sit in the
 rear seat while the beautiful Patricia, her mantilla now fallen from before her
 radiant face, would sit on the front seat near the driver and urge or bribe him to send the little mules galloping.
 The driver was great yellow haired giant, with blue eyes and laughing mouth. For Patricia he would speed his queer little team till the car sway ed like q boat on running pillows and her delighted laughter fell upon his willing ears like the music of tinkling mandolins. As for Ansema, so long as the car was empty but for themselves, she was content to sit In the rear seat black, motionless but alert, smoking her cigarettes, as Mexican women must,~ and wondering what Patricia could have said to the big, fair Gringo to make him drive his mules So fast, to make him smile so benignantly.
 Every summer evening till the chaparral lost Its luster and the will lows in the red river bed began to scatter cracking leaves across the sands, Patricia and her cllaperon stole l away to this clandestine frolic on the | street car, till it became the event of | the gay child's days and habit even | with the withered woman who watched | the harmless frolic. ts
 One night as the blond American car | driver was laughing and thrashing | over the road, with the laughing se- norita at his elbow, a horseman with l his rifle presented lomed across the narrow road. The mules hesitated, stopped, back up in their trace chains The driver put down brake and ceased to smile He seized the switch bar bade Patricia lie down, and faced the enemy.
 Money or your life." commanded the outlaw in good English.
 You can have the box" roared the driver but if you rob the woman you must fight"
 The robber dismounted, boarded the car, and while. Patricia and the old looked on he smashed in the money box with the butt of his rifle and pocketed the few pitful centavos that jingled in the bottom. If Pa tricia had left the car. or drawn up her lace mantilla, or even turned her face away, the robber might not have seen the diamond brooch glistening at Ter throat. But the sight was too much for fun. The big American saw he flash of his eyes as he leveled his fife, and at the same moment the switch bar swung above his head. The , fife cracked the driver lurched over md fell in the dust by the road and he robber held out his hand to the , ,
 Give me the diamonds" he beloved ,
 She gave them without a word, then , Ter watch and her ring, while the old , screaming like harpy, clung z o his rifle and cursed and prayed in 7 ncoherent Spanish. But the robber |, lad no notion of harming them He | ,icked the fallen driver as he ran to- :; yard his horse, and in another moment q he chatter of hoof beats across the 6 boulder strewn valley told them that q e was gone. e It was nearly dusk now, and from the f tairway q hundred yards off the voice | f Jose del Casa could be heard call |, ng Patricia. She paused a moment " s she heard it, then leaDed to the i