Meade County news., 1918-07-11

sternness, the exalted detachment, of
the eagle. and O'Re1ly gained hint of
the personality behind It. Maxine
Gomez was counted one of the worlds
ablest guerrilla leaders;. and. indeed
1t had required the quenchless enthu-
slasm Of real military genius to fuse
into a homogeneous fighting force the
ill-assorted rabt1e of nondescripts
whom Gomez led, to school them to
privation and to render them sufficient
Ely mobile to defy successfully ten
times their number of trained troops.
This, however, was precisely what the
old Porto Rican had done, and n doing
1t he had won the admiration of mill
tary students.
With a :bluntness. not unkind he
asked .OReilly what had brought him
to Cuba. " !!,sI u:
When O'Reiliy explained the reason
for his presence the old fighter nod
ded.
$50? You wish to go west, ehY
Eyes, sir. want to find Colonel
Lopez"
"Lopez2 Miguel LopezT the gen.
eral inquired quickly. "Well, you won't
have to look far for. him." General
Gomez leathery countenance lightened
into smile. "He happens to be right
here in Cubitas." Calling eJudson to
him, he said: "Amigo, take Mr.. O'Reilly
to Colonel Lopez, you will find him
somewhere about. I am sorry we are
not, to have this young fellow for a
soldier; he looks like real man and
quite equal to five Quintos, chr"
1t was the habit Of the .Cubans to
refer to their enemies as quintos-
the fifth part of man! With a wave
Of his hand Gomez returned to his
reading.
Col. Miguel Lopez, a handsome, ami
mated fellow, took O'Reilly's hand In
a hearty clasp when they were intro
duced; but a moment later his smile
gave way to a frown and his brow
darkened. .[,:' "
"Sol You are that, O'Reilly from
Matanzas," said he IT know you now,
butt never expected we would meet y
"Esteban Varona told you about me,
did he notT> -"
The colonel inclined his head. - :
I'm here at last, after the DEVILS
own time. I've Been trying every way
to get through: The 'Spaniards' stopped
me at Puerto Principe-they sent me
back home, you know. I've been per-
fectly crazy. T. You" OReilly
swallowed hard" "You know where
Esteban Jsa; ,:;si' -: s.,sse. -
"Have you heard nothingT ~ :,
"Nothlng,swhateyer. That is, notlf
ing since ;HSsas yhis sister You un-
derstand, 'she and are-engaged-"
Eyes, yes ;4Esteban told me all about
you" -, ~ - $
Something in the Cuban's gravity of
manner gave iO'Rellly warning. A sud-
den fear assdiled him. His voice shook
as he asked:
"WAaf Not bad 'news9''l, (.
There %asi DD heed flor the officer
to answer: I'm rshfs!aaverted- EasS
o'RelllS ads:conhrfnatiN Of 'hfs sfeite
est apprehensions. t'~ 49,; -
.Tell i Rrsl y Which onsT he. se.g ghlt ~
DeaS Both & + ~ '-:s: 2.-,--,.c <. <t3S''T' :
,ss0sReilIy' recQiied; a spasm. .dlstorted
his .chalky face. He began. to, shake
weakly, and his fingers plucked aim
lessly at each oshek.tt,, s''a, -
Lopez took him by the ARM. "Try to
control YOURSELF" said he. ."Sit, here
while. I try to tell you what little. I
know. Or would 1t not be better to
wait awhile, until you are ealmerT
As the young man made no answer, ex-
cept to stare at him. in a white agony
Of suspense, he sighed:
IT will tell you all I know-which
isn't much. Esteban VaroGa came: to
me soon after he and his. sister. had
fled from their home; he wanted to
join my forces, but we were harassed
on every side, and I didn't, dare take
the girl-n0 woman could have en-
dured the hafdships we,suffered. So
I convinced him that his firstsduty was
to her, rather, than to his country, and
he agreed. He was agflne boy! He
had spirit. He bought some stolen
rifles and armed. A.band of his own
which wasn't a bad idea, / used to
hear about him. Nobody cared to
molest him, I can tell you, until finally
he killed some Of the regular troops:~
Then of course they went after him.
Meanwhile he managed to destroy his
own plantations, which Cueto had
robbed him of. You know CuetoT'
"Yes."
."Well, Esteban put an end to him
after while; rode right up to La
Joya one night, broke In the door, and
macheted the scoundrel in his bed. But
there was mistake Of some sort. It
seems that body Of Cobo's volun-
teers were somewhere close by, and
the two parties met. l have never
learned all the details Of the affair, and
the stories Of that fight which came to
me are too preposterous for belief.
Still, Esteban and his men must have
fought like demons, for they killed
some incredible number. But they
were human-they could not defeat a