Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-12
Gu RIY
A TALE OF THE ARIZONA DESERT.
BY ROGER POcOCK.
CHAPTER VIII.
In the Name Of the People.
Author of "A Frontiersman.' etc.
Copyright. 1905, by Little, Brown & Coz

In the Name Of the People.
1t used to be a great sight down at Holy
Cross when the vaqueros came back from
the roundup. serapes Tapping in the wind,
hats waving, guns popping. ponies tearing
around, and eating up the ground. And
then the house folk came swarming out to
meet them. the little boys and dogs in a
shouting heap, the girls punched together
and squealing, the young wives laughing.
the old mothers. the totterng granddads
all plumb joyful to welcome the riders
home. So they would mix up, crowd
through the gates, ard on the stable court
to see a beef shot for the feast. Presently
the little boys would come out in the dusk
of the evening. bareback to herd the ponies
through the pasture gate, and scamper back
barefoot to the house in time for supper
All night long the lamps were alight In the
great hall, the guitars a-strumming, and
young feet dancing, and last, at the break
of dawn. the chapel bell would call for
early mass.
But this was the last homecoming for
the folks at Holy Cross and far away
across the desert Jm's riders heard the bell
the minute bell tolling soft for the dead.
The people met them at the gates, but all
the boys uncovered, riding slow. No beef
would be killed that night no lights would
SHINE, no guitars would strum for the
dance.
Inside the main gate Jim's servant took
his horse and the lad walked on with
clashing spurs to meet the old padre at the
door OF the dining hall.
Take off your spurs,' said the priest;
come softly
So he followed the padre across the bare
white washed dining hall, and on along the
cloister of the palm tree court. He heard
the death cry keening out of the shadows,
the bell tolled, and he went on through the
dark rooms, until he came to the sonora
with women kneeling about the bed, and
candles lighted at her head and feet.
The daybreak was bitter cold when Jim
came out into the palm tree court. shivering
while he watched the little, far-up clouds
flushed with the dawn.
He felt that something was all wrong In
the house, with the hollow echoes, every
time he moved, crashing back from out Of
the dark Then in the black darkness of
the rooms he saw a lighted candle moving,
slow through the air
who's there"' he shouted and at that
the light came straight at him with some
thing gray behind. who are you? What
are you doing here?' Then he saw it was
Sheriff Bryant.
Easy, boy, easy" says Dick in his slow
Texan drawl; II carlate, JIM we may as
well have coffee, Ell, boy?"
SO he led Jim into the dining hail. where
he had cooked some coffee on the brazier
He set his candle down on the long table,
and beside it a stick of sealing wax and a
bundle of tape
why: sheriff says Jim, what do you
Take yo' coffee, son. It's cold this
,nawnin'."
Jim fell to slipping his coffee while old
Dick sat crouched down over the brazier
my old woman's been here this fortnight
past" he said, "and L collected a doctor of
sorts"
You never sent for father, or for me-"
II had reasons boy, good reasons. jim
thar's trouble a-comin' and you've got to
face it manful."
ooh, speak out!'
"As 1 says to my ole woman only yester-
day, I'd have loaned the money myself to
yo poh mother, only 1 don't have enough
to lend to dawg."
What do you mean?'
81 couldn't turn the po' lady out of her
home, so | got stay of execution from
the court, to give her time to escape. She's
done escaped now, and 1 got to act.
Sheriff.
Yes, I'm sheriff, and I'd rather break
laig. But I'm the peoples servant Jim,
and my awdehs is to seize this hull estate,
in the name O the people
ITO seize this housed"
TO turn you and all 20 servants out OF
Holy Crawss and put the peoples seal on
the front gate
Sheriff, you cant"'
boy, take this writ
Jim took the paper, spread 1t out and
read
Jim" said the sheriff, 1--WE must bury
this lady first. Then you want to take the
best hawss you've got, while I'm not look
welcome thar"
who's done this thing?'
"Yo' fathers debts"
Don't beat about the bush-who's done
this thing?"
George Ryan"