The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1916-06-08
CHAPTER II-Continued.

While thoy were eating tho appc.
tizing meal that the trunpcter spread
for them upon the camp table beneath
tho solitary live oak that stood before
the tent. they watched the sergeant
help the stranger down the hill ia.
king the blind man to the fire. he seat.
ed him upon a saddle that lay near the
cooking tent, and came forward with
a salute.
Hes n priest, sIr-a padre: and
from what little | can make out OF
his lingo he's had n pretty bad time
OF II, sir. Shall | bring him up?"
Yes"
Kynaston sprang up.
Mrs. Fame, do you and Miss Up.
ton object to my asking the Old fellow
TO take his breakfast here with us? I
hardly like to send him down among
the prisoners to eat. He seems a cut
above them. don't you know"
why, OF course not. Mr.. Kynas.
ton. Please do exactly as you would
II we were not here. I am sure he
will be very interesting"
~ "NhN uO"H w tiS hlts
where the old mar was explaining In
broken English and Mexican patois
TO the prisoners, for them to translate
60 the Americas. that he was more
tired than hungry. but that most OF
all he desired to hold converse with
the commanding officer. Having In.
troduced himself. Kynaston asked the
old man to come to his tent and Join
him In coffee.
They found the two ladies already
at their meal. Kynaston seated the
old man between the two and poured
him a cuptul Of steaming coffee that
woke him into speech.
Never before. senior, have | crossed
the line. a Mayan gu |. as all my
people were for twelve generations
that strctch their hands back even
unto the days before there were Span.
iards In TenOchtitlan
For the space OF twelve mems
lives have we lived under the shadows
of I'll ITO, seeing always the surf break
on the outlying bars, Two years ago
! came north. ever as Coronado came.
part Of the way on my feet, part on
asses; always with pain. for TO the
blind, senior, all paths are hard. And
at last my dream vanished"
THY Dream"
Aye, senior. my dream. for know
thou that | came not without an aim.
That aim has been TO follow and re-.
cover what these thieves OF tho world
have taken"
He pointed his thumb over his
shoulder toward the fire. where the
prisoners still sat over the bacon and
hard bread that were being cooked for
them by the cooks OF the troop.
And art thou really blind?"
so that, senior: for fifty years I
have not seen the light OF day"
Mrs. Fame and Dorothy .nurmured
their sympathy.
so ! have come, senor. For now
three hundred years | and my fathers
before me kept the shrine where II has
been deposited since the days when
CorteZ came back from the courts OF
the old world to hold his court M
~Cuernavaca, and. finding there in pow.
'" N"N ~ 49, NNa iao1 ~ tiit
my, retired To live upon his estates.
"Yo know senior and ladies', how Il
was said that the coaQuistador poi.
soncd his first wife 80 that he could
marry a second wife who should ad.
vance his fortunes. II was to this sec.
ond wife that he ave those wonder.
full Jewels. as all the world knows:
he wonderful emeralds that Queen
Isabella asked for in vain and that
made Cortez the most courted man In
All Madrid. Hast thou heard OF them?"
Mrs, Fame and Dorothy looked their
Interest. All people are interested In
thp mere mention OF jewels or pre-
claus stones-even those who do not
poasess them.
y have heard" said Kynaston
slowly, the same tale all men know,
the tale which Gomara wrote to the
efrset that Cortez received as a part
OF the ransom OF the Emperor Monte.
suma Ave great emeralds. and that