The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-06-26
THE
YAQUI
DEATH LINE
BY BAILEY MLLARD

oners we're to be shot at sunrise, as
ell captain had ordered, it was neces-
sary that they should not escape
from the corrugated iron ore-shed,
the use of which, as a temporary
prison, had been grudgingly granted
by Mr.. Tom Bird, the man in charge
of the Sahuaripa Mine. One guard,
in his muffiing serape, leaned with
infinite languor upon his rife at
one end of the shed, and now and
again yawningly bawled "Uno"
through the still night; on which the
other, to show that he was not
other end of the shed and the very
borders of dreamland. Occasion
ally, the order of calling was re-
versed. AS for the Yaqui, they were
quiet nough.
Now Mr.. Tom Birds window was
thirty feet away from the nearest
guard, whom he was execrating We
hemently from under the covers.
Thank the gods, they'll be NOV
ing on Tomorrow" he breathed
forth from amid a very ornamental
set of curses melted by particularly
loud challenge. "It will be Sunday,
and l can sleep all day." He lay
very quiet for half an hour, and
was just dropping off, for the night
wind had come up and the palms
were whispering their mystic secrets.
'Uno!" sharp and shock produc-
ing.
"Dos!" quickly on it's heels, with
a you don't catch me mapping" note.
THAT settles it!'' gasped Bird.
He got up, lit his lamp and a big,
black cigar, and stood gazing into
the night. Presently there came a
| quick spasmodic knock at the door.
OF course, none of the mozos was
awake, SO Bird had to go see what it
| meant.
When he opened the door, Yaqui
woman, with three year old child
in her arms, fluttered past him in her
loose black gown and mantilla. He
slammed and barred the door and
| strode after her into the patio.
"Oh, senor!" cried the woman, her
high voice a-quiver, mi nina-she
is $3.50 sick. l bring her to you to
make her well again. Los Americanos
they have the power. l carry her
here from La Puerta-it is two
miles. l have done all can-every-
thing. But the yerbas buenas do
not help her, nor the rosary"
| Come in!" Bird took the tender
little bundle from her arms, led the
way into a side room, and deposited
his unexpected and embarrassing
charge upon the couch.
THE rosary. 1t was glass and very
beautiful. l ground it, oh, so care
| fully, put it in the taxa sagrada
which the good padre gave me last
year, with little water, and gave
1t all to the child. Porvida, there
was not one drop left She is a
good nina-she swallowed it ALL"
Ground glass;" gasped Bird.
And she swallowed it ALL"
| 1T was enough to kill her." said
Bird, in his own speech. How the
devil do children ever live to be
twelve years old in this country.
Let's see-let's see." He went to his
own room and stood refectively be-
fore the medicine chest he had
brought up from Mazatlan the sum-
mer before. He read the labels:
"Quinina? No good, Glicerina?" 2"
| He hesitated. "Acete de Castor?
That's the stuff. 1t isn't very fresh,
| but"
He grasped the bottle, and ran
back to the bedside. The child took
the medicine from his hand will
ingly. She was a good ninita, as la
madre had said. Then, too, she had
lapsed into a lassid, Indifferent
state.
mo, senior. 1t was not the cal
entura. 1t was the aqua mala. We
come many miles-from San Este
ban, on the Rio Yaqui. The soldiers
came for us. They took fifteen
among them-my husband, my child,
and l. They put the women and chill
dren away from the men. They
would send us on the long voy-
age to Yucatan. But escaped, with
the ninita. 1t was one good sonora
who helped me. / come here. My
husband do not know where he
is. Perhaps the soldiers have killed
him. They kill all-all but the wo-
men and children.
From San Esteban," thought
Bird. That's where that crowd in
the ore-shed are from. OF course, her
husband is there with them. And she
doesn't know he's within forty miles
OF her. There's tragedy. But this
poor little nina-what can / do for
her? The pain she's In from that
ground glass! Morphine? If / only
dared"
He looked at the child. She seemed
d little Quieter. There was less of
the rubbing of the clenched fists
against the round little stomach. The
palm leaves whispered outside. The
| lids of the tired eyes that had been