Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-05-19
sTONs ATTRACTIVE FASHION AND SHOPPING EVERY WOMAN
The Daily Story
For Love of the Major

Jeant ana the troopers OF MS escort Wet'
! frying their bacon at campfire outside.
| While Jose, who waited on the officer,
! was away after the wine, the Major re-
| Ceived sudden shock. The handsomest
| Mexican girl he had ever seen softly en-
! tered the ROOM a finger on her lips and
! whispered.
Don't drink the wine, Senor-it will
! be poisoned! Don't sleep In the house
tonight. They come to rob and murder
! you"
! She was gone before the son of Mars
| could reach out and grasp her sleeve ~
utter word in reply, He had stopped
| at the ranch several times before and
| knew that the girl was recent arrival.
Jose was back with the wine a minute
after the girl had disappeared, but the
officer waved him away, saying:
at is kind of you, Jose, but not to-
night. In the morning perhaps, you may
ask me to take a bottle along to Fort
Reno and have the Colonel sample 1t
with me-"
At 10 o'clock the Major made excuse
! that nc would rather sleep in his ambu-
lance which was provided with cot and
at II all was quiet within and without the
ranch Within, however. the Mexican
stood AZ one Of the rear windows peeriug
out into the darkness, waiting. without,
while all the escort except single senti-
mel appeared to he sound asleep, every
mans eyes were wide open and his car
bine rested by MS side.
At midnight TO the minute, Jose lighted
the candle and passed it back and forth
across the window a dozen times; then.
taking his revolver from shelf, he softly
quit the house and after n walk of 800
feet. he stood before six men Crouched be-
nina q giant cactus.
"Thoy are asleep the pigs he whis-
pered. "and it will need only one shot
apiece to DO for them. Gomez
Five minutes later, seven border out
laws Crcpt down TO within 10 feet of the
sleeping men. The sentinel stood as one
in laHe. The outlaws crept another
foot and the man on guard suddenly
wheeled firing his musket with deadly
effect. His reGumbent comrades sprang
to their feet and poured in a volley> which
dropped three r,lfi'ans. The rest tied into
the darkness With the flcetness of shad-
ows. and it was hardly minute later
when the Coatess, hatess and vcstlcss
Joe burst out OF the front door of the
/ ranch with tine exclamation:
who is it? What is it? am here 70
die with the Senor and his brave men,
I'VE won't ask you, Jose, to do any
dying for us tonight Erimly replied
the Major as he came forward. I'm the
morning, after we are gone, you may
dig the graves for those dead comrades
of yours If you want to obliGe u.s.
! MY comrades, Senor? God forbid!
never saw one of them before. I permit
no bad men to hang about my place. The
cursed dogs to come sneaking upon you
| in the darkness to do murder!'
/ The Mexican tried to throw the ring
of truth into his words. but as he had a
/ bullet hole in his shirt and could still feel
! the skin smart whccr the lead had grazed
! il he did not make much of success.
| Even when he went over and kicked one
/ of the dead men nobody asked to shake
| hands with him.
The Major ate his breakfast In the
ranch house and sought to put Jose at
his ease, his one object to get another
/ sight of the girl whose warning had pre-
vented a tragedy For just five seconds
/ she stood in the half-open door and
| smiled at him, but before he could thank
| her she was gone,
This was the beginning of the Majors
mash" as his regiment chose to call
il The officer would have been boor
not to follow it up. at least to the point
! of having grateful speech with the girl.
/ He rode to the ranch on purpose one day,
| Jose was fortunately away on cattle
| stealing expedition and his wife was In
bed with the jumping toothache. Little
| did he learn from Pepita. however. She
was a girl of IS, handsome and convent
I educated but she shrouded herself in
mystery and he did not seek to break
/ down her reserve. He expressed his deep
/ gratitude and rode away, but as he gal
| loped back to Fort Brady he was un-
| comfortably conscious that the girl ad-
| mired him,
His wife had gone East, and he was
! not the man to enter into Irritation in
| her absence Once more he saw Pepita
/ at the ranch as he rode on official busi-
ness, and once she was found lingering
around the fort as If to get speech with
D i'm al no
was a lonely out-of-the-world post, and
| there had to he gossip about some one or
| something. The Major was guyed by his
brother officers about the girl, and he
knew that the rank and file were talking,
/ but he went his way and said nothing.
They would not know that he had Of
fered to send the girl East where his
wife or his mother might provide for her.
| Then one autumn night, when the
| gospip was at it's height, the sentinel at
| the gate suddenly called for the corporal
| of the guard. II was dark and gusty
with falls of rain at intervals, but he
/ had caught sight of figure skulking
| about. The corporal made n dash
! through the darkness and laid his hands
| on a human being-on n woman, 1t was
| Pepita! Near at hand was the pony
! on which she had covered a distance of
| 2s miles i'm the last four hours
| 'I want to see the Senior tDavs," she
] Sdlh do thN NN' P''N'' N-'''S''''N' ''N' ''''''
ness.
"Oh, that's the game, eh?" chuckled
the man to himself and winked at the
sentinel through the darkness
AT once, If you please"
TITS coming 1t pretty strong. little one.
but it's not for me to interfere. Say,
Pete, if We only had a paper to take this
up, eh9s Prominent officer mashed on a
cussed good-looking little Greaser gal
rides out to chin-chin with her-she rides
, back to return His call-love-romance-
elopement Everything here for a first-
class novel"
with death in it If you insult ma
| further!" said Pepita, as she drew a dag
| ger and menaced him.
"A kitten with claws, Ell? Put up
that frog-sticker and come along with
me-"
The girl was conducted to Major Davis
] quarters and remained for half an hour.
| Then she rode away. She was hardly
outside the gate when a silent alarm
/ brought the men out of barracks to fall
in quarter of an hour later they had
| manned the defenses and were waiting
for Red Cloud and his 800 warriors TO
attack. When the rush was made the
| famous chief was beaten for the first time
I'm his life. and there were only 4S5 war
riors to escort him back to his village.
| Had he cpme an hour earlier not a man
! or woman in Fort Brady would have
| escaped the tomahawk
aIaHF -