Mexico Missouri message., 1907-03-28
CHAPTER xx-contInusS.

as long as his parched throat would
let him, he became quiet To his
amaZement, some new. strange peace
had filled him. He took II for the
peace OF death. He was glad to think
mother soothing him to his last sleep.
His head on his arm, his whole tired
body relaxing In this new restfulncss,
he opened his eyes ard looked or to
the south, idly scanning the horizon,
his eyes level with the sandy plain.
Then something made him sit quickly
up and stare intently. his barred head
craning forward. TO the south, lying
low, a mass OF light clouds, volatile,
changing with opalescent lights as he
looked. A little to the left OF these
clouds. while his head wa5 on the
sand. he thought his eyes had de.
tected certain squared lines.
Now he scanned the spot with a
feverish eagerness. At first there was
only the endless empty blue. Then,
when his wonder was quite dead and
a miracle CT miracles.--a vision In the
clear blue OF the sky. And this time
the lines were coherent. He the dying
sinner. had caught. clearly and posi-
lively for one awful second in that
sky, the flashing impression OF a cross.
II faded as soon as 1t came, vanished
while he gaEed. leaving him In gasp
ing, fainting wonder at the marvel.
And then, before he could think or
question himself, the sky once more
yielded its vision; again that image of
a cross stayed for second in his
eyes, and this time he thought there
we're figures about II. Some picture
was trying to show itself to him. Still
reaching his body forward, gazing
fearfully, his aroused body pulslng
swiftly to the wonder of the thing. he
began TO pray again. striving to keep
his excitement under.
20 God. have mercy on me. a sim
ner!"
Slowly q. first. II grew before his
fixed eyes. then quickly. so that at the
last there was a complete picture
where but an instant before had been
but a meaningless mass OF line and
oct Ou u WtlG AO"l
square, iiat.topped houses, brown in
color against the gray ground about
them. In front Of these houses was a
larger structure OF the same material.
a church.like building such az he had
once seen in q picture, with wooden
cross at the top. In an open square
before this church were many moving
persons strangely CARRIED, seeming to
be Indians. They surged for a mo-
ment about the door OF the church,
then parted to either side as II In an.
swer TO signal, and he saw process
sion of the same PEOPLE coming with
bowed heads, scourging themselves
with short whips and thorned
branches. Ar their head walked a
brown.cowled monk, holding aloft be-
fore him a small cross, attached by n
chain to his waist. AS he led the pro-
cession forward. another crowd, some
of them being other brown-cowled
monks, parted before the church door.
and there, clearly before his wonder.
ing eyes was erected a great cross
upon which he saw the crucihed sa-
vior.
He saw those In the procession form
about the cross and fling themselves
upon the ground before II, while all
the others round about knelt. He saw
tho monk, standing alone, raise the
smaller cross in his hands above them.
as II in blessing. High above II all,
he saw the Crucified One. the head
lying over on the shoulder.
He sank back on the sands in an
ecstasy. His Witness had come--not
as he thought Il would, in moment
OF spiritual uplift: but when he had
been sunk by his own sin to fearful
depths. Nor had It brought any mes
sage OF glory for himself, of gifts or
powers. Only the mission OF suffering
and service and suffering again at the
end. But II was enough.
How long he lay In the Joy OF the
realization he never knew, but sleep
or falntuess at last overcame him.
he was revived By the sharp chill
OF night. and sat up TO find his mind
clear, alert, and active with new pur-
poses. He had suffered greatly from
thirst, so that when he tried to say a
prayer OF thanksgiving he could not
move his swollen tongue. He was
weakened, too. but the ireezing cold
of the desert night aroused all his
latent force. re struggled to his feet.
and laid course by the light OF the
moon back 70 the spring he had left
in the morning, How he reached the
hills again he never knew, nor how
he made his way over them and back
to the settlement But there he lay
sick for many days. hiB mind, when
no felt Il at all, tossing Idly upon the
great sustaining CONSEQUENCES OF that
vision IN the desert.
The day which he next Remembered
clearly. and from which he dated his
new lie. was one when he was back
IN the meadows. He had ridden there