The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1914-10-10

There was q rush, a moments sf-
lence.- and then heads appeared from
every window and women ran scream
ing with the news. Aragon came rush
ing from the store and confronted him
angrily; then. reading conviction in
his tones, he called for horses and ran
frantically into the house.
A shrilI screech came from the mill
side'S where a serving-woman had
scampered- to view the valley, and. as
she pointed her finger and screamed.
mothers laid hold Of their little ones
and started up the valley on foot.
Still the men ran about in the horse
pen and Aragon adjured his women
folk in the house. Burning with i'm
patience, Bud spurred his way to The
corral where they were fumbling with
reata and rigging and dropped a rope
on the first horse he saw. Then he
snatched a side-saddle from a trem-
bling peon and slapped it on the
brute's back Grabbing up the bride,
he led the horse back to the house and
bridled it while he shouted for haste.
Still the women tarried, and the
sound of galloping came from the
south. Then, as all seemed lost, the
MeXicans came humping out from the
stable with the family coach, Aragon
and his wife Ieaped in. and Gracia,
neatly attired in a riding-skirt, came
tripping down the steps.
Even in such times as these she
seemed to realize her first duty to
herself, and Hooker had to gaze for
moment before he helped her up. She
offered her foot and vaulted lightly
into the saddle; the coach went pound
ing on ahead; and as the servants
scattered before her she gallOped of
at the side of Bud.
Behind them the rumble of distant
hoofs rose up like the roaring of wa
tiers, and the shrieks of fleeing women
echoed from the roadside, but once
safely in the canyon their lead was
never 1essened and, with coach-hOrses
galloping and positions flashing from
both sides, the whole cavalcade swept
into the plaza while the town of For
tuna went mad.
Already the great whistle was blow
ing hoarsely, its deep reverberations
making the air tremble as if with fear
Americans were running back and
forth, distributing arms and rushing
their women TO cover; Don Juan, his
chin quivering with excitement, was
imploring all corners to be calm; and
the Aragons, coming flying up to the
door, added the last touch TO the panic
They with their eyes had seen the
rebels; they were riding in from the
south! Other men, equally excited,
swore they were coming from the
north, and a disorderly body Of So
nora miners, armed as If by magic
with guns which had long lain hidden,
banked themselves about the store and
office and clamored for more and more
cartridges. Then q rip of gun-f1re
echoed from across the canyon, and
the miners made a rush to the attack.
The whistle, which had obscured ali
sound as a cloud obscures the light
stopped suddenly in its roar, and the
crowd at the hotel became calm. The
superintendent, a why, gray-haired
little man, with decision in every
movement, came running from his
fort-like house on the hill and ordered
all the women to take shelter there
and take their children with them
So, while the rifles ratified and stray
bullets began to knock mud from the
walls, they went struggling up the hill,
rich and poor, patrician and peon,
while the air was rent by the walls
Of the half-Indian Mexican women,
who held themselves as good as cap
tured by the revoltosos, concerning
whose scruples they entertained no
| illusions.
The women of the aristOcracy bore
themselves with more reserve, as be-
fitting their birth and station, and the
Americans who gathered about them
with their protecting rifles pretended
that all would be we'll; but in the
minds of every one was that same
terror which found expression in the
peon wall and, while scattered rebels
and newly armed miners EXCHANGED
voIleys on both sides of the town, the
non-combatant Americans sought out
every woman and rushed her up to the
big house. There, if worst came to
worst, they could make last stand,
or save them by a ransom.
So, from the old woman who kept
| the candy stand in the plaza to the
wives of the miners and the cherished
womenfolk of the landowners, they
were all crowded inside the broad halls
/ of the big house; and seventy odd
Americans, armed with company rifles,
paced nervously along the broad veran-
das or punched Ioopholes in the adobe