Tombstone epitaph., 1916-07-09
CHAPTER ii-continued.

While they were eating the appe- tizing meal that the trumpeter spread for them upon the camp table beneath the 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 saddle that lay near the cooking tent, and came forward with a salute.
 Hes 8 priest, sir-a padre; and from what little I can make out of his lingo he's had a pretty bad time of it, 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, Mir Kynas- ton. Please do exactly as you would if we were not here. I am sure he will be very interesting"
 J, where the old man was explaining in broken English and Mexican patois to the prisoners. for them to translate to the Americans that be was more tired than hungry. but that mos: of all he desired to hold converse with the commanding officer. Having in- troduced himself. Kynaston asked the ,tI tn Sl sa A,s. him in coffee.
 They found the two ladies already at their meal. Kynaston seated the old man between the two and poured him a cupful of steaming coffee that woke him into speech.
 Never before. senor. have 1 crossed the line. A Mayan am l. as all my people were for twelve generations that stretch their hands back even unto the days before there were Span- fards in Tenochtitlan
 For the space of twelve mems lives have we lived under the shadows of Fl Tio. seeing always the surf break on the outlying bars. Two years ago I came north. even as Coronado came. part of the way on my feet. part on. asses; always with pain, for to the blind, senor. all paths are hard. And at last my dream vanished"
 Thy dream?"
 Aye, senor, my dream, for know chou that I came not without an aim. cover what these thieves Of the 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. senor: for fifty years I have not seen the light of day"
 Mrs. Zane and Dorothy murmured their sympathy.
 So I have come, senor. For now three hundred years and my fathers before me kept the shrine where it has been deposited since the days when Cortez came back from the courts of the old world to hold his court at Cuernavaca, and. finding there in pow
 
 CT the evil mar. Pedrarias. bis enc my. retired to live upon his estates.
 -Ye know. senor and ladies. how it vas said that the conquistador poi soned his first wife so that he could marry 2 secord wife who should ad- vance his fortunes. It was to this sec ond wife that he gave those wonder rul 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. Fane and Dorothy looked their interest. All people are interested in the mere mention of jewels or pre- ctous stones-evcn those who do not possess them.
 "I have heard" said kynaston s,ovly, the same tale all men know. the tale which Gomara wrote to the effect that Cortez received as part of the ransom of the Emperor Monte suu. five great emeraids. and that