Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-07-24
lad gained the backs of their own ani-

malS.
 Instantly there began 2 blind battle in desperately cramped quarters. Riders fought strrup to stirrup with cubbed rifles and machetes saddles were emptied and the terrified horses bolted. Some of them lunged up the banks, only to tumble down again, their threshing limbs and sharp-shod hoofs working more havoc than blows from old-time battle-hammers.
 Of course, after the first moment of conflict, Esteban had not been able to exert the least control over his men; in fact, he could not make himself heard. Nor could he spare the breath to shout he was too desperately en- gagged His rife was empty, he had it's hot barrel in his hands; he dimly dis tingnished Asensio welding his mach etc, Then he found himself down and half stunned. Something smote him heavily, at last-whether q hoof or a gun-stock he could not tel-and next he Wss on all-fours, trying to drag himself out of this rat-pit. But his limbs were qucerly rebellious, and he was sick; he had never experieifced anything quite like this and he thought he must be wounded. It greatly sur prised him to find that he could strug- . gle upward through the brambles, even though it 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 all dead or dying. It seemed very strange-of piece with the general unreality of things-und 1t troubled him not d lit- tie. One of his arms was useless, he discovered and he realized with q curi- ous shock that 1t 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 recolected 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 was not so black as it had been, and this puzzled him until he saw that the plantation house was ablaze. Flames were belching from it's windows, cast ing abroad a lurid radiance; and re- imeInbering Rancho Cueto, Esteban laughed
 By and by, after he was well away, his numbness passed and he began to suffer excruciating pain. The pain had been there all the time, so it seemed; Nhe was simply gaining the capacity to feel it. He was ready to die now, he was so ill; moreovey his left arm dangled and got in his aay. 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.
 It 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. Evi- . dently this heat had parched the land, dried up the streams, and set the 
 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 firc< .v,lo h< Iy,, Ic west, and yet the morning sun persisted in beating hotly into his face 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 whirllng under his feet. No wonder his journey seemed so long. He was labOring over a gigantic treadmill, balancing like an equilibrist upon revolving sphere. Well, 1t was simple matter to stop walking, sit down, and allow himself to be spun backward around to the place where Rosa was waiting. He pondered this idea for some time, un- til it's absurdity became apparent. Un- doubtedly he must be going out of his head; he saw that 1t was necessary to keep walking until the back-spin of Ii that treadmill brought Rosa to him.