The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-05
MELQUIADES.
BY EDGAR MELTON COOLEY. tcopyrtsht. 1902. by Daily Story Pub. Co

eSSees<e@s@A%eNs4 i, the scowl on his fs.e giving way to a smile, then he quivercd an instant and sank in heap on the floor. For a month after that he was loco with fever. dealing out to his nurses all kinds of wild talk of fairy with eyes that laughed into his like the star-span- gled night laughs in the faces of nipples that dance on the Pecos. But when the fire got out of his veins, and the wheels of his cranium ceased their revolving, he never once mentioned her name. al- though. his gaze often wandered to where her home stood on the banks of old Autumn stampeded and winter froze to death on the prairie while Melquiades tossed on his bunk with his pain never soothed by the presence of Piney. She puncher. while tho plain and the valley were dizzy with boys who could dance and could ride and make love in the moonlight
 The wild flowers held up their plying heads. when Melquiades. pale-faced and crippled forever. dragged himself down to the banks of the river. Great were the wounds in his flesh. where the knife but greater than these was the wound In his heart. for, little by little, he learned of Piney's betrothal to Jose Dumondo.
 IT was or tnis that ne thought as he dragged himself onward. hearing the murmuring ripplss and watching the moonlight sleep on tho water, and sud- denly, through the gloom and the silence. there came to his ears the sobbing voice of a woman. He listened a moment, then onward he hurried with all the strength that was left him.
 He found her at last. laying flat on her face in the srasses. her wonderful eyes dripping wet with her tears. her mi nd re1 cyta ovx1 unbraided, falling patheticaiiy over her shoulders that shook with her anguish.
 He knelt by her side and rested his hand on her head. but spoke not word ,.n. x, A moment Sr she glanced in his arm and buried her face on his shoulder.
 "A long time they sat on the bank of the Pecos. and. httle by little. she told him the story of loses Assertion. of her told him. for she knew that no man from ths Platte to the Rio had more honor than Lopez.
 Never a word did he speak. and only the warm clasp of his hand told she had done. he arose and led her back to the door Of her cabin. Dumb were his lips when he bid her good bye. but
 hs hs asa @a n ans s se kmsS nG her dishonor or die in the trying.
 50 he bid her good bye, and the morn- ing sun found him sriding straight to- wards the north. his cheeks gleaning red with tine fever of vengeance. Long was the trail thac he followed and slow was his progress. but sure-as sure as the course of his bullet. Gawd! l would rather 8 panther had it's claws in my throat than have Melquiades Lopez trail- ing my footsteps. intent upon vengeance"
 Again he paused. whipping the dust into clouds.
 Ut was weeks before he returned" tho driver continued. Not a word did he speak as to where he had been. but his eyes fairly burned with the fire of tri- umph and just rstribution.'
 And them" I asked, after several mo- ments of silence.
 And then they told him how beautiful They looked in the moonlight the night they lifted her poor. lifeless form out of the lake, and how black her wet hair was as it chung to her brow and her nerk and her shoulders that slistened like marble,
 It was for the best. reckon, he said grimly. and walked slowly away. the lamp of his life forever extinguished And now, day after day. he drags him self over the sand to her grave that you saw back yonler and sits there silently watching the vapors that rise from the lakes tranquil bosom-vapors as misty. as thick and IS soft as her wonderful hair"
 For hours we had ridden. my guide and I, across the treeless. trackless. hlisterng sands o$ the Llano Estacado. We had left the rtaxed trail at noon and had struck a beeiine for the bluffs over looking Power Lake Suddenly l caught the glimpse of something gtaring white in the sunshine to the windward of sand dune.
 Turning my horses head in curiosity rode toward it, only to discover a human skeleton. bleached ana polished gloss of ivory. Dismounting, I inspected the skeleton closely and found that the wrists and ankles were fastened with thongs to four stakes driven deep in the sard. To one of the ribs. through wlNch It's keen blade had been driven. bowie knife chung Rusted 1t was and half GOV el ed with the sand of the desert, but, brushing the dust from the weapon, saw. cut deep in the handle the naine' "M. Lopez"
 With a shudder I turned and climbed Into my saddle and silently we rode away towards the West.
 F. H. Lancaster.