The Ordway new era., 1918-10-25

~ >,iou, u- wu> iuc desperately en-
gagged. His rife WAS empty. he had Its
hoi mirrel in his hnn'ls he dimiy dis
rinyuishefi Ascnsio welding his mach
ere. Then he found himself down
and half stunned. Something smote
him heavily. at last-whether hoof
or gun-stock he could not tell and
next he WAS on all-fours, trying TO drag
himself out Of this rat-pIt. But his
limbs were queerIy rebellious. and he
was sick; he had never experienced
anything quite like this and he thought
he must be wounded. II greatly sur
prised him to find that he could strug-
gle upward through the brambles. even
though 1t was hard work. Men were
fighting all around and below him.
meanwhile, and he wondered vaguely
what made them kill one another when
he and his negroes were ail dead or
dying. II seemed very strange-Of
piece with the general unreality Of
ihings-and It troubled him not Il lit
tle One Of his arms was useless. he
discovered, and he realized with curl
GUS shock that It was broken. He was
bleeding, too. from more than one
wound, but he could walk, after a
fashion.
He was inclined to stay and finish
the fight, but he recOllected that Rosa
would be waiting for him and that he
must go to her. and SO he set out
across the fields, staggering through
the charred cane stubble. The night
WIS not SO black as II had been. and
this puzzled him until he saw that the
plantation house was ablaze. Flames
were belching from Its windows, cast
ing abroad lurid radiance; and re-
membering Panchos Cueto, Esteban
laughed.
by and by. after he was well away,
his numbness passed and he began to
suffer excrucinting pain. The pain had
been there all the time, SO 1t seemed !;
he was simply guining the capacity to
feel 1t. He was ready to die now, he
was so III: moreover, his left arm
dangled and got In his way. Only that
subconscious realization of the neces-
sity to keep going for ROsa's sake sus-
tained him.
Daylight came at last to show him
his way. More than once he paused,
alarmed, at voices in the woods. only
to find that the sounds Issued from his
own throat.
1t had grown very hot now. so hot
that heat-waves obscured his vision
and caused the most absurd forms to
take shape. He began to hunt aimless-
ly for water, but there was none. Bvi-
IDENTIFY this heat had parched the land,
dried nm the streams md set the
stones afre. 1t was incredible, but
true.
Esteban reasoned that he must be
near home by this time. for he had
been travelling for days-for years. The
country, indeed, was altogether unfa-
milIar; he could not recall ever having
seen the path he trod, but for that mat
ter everything was strange. In the
| first place he knew that he was going
west, and yet the morning sun persisted
In beating hotly into his facei That
alone convinced him that things had
gone awry with the world. He could
remember great cOnvulsiOn of some
| sort, but Just what 1t was he had no
clear idea! Evidently, though, 1t had
been sufficient to change the rotation
| Of the earth. Yes, that was it; the
earth was running backward upon its
axis; he could actually feel 1t whirling
under his feet. No wonder his journey
| seemed SO long. He was laboring over
a gigantic treadmiii, balancing like an
| equilibrist upon a revolving sphere.
Well, 1t was simple matter to stop
walking, SIT down, and allow himself