The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-06-26

bawl at each other all night
The morphine worked so magi-
cally that its results alarmed him for
time. But the breathing was
strong and regular, and there was
| no growing paleness nor other bad
symptom. The travel worn mother
fell nodding in her chair in spite OF
| herself, and SC Bird had the watch
all to himself. He was glad of 1t,
| too. He wanted to smoke again.
| Smoking had become very essential
| to him down in this country, as 1t
does to every man, white or brown.
| But it was not to be thought of now.
| He fixed a shade on the lamp, famed
| the gnats away from the child, and
after the guards had called again
and again to each other, sometimes
awful weight of sleepiness in their
| tones, and as the roosters shrilled
! from a corner in the corral and the
] quick dawn of the tropics began to
spread it's rose burst over the palms.
there was a hustle about the ore
! house.
Pretty near sunrise. Guess
they're getting ready to lead those
! poor devils out"
The woman was awake now, look
! ing at the child, and he left it in her
charge while he went out to wash
and get cup of coffee. He was
gone longer than he thought. When
he returned the child was alone and
frenzied woman was flying toward
the place of execution.
"God!" groaned Bird. And I
could have saved her this. Poor,
wretched, tortured soul! Soul? OF
course, she's got a soul, just as
much of soul as ell presidente him
self, who is ordering all this BUTCH
cry, or his wife, or anybody. And I
can't simply can't look out there
and see this thing done
But he did, just the same. He
saw the clam-faced Yaquis in their
poor, gray cotton clothing, bare feet,
and 0Id straw sombreros, their arms
TIED behind them, standing in the
death line.
He saw the soldiers in their dirty
duck suits, with their absurd little
caps on heir heads, fasten the cheap
gaudy bandanas over the faces of the
doomed men. All but one face was
covered. 1t was a quiet brown face.
with eyes that looked straight to-
ward the firing squad, now resting
on its rifles. The woman had run
little way toward the man with
the uncovered face-he stood at the
end of the line-and stopped there
looking toward him appealingly.
Once she put her hand to her FORE
head, but she did not venture to call
aloud to him, nor even to wave her
hand. If he saw her he made no
sign.
And that's the father of the
nina. He's brave father, little
GIRL" he said to the sleeping child
"a brave father to meet death with
clear eyes. I suppose he sees la ma
DIRE, but he won't look at her for fear
he'll finch"
The firing squad was moving back
to it's place.
What can l do? What can l do?
groaned Bird. II might speak to the
captain and have the thing post
poned, even for a day or two. But
after all, he wouldn't listen to any
Gringo interference. Useless!'
AS the men leveled their rifles he
saw the woman move forward, and
just before the word was given she
flung herself toward her husband and
between him and the squad. There
was breath-cutting racket of shots,
the smoke puffs cleared away in
stantly, and there, with their arms
and legs sprawled any way, lay the
| line of men who had faced the squad
a moment before, and, little nearer
the breeze ruffiing her cheap, thin
skirt, lay la madre
Bird leaned over the child's couch
reverently and touched his lips to the
brown little forehead. Before he
could straighten up two salt tears
fell upon her pillow.
I'm not much in the father line"
said he, but I guess Well, nina,
cara, you shan't miss anything that
Tom Bird can do for you"
He walked over to the firing
ground and stared at the dead
Yaquis. How fiat they lay, in their
inert, fiaccid state against the gray
earth. 1t was as If Nature were
drawing her children back to her
great bosom to hide them away for
ever. Bird looked at the straw SOM
brero lying under the head of la
nina's father, and glanced down,
over the slim form of the poor, bare
feet, the soles of which were hard
ened by many weary tramp over
the desert.
He begged the two bodies from
the captain, and had them buried
very decently in one grave, with a
coyote-proof pile of stones upon it
and atop of the pile a little wooden
cross.
He was planning for the nina, and
| wandering hnW his hrida of the nnn,-