Polk County news-gazette. (Benton, Tenn.) 190?-191?, 1914-06-25
CHAPTER v.

The journey to Fortuna is a scan
nifty miles by measure, but within
these eight kilometers there is laps'
of centuries in standards. AS Bud ant
De Lancey rode out of battle-scarreC
Aqua Negra they travelled a good road
we'll worn by the Mexican wood-wag
ons that hauled in mesquit from the
hills. Then, as they left the town ant
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
and by evening they were in the heart
of Old Mexico.
Here were men in sandals and WON
en- barefoot; chickens tied up by the
legs outside of brush jacales; long
nosed hogs, grunting fiercely 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
floor 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 matched 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 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 IL 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 mem
DRY long after the pleasant "Adios!"
or 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 a horse
among the revoltosos! So reasoned
the simple-minded natives of the noun
tains, gazing in admiration at Copper
and for that look in their eyes
Bud returned his forbidding stare.
There is something about a good
horse that fascinates the average Mex
because they breed the
finest themselves and are in position
TO judge-but Hooker had developed a
ron FAC attachment for his trim little
chestnut mount and he resented their
gapings as lover resents
glances at his lady. This, and frontier
rendered him short-spoken s
md gruff with the paisanos and 1t was |
eft to the cavalier De Lancey to do t
he courtesies of the road.
AS the second day wore on they |
Tipped down into a rocky canyon, with t
huge cliffs of red and yellow sandstone s
lowing in the slanting sun, and soon +
hey broke out into narrow valley, t
veil wooded with sycamores and mes
uits and giant blackberry trees. a
The shrill toots of a dummy engine
anne suddenly from down below and Il
mantle of black smoke rose males IL
Ically against the sky-then. at turn a
I the TRAIL they topped the last hill is
nd Fortuna lay before them. Ii
In that one moment they we're set
ack again fifty miles-clear back 81
cross the line--for Fortuna was is
merican, from the power-house on fir
le creek bank to the mammoth con- st
on the hill. 10
All the buildings were OF stone, p'
luare and uniform. First central w
laZa, flanked with offices and ware
ouses then behind them barracks OF
nd lodging houses and trim cottages by
orderly rows; and over across the ha
lnyon doomed the huge bulk of the mill WI
ld the concentrator with its aerial
ANYWAY and endless row of gliding ne
tickets. =
Only on the lower hills, where the co
ugh country rock cropped up and tn
lture was at its worst, only there did Sc
10 real Mexico creep in and assert It. ha
IL in a crude huddle of halfIndian of
It's; the dwellings of the care-free ma or
yes. ra
well. by Jove!" exclaimed De Ian.
y, surveying the scene with an APP an
alsing eye. this doesn't look very of