Williams news., 1916-08-17

had he lost. But to save his soul Ky naston could not help ref1ecting that, had the end been different, he might have had his chance at winning Doro- thy. {
 We'll, it would not take long. It would be over in twenty-four hours, unless-a horrible thought came to him-those men below, whose prison CT he would be in two hours, were savages in the rough; savages with the blood-lust fairly reused and 1n- famed by defeat.
 He had heard tales of torture among the prisoners that he had seen at No gales-horrible tales!
 The thought of having to go with out even saying farewell to Dorothy unnerved him for a moment, but he realized his own limitations, and he knew that in that last moment he would betray himself So down he sat at the table and wrote two short notes; one to his colonel, in which he explained the whole affair, and the oth- CT to the sister that lived in quiet little Maryland town among the placid back eddies of the eastern shore.
 Kynaston, his notes written, filled the clip of the automatic and slipped it into his bootleg, where it's fiat frame would be most likely to lie undetected.
 A moment later Upton came into the room. His face was gray with suppressed feeling and his gaunt frame showed unmistakable suffering In the few minutes that had passed since Kynaston had left him the whole trag- edy of the next twenty-four hours had been brought home to him.
 q cant let you go, boy" he said hoarsely. We had better take our chance. Bring your men on over across the border
 The appeal was almost overwhelm- ing in its intensity.
 Don't you know that it means your life?" 1.'
 T know. But it means war if 1 do; and, Upton, as God is my judge, cannot start war that will involve the country to save my own skin. You see that, don't you?"
 Upton licked his dry lips.
 "When-when-do you mean to leaye?" he asked.
 Right now"
 Kynaston's face was pale.
 Are the ladies in the back room?"
 Yes. I'll go with you to the door,"
 The two men strolled listlessly to- ward the door of the main room, where the defenders stood eying them. Frank puzzlement was written large upon their faces as Upton unbarred the door, letting Kynaston out upon the smooth four-hundred-yard stretch of grass that spread from the door step to the stream, grass that had been laboriously planted by hand through two generations.
 Below them the land sloped away to the east, riot of gold and dun, pearl and opal, and that curious red brown that one sees in the southwest and nowhere else OF earth.
 Looking cut before he shut the door again, Upton saw, a mile away, a col umn of red dust swirl up to the ame- thystine sky and heard a series of long, joyous yells that cut the desert silences like a knife. Yell after yell broke out, then firing, and then more yells.
 "That'n be the arrival of the re- endorsements they spoke of," said Ky naston. I'm off, old man. Adios! Give my love to-ycur-daughter.
 Upton frankly choked as he watched the younger man swing off down the hill.
 Steadily Kynaston tramped down across the dead olive-green of the parched alfalfa patch, skirted the dead brown of the sugar cane, paused to wave his hand to the old miner, and disappeared from view among the cottonwoods.
 Upton, signing, turned back to the house. He tramped through the great room amid a great silence. Men turned from their loopholes, scanned his face, and furtively fell to rubbing spctless rife-bolts with their shirt sleeves. They saw in his face such grief as is above mere words, and, after the manner of the southwest, re- spected it.
 Dorothy and Mrs. Fane he found in the back room. They knew, or sus- pected. Mrs. Fane was sitting in chair at the head of the table, her face in her hands, frankly weeping, with her arms spread upon the table, her beautiful figure racked with sobs.
 Dorothy, mixture of fire and ice, stood by the window, which was closed and barred, confronting MT. Wilkes. who fairly cringed before the concen- trated fury in her eyes. 'I say it was a shame-a shame!" she cried. What if he did kill him? Did they not try to kill him first, and have they not stolen first from us, and for two days now tried to kill us all? Did he not peril his life to get us wa ter? Did he not cross the line and