Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1914-08-27
CHAPTER v.

The Journey to Fortuna is scant
fifty 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 good road.
well worn by the Mexican woosGag-
ons that hauled in mesquit froi he
hills. Then, as they left the towslvand
the wood roads scattered, the highway
changed by degrees to broad trail,
dug deep by the feet of pack-animals
and marked but lightly with wheels. 1t
followed along the railroad, cutting
over hills and down through gulches,
and by evening they were in the heart
of Old Mexico.
Here were men in sandals and wom-
en- barefoot; chickens tied UP by the
legs outside of brush jacales; long
nosed hogs, grunting fercely as they
skirmished for food and half-naked
children. staring like startled rabbits
at the strangers.
The smell of garlic and fresh-roast-
ing coffee was In the air as they drew
into town for the night, and their
room was an adobe chamber with tile
f1oor 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
en- 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 tlsatched with long, coarse
grasses. and by the fires the women
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.
1t was through such land that Phil
and Hooker rode on their gallant
ponies, leading pack-animal well
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
be ambled past stayed in their mem
DRY long after the pleasant "Adios!"
81 De Lancey had been forgotten.
Americans were scarce in those
Gays. 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
the supplemented 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 fascinates the average Mex
lean perhaps because they breed the
finest themselves and are in a position
TO judge-but Hooker had developed
romantic attachment for his trim little
chestnut mount and he resented their
wide-eyed gapings as lover resents
chances at his lady. This and frontier
education, rendered him short-spoken
and gruff with the paisanos and it was
left to the cavalier De Lancey to do
the courtesies of the road.
As 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 narrow valley,
well wooded with sycamores and mes
quits and giant blackberry trees.
The shrill toots of a dummy engine
came suddenly from down below and
mantle of black smoke rose mates-
tically against the sky-then, at turn
Of the trail, they topped the last hill
and Fortuna lay before them.
In that one moment they were set
back again fifty miles--clear back
across the hne-for Fortuna was
American, from the power house on
the creek bank to the mammoth con-
centrator on the hill
All the buildings were of stone,
square and uniform First central
plaza, fanked with offices and ware
houses; then behind them barracks
and lodging houses and trim cottages
In orderly rows; and over across the
canyon doomed the huge bulk Of the mill
and the concentration with its aerial
tramway and endless row OF gliding
buckets.
Only Oh the lower hilla. where the
rough country rock cropped up and
nature was at its worst, only there did
the real Mexico creep IN and assert IT.
self in crude huddle Of half-Indian
huts the dwellings Of the carefree ma,
Eives.
Well. by Jovel" exclaimed De Ian
cay, surveying the scene NTH an ap-
Srsisins wa -tnss doesn't .ook very