Tombstone epitaph., 1916-08-27

DShs
 The green stone. with that curious property that some jewels possess, gave of the light absorbed during day time. Now it was winking and twin king with an evil light as the padre cupped it in his brown palms.
 "I know it is here" he said slowly. 'and yet l cannot see It. I shall never see it, yet will the old shrine be the richer for my wanderings. l know 1t is green. and I can feel its long. pear shaped tongue that the sea gave it."
 He shook it; the pearl tongue gave out one clear note.
 "Will you not come with us, padre!'
 Dorothy spoke very gently. as one speaks to child.
 "Whither. then?"
 "To our own land. where there is no war. no trouble. no murder. no op- pression."
 Yes: it is to that land travel when the good God gives surcease from labor Till then"
 A whiplike crack from the darkness jared across the silences of the night "a long. whiplike crack, followed by a loud. clear note, accompanied by . sharp explosion. The old man fell prone upon his back. amid hundred twinkling fragments of the Bell.
 Wilkes dashed out of the shed.
 "A Mauser." he snapped. Some greaser trying for last shot smashed the Bell and killed the old man! Come on! Let's get out of here quick!"
 Start the motor!" called Kynaston. "IH to with you in jiHy."
 He stopped to gather up the frag. ments of the Bell-the precious frag- ments which would substantiate his story at the coming investigation and which would clear him of the charge of having stolen the relic.
 A moment later. as he ran around to the front of the house again, the machine was ready. purring, panting, and iarring under its engine.
 Throw in your clutch!" cried Wilkes. We're all here and we're all ready"
 kynaston leaped to his place, showed down the pedal, threw his clutch into the low and pulled it back to second The machine took the curve below the house. shooting forward like a proiec. tile on the trail that showed steel brown in the dusk.
 Its touch and go." muttered the old man. Nolan, keep the ladies down.
 His gray beard blew back over his shoulder; in the wind his eyes mar. rowed to pin-points.
 Throw her wide open. son!" he commanded.
 Kynaston's foot pressed the gasoline control and the car shot forward faster and faster. Past the first line of scat. tered fires they vent, greeted by yells and an occasional shot. Past the lines where the troops were forming. toward the house whither Kynaston had been taken, a prisoner; the house in which Upton had been murdered.
 Keep her goin' and throw her as wide open as you can!" said Wilkes.
 "I can hardly hold her as it is!" panted Kynaston. She's pulling like a runaway locomotive on a down grade"
 It was true. They had left the trail. and were heading northwest across the unfenced mesa, certain of a five mile fiat with nothing worse than a prairie-dog mound, bunch of grease wood, a sage-bush between them and the much-desired line. Behind them they heard the hammer oi pursuing hoofbeats; apparently every mounted man left in camp was after them.
 A storm of shots swept over and about them. one impinging on the iron that old Upton had so wisely placed above the engine. Wilkes reached back without looking and forced Doro, thy, who was about to rise. again to her knees.
 Keep down." he growled in kindly voice. We can't take chance now; we're too near the line" Rock and bush and stunted tree stood out in silhouette as if drawn in India ink against silver background Behind them they heard yells and shouts and shots.
 And then, coming toward them on 8 run. they saw a number of mounted men. For a moment Kynaston believed they were caught, but 1t was for mo ment only. A shout from a dozen lusty troopers told him 1t was Ameri can cavalrymen n Mexico-across the line at last.
 The pursuing Mexicans turned and fled into the darkening night. But the car continued on, though at lessen ing pace, and in . few minutes they shot past a great stone monument whitewashed, four-square, that marked the limits of anarchy and murder.
 Its like American cavalry the world over-on hand in the nick O time!" said Kynaston. They ran up the hill and over it and halted on the farther slope below the crest. It was then that Kynaston. get ting down from the car. helped Doro thy first of all from the tonneau, and catching her in his arms, kissed hei openly before them all.
 An that" said Wilkes, to whose arm Mrs. Fane was clinging. "is what I call the proper endin'. Of course. 1, ain't really the endin'!"
 Take the ladies back to my camp,