Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1914-07-16
CHAPTER v.

The journey TO Fortuna is a scant
nifty miles by measure. but within
these eight kilometers there Is lapse
of centuries In standards. AS Bud and
DE Lancey rode out OF battle-scarred
Aqua Negra they travelled a good road.
well worn by the Mexican wood'wag.
ons that hauled in mesquit from the
hills. Then, as they left the town and
the wood roads scattered, the highway
changed by degrees to a broad trail,
dug deep by the feet OF pack-animals
and marked but lightly with wheels. II
followed along the railroad, cutting
over hills and down through gulches
and by evening they we're In the heart
of Old Mexico.
Here we're men In sandals and WON
en- barefoot; chickens tied up by the
legs outside of brush jacales; long
nosed hogs. grunting fiercely IS they
skirmished for food; and half-naked
children. staring like startled rabbits
at the strangers.
The smell OF garlic and fresh-roast
fng coffee was In the air as they drew
into town for the night, and their
room was an adobe chamber with tile
tfoor and iron bars across the win.
dows. Riding south the next day they
met vaqueros, mounted on wiry mus
tangs. who saluted them gravely, TAX.
Ing no shame for their primitive wood.
ven saddle-trees and pommels as broad
as soup-plates.
AS they left the broad plain and
clambered up over the back of noun.
tain they passed Indian houses, brush
built and matched with long, coarse
ground corn on stone metates as their
ancestors had done before the fall.
For in Mexico there are two peoples.
the Spaniards and the natives, and the
Indians still remember the days when
they were free.
II was through such land that Phil
and Hooker rode on their gallant
ponies. leading a pack-animal we'll
loaded with supplies from the north.
and as the people gazed from their
miserable novels and saw their outfit
they wondered at their wealth.
But If they we're moved to envy, the
bulk Of heavy pistol. showing through
the swell OF each coat. discouraged
them from going farther; and the cold,
searching look OF the tall cowboy as
he ambled past stayed in their men,
ory long after the pleasant "Adios!"
of DE Lancey had been forgotten.
Americans were scarce in those
days. and what few came by were rid
Ing to the north. How bold, then. must
this big man be who rode In 'front.'
and certainly he had some great re-
ward before him to risk such horse
among the reyoltosos! SO reasoned
1he simple minded natives OF the noun.
tains. gazing in admiration at Copper
Bottom, and for that look in their eyes
Bud returned his forbidding stare.
There is something about a good
horse that tascinates the average Mex.
ican-perhaps because they breed the
sinest themselves and are In a position
to judge-but Hooker had developed a
romantic attachment for his trim little
chestnut mount and he resented their
vide-eyed gapings as a lover resents
chances at his lady. This. and a frontier
education. rendered him short-spoken
and gru1 with the paisanos and II was
left TO the cavalier De Lancey TO do
the courtesies of the road.
> hs the second day wore on they
dipped down into a rocky canyon, with
huge cliffs OF red and yellow sandstone
glowing In the slanting sun, and soon
they broke out into a narrow valley,
well wooded with sycamores and mes
quits and giant blackberry trees.
The 6hrill tOots OF Z dummy engine
came suddenly from down below and
n mantle of black smoke rose majes.
tiCally against the sky-then. at turn
OF the trail. they topped the last hill
and Fortuna lay before them.
~ that one moment they were SET
back again fifty miles-clear bach
across the linc-for Fortuna was
American, from the power-house OF
the creek bank 10 the mammoth con
centrator on the h.l.
hll the buildings were Of stone
square and unifcrm. First a centra
plaza. nanEed with offices and ware
houses, then behind them barracks
and lodging houses and trim cottages
IN orderly rows; and over across tn
canyon doomed the huge bulk of the NIL
and the concentration with its aeria
Iramway and endless row OF giidin
buckets
Only On the lower hills, where tn
rough country rock cropped UP an
nature was at its worst, only there di
the real Mexico creep in and assert 4
self in a crude huddle of halflndia
huts; the dwellings Of the care-free nj
lives
We'll by Jove!" exclaimed De Lar
coy. surveying the scene with an al
praislng eye. this doesn't look yer