Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-06-04
By W. $ SMITH
Copyright by Frank A. Munsey Co.


Just above where the Rio Santa Fe
runs laughingly into the reservoir there
is a place where one may cross its
shimmering shadows easily enough by
means of thickly scattered stepping
stones.
Lolita Martinez had loitered along
the white sand carpet of that same
pine shaded water course hundreds OF
times In her seventeen years.
1t. was a pleasant place to pass an
idle hour, and idle hours were not a
few. But the hot Spanish blood was
racing now as she came out of her IA
theirs house, and, with an assumption
of lazy nonchalance, she picked a way
slowly. gracefully, across the river.
The beating of her heart could be
pardoned. Perfect May days, enchant-
ing with the magic fragrance OF a mill
lion apple trees. are many in this hap
py valley. But it is on only n May
day in a lifetime that a girl runs away
to be married-and to an Americana
OF course an American! Suppose 1t
had been Francisco Gonzales-there
would have been no running awayl
They would have been welded at
the cathedral with all the ancient cere-
monial, and Francisco would have tax
en- her to his new built home.
Even drunken Manuel Valdez, who
had no house ON his barren hillside
acres, whose name was a byword for
wickedness. even he would have been
an easier sutton for her father to ae-
cept than Bross, the American.
Over the girls arm was flung the
folds of a light. many colored Navajo
blanket. 1t was draped around a long.
'capacious pasteboard box.
The shadows were shortening toward
noon when she came around the lust
winding turn of the white ribbon Of
sand, flushing wildly as a tall, hand
some young man leaped to his feet
from the grassy bank where he had
been lying and. throwing away his
cigar, came forward eagerly.
He caught the girls 1.-THE, unresist-
ing body close.
Sweetheart, my dearest! You've
come at last!'' he murmured.
Eyes, beloved" she answered in the
slow. sweet music of careful English.
''I've come for good and all-forever
and ever. z All, l wonder IL you want
me enough-as l want your"
want your cried Bross. want
you. my Lolita? You do know, don't
you, chiquita? You're going to be my
own loyal, beautiful, stately wife, Lo-
Iita, until the end of time. I would do
anything, anything, for your sake.
sweetheart. And you'd do anything
for me. I know. Wouldn't your
Yes she whispered ~fervently. "Oh,
l love you! | would give my life
more than that, | would kill any one
who came between u.s."
"Only it will not be necessary" smil-
ed her lover. Were just to be happy,
and that's ALL
I'm afraid of something-something
that is going to come upon you and
me- she said. tWho can tell what 1t
may be? 1t is like the strange wind
that blows-icy and cold-in your face
and through your hair when the grave
plot where you are to lie is trodden
upon.'
Dearest. how could it?" he laugh
ed gayly. lover beyond the hill, just
out of sight of the cas- road, is my
our-own team. Well drive to Las
Vegas and take the train. So all we
have to do, dear. is to climb to the
crest hand in hand. Kiss me, and let's
be on the way
Lolita seemed to shake off the vague
depression. she laughed d%eliciously.-
Not ALL she protested merrily.
"Tve the most beautiful dress in this
box you ever beheld, and a hat-a new
Observation-Disclosures things. Now 1
shall go up the hillside and make my
self ~presentable while you sit here and
smoke. When l am ready l will call,
and you can follow.
"But before l go''-the liquid voice
faltered-"let us go and drink where
the spring flows into the pool above.
1t may be Neutrality-suspicious. / drink of
it again. l will have played here since
l was but a little girl. Come"
Together they clambered up. the.
green bank at the side of the arroyo.
The rocks below the ever flowing
springs had been followed In places
and at others walled higher by long
dead hands.
Into this basin the crystal current
trickled continually. The pool itself
was only a foot deep, for there was a
narrow break at one side, through
which the overflow ran away down
the grass into the thirsty white sand
of the famished water course.
Only for that the water would have
been four feet and more from its sur
face tt the stony bottom.
The Spanish girl looked at the scene
with tender eyes; then she turned ST
lently away and, smiling back at the
man, vent upward toward a thicker