Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-08-21
Taway, when I'm alone, when I begin to,


 yourself to doubt" O'Reilly said, quick ly. "Take my word for it, Rosa Is alive and we'll find her somewhere, some how. General Gomez will soon have word of her. That's what I've been waiting for-that and what you might have to tell me-"
 "You know all that know now and everything that has happened to me"
 q don't know how you came to be in a cell in San Antonio de los Banos, two hundred miles from the place you were killed. That is still mystery"
 Tt Is very simple, amigo. Let me see: 1 had finished telling you about the fight at La Joya. I was telling you how I tainted. Some good people found me few hours after lost conscious ness. They supposed I had been at- tackled by guerrillas and left for dead Finding that still had life in me, they took me home with them. They were old friends from Matanzas by the name of Valdes-cultured people who had fled the city and were hiding in the manigua like the rest of us."
 Not Valdes, the notary?" "The very same. Alberto Valdes and his four daughters. Heaven guided them to me. Alberto was an old man; he had hard work to provide food for his girls. Nevertheless, he refused to abandon me. Oh, they were faithful, patient people! You see, had walked east instead of west, and now I was miles away from home, and the cOun- try between was swarming with Span- iards who were burning, destroying.s killing. You wouldn't know Matanzas, O'Rellly. It is desert.
 'I finally became able to drag myself around the hut. But had no means of sending word to Rosa, and the un- certainty nearly made me crazy. My clothes had routed from me; my bones were just under the skin. I must have been a shocking sight. Then one day there came a fellow travelling east with messages for Gomez. He was one of Lopez men, and he told me that Lo- peg had gone to the Rubi Hills with Maceo, and that there were none of our men left in the province. He told me other things, too. It was from him that I learned-" Esteban Varona's thin hands clutched the edges of his hammock and he rolled his head weak ly from side to side. "It was he who told me about Rosa. He said that CObO had ravaged the Yumuri and that my sister-was gone!'
 "There, there We know better nOw.' O'Reilly said, soothingiy.
 eTt was a hideous story, story of 1.1n II tbnf go mad It never occurred to me to doubt, and as matter of fact the fel- low was honest enough; he really be- lieved what he told me. After the man had finished I felt the desire to get away from all I had known and loved, to leave Matanzas for new fields and give what was left of me to the cause. was free to enlist, since I couldn't reach Lopez, and l came to join our forces in the Orient.
 "That Is how you found me in this province. Lopez man never delivered these dispatches, for we were taken crossing the trocha-at least I was taken, for Pablo was killed. They'd have made an end of me, too, dare say, only I was so weak. It seems a century since that night. My memory doesn't serve me very well from that point, for they jailed me, and I grew worse. I was out of my head good deal"
 The two men fell silent for while. Isteban lay with closed eyes, exhaust ed. O'Reilly gave himself up to frown- ing thought. His thoughts were not pleasant; he could not, for the life of him, believe in Rosa's safety so im- piicitly as he had led Esteban to SUD- pose; his efforts to cheer the other had sapped his own supply of hope, leaving him prey to black misgivings. He was glad when Norine Evans re- turn put an end to his speculations.
 "HaVe you narrowed this poor mans feelings sufficiently for once?" she in- quired of O'Reilly.
 T have. I'll agree to talk about nothing unpleasant hereafter"
 Esteban turned to his nurse. "There Is something want to tell you both"
 Wait until tomorrow" Norine ad- vised.
 But he persisted: "Nol I must tell 1t now. First, however, did either of you discover an old coin in any of my pockets-an old Spanish doubloonT'
 "That doubloon againl" Norine lift ed her hands protestingly, and cast q meaning look at O'Reilly. You talked about nothing else for whole week. Let me feel your pulse."
 Esteban surrendered his hand with suspicious readiness.
 "You were flat broke when we got you" O'Reilly declared