The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-04-04


frame dilated with the force Of his
rage till he lowered like an irruptiye
volcano, pouring sizzling streams of
invectiye upon his victims head.
Jose had no fancy for Il trial Of
their strength. NO" he persisted
imperturbably; you know I'm not
that, and you are very much mistak-
en- if you think that's what | am"
Pablo menaced, threatened, tam
talized, thrusting his clinched fist
into Jose's face, Offering every in
dignity a man will not take TO make
him strike out, but he would not,
for Jose, considering the disparity
of their size, was thoroughly con-
vinced that fighting was un-Chris-
tian.
Baflled and exhausted, Pablo
stamped and swore like a mailman.
"Stay there, them" he fairly Shrek
ed. "Stay there in your seat till you
stick to it! Sit under your accurscd
vines till you die and rot, and may
everything you touch die and rot,
you and the woman you have stolen
from me, you thieving, lying half
breed mongrel. May she bring a
curse to whomsoever touches her,
and may her children grow up to
curse their father and bring dis
graceupon their own heads You off
securing, YOU plague spot, you low
flung, underhanded sneak thief,
you-you"-
Breathless and exhausted. words
failed him. But as he disappeared
around the corner, shaken with his
wrath, he still muttcred exccrations
between his teeth. In the blindness
of his rage he did not notice the ef-
feet his words had had Under the
TRADE of his curse jose had changed
color and gone from pasty yellow 10
streaked blue. Now he arose stilIly
and backed through the doorway,
his eyes still turned in the direction
Pablo had taken, as if expecting
to see his curse descend in visible
form.
All his self satisfaction, all his
smirking complacency, was suddenly
gone. Pablo's tremendous rage and
terrible earnestness as he stood over
him and glowered, red eyed and fu-
rious, into his face so terrified the
little man that he was like to faint.
He turned his ashen face toward
the window and would not have
been surprised to see Pablo's form,
with cloycn hoofs and fiery breath,
riding through the air, while his
upwrought fancy supplied the hiss
ing tone, "NIay she bring curse to
whomsoever touches her; may she,
may your
Madre de Dios, he was a ruined
man, for this was Good Friday and
the change Of the moon! Many were
the curses he had known to have
been called down in this way, leav-
ing a train of desolation and de-
struction in their wake. Old Juan
Tienda was now crawling about on
crutches because the Palli brothers
pronounced a curse upon the feet
that had carried their sheep away.
and he well remembered the time
his fathers horses had all died Of
glander8 because there was a curse
upon them. Jose had never pcne-
trated beyond the confines of his
little valley, and the local traditions
and superstitions OF the Santa Inez
bounded his mental horizon.
Until the shadows grew long and
cold he sat and covered in his cor
ner, his mind circling around those
awful words and the blight that
would surely follow. Turn which
way he might, his doom confronted
him, and there was no escape. He
felt himself powerless in Pablo's
hands, and the scathing words, that
had burned themselves into the core
Of his soul, rang the changes on
"May she bring a curse" till the
JClc llldblOll SlOOl Oul OI MS lOIG-
head and the gooseAesh on his body
as he waited, not knowing when tho
curse might descend.
But with the coming of the morn
ing there came a sudden flash of
illumination A quick light leaped
into his eyes, for the words may
whomsoeyer" took on a new mean
ing to him. In the attitude of mind
that says you're another" Jose
bounded to his feet with a definite
plan. He began to see the possibili-
ty of outwitting Pablo by shifting
this deep crimson curse to his (Pa-
blo's) own head. To see him blight
ed by his own curse, withered by his
own words, starving, begging from
door to door, dying like dog in the
streets, accursed by his own flesh
and blood, would be worth any price
1t was still early when Jose, puff
ing from the briskness of his walk,
found his way to the home of the
lovely Luisita. His presence at so
early an hour took the household
by surprise. He found the trim an
kles guiltless of any disguise and
the cloud of soft ringlets, through