Mexico Missouri message., 1918-06-20

TO shout; ne was too desperately en-
gagged. His rifle was empty, he had its
hot barrel In his hands; he dimly dis
tinguished Asensio welding his mach
etc. Then he found himself down
and half stunned. Something smots
him heavily, at last-whether a hoo.
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 queerly rebellious, and he
was sick; he had never experienced
anything quite like this and he thought
he must be wounded. 1t 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 all dead or
dying. 1t seemed very strange-of a
piece with the general unreallty Of
things-and 1t troubled him not lit
tie. One Of his arms was useless, he
discovered, and he realized with a curl
Gus 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 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
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 its windows, cast
Ing abroad a lurid radiance; and re-
membering Pancho Cueto, Esteban
laughed.
BY and by, after he was we'll away,
his numbness passed and he began to
suffer excruciating pain. The pain had
been there all the time, so 1t seemed;
he was simply gaining the capacity to
feel 1t. He was ready to die now, he
was so i'll; moreover, his left arm
dangled and got in his way. Only that
subconsclous 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. Evil
IDENTITY this heat had parched the land,
dried up the streams, and set the
stones afire. 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-
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 facet That
alone convinced him that things had
gone awry with the world. He could
remember a great convulsion of some
sort, but Just what it 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 it whIrling
under his feet. No wonder his journey
seemed so long. He was lnboring over
a gigantic treadmill, balancing like an
equilibrist upon a revolving sphere.
Well, 1t was simple matter to stop
walking, sit down, and allow himself