The Washington herald., 1920-11-25

| concealed fire and the desire to
charm that she had inherited from
the gitanas of the Basque province.
AS for the humming bird part of
Der. that dwelt in her heart; you
could not perceive 1t unless her
bright red skirt and dark blue
blouse gave you symbolic hint of
the vagariOus bird.
The newly lighted -sun-god asked
for drink of water. Tonia brought
II from the red jar hanging under
the brush shelter. Sandridge con-
sidcred II necessary to dismount so
as TO lessen the trouble OF her
ministrations.
play nospy; nor do 1 assume to
master the thoughts OF any human
heart; but I assert, by the chron-
icler's right. that before a quarter
OF an hour had sped. Sandridge was
teaching her how to plait six
strand rawhide stake-rope, and
Tonia had explained to him that
were 1t not for her little English
book that the peripatetic padre had
given her and the little crippled
chiVo' that she fed from a bottle,
she would be very. very lonely in
deed.
Which leads to the suspicion that
'he hlds Fences needed repairing.
ana that the adjutant generals
sarcasm mad fallen upon unproduc-
tive soil.
In his camp by the water hole.
Lieut.. Sandridge announced thar
reiterated his intention of either
causing the Cisco Kid to nibbie the
black loan OF the Frio country
prairies or of hailing him before a
Judse ana jury. That sounded busi-
hess-lke. Twice week he rods
over to the Lone Wolf Crossing of
me FRO. and directed Tonia's slim.
slgntly lemon-tinted fingers amonr
the intricacies of the slowly grow.
ing lariat. A six-strand plait is
hard to learn and easy to teach.
The ranger knew that he Nigh,
nnd the Kid there at any visit. He
Kept his armament ready, and had
frequent eye for the pear thicket
at the rear Of the jacaI. Thus he
inlght bring down the kite and the
humming-bird with one stone.
While the sunny-haired ornithoI-
oeist was pursuing his studies the
Cisco Kid was also ATTENDING 70 III.
professional duties. He moodjly
shot up a saloon in a small cow
village on Quintana Creek, killed
the town marshal (plugging him
neatly in the center of his tin
oadge)' and then rode away, morose
ana unsatisfied. No true artist is
uplifted by shooting an aged man
carrying an old-style .3S bulldog.
On mis- way the Kid suddenly ex-
perienced the yearning that ali men
ieel when wrong-dcing loses its
Keen edge of delight. He yearned
Tor the woman he loved to reassure
MN that she was his in spite of II.
He wanted her to call his blood
thirstiness bravery and his cruelty
devotion. He wanted Tonia to bring
him water from the red Jug under
the brush shelter, and tell him how
the chivo was thriving on the bottle.
The Kid turned the speckled
roan's head up the ten-mile pear
rat that stretches along the Arroyo
Hondo until II ends at the Lone
Wolf Crossing of the Frio.
The roam whickered for he had a
sense of locality and direction enua,
to that of a belt-line street-car
horse. and he knew he would soon
be nibbling the rich mesquite grass
at the end OF forty-foot stake rop.
while Ulysses rested his head in
Circe's straw-roofed hut.
More weird and lonesome than the
journey of an Amazonian explorer
Is the ride of one through a Texas
pear fiat. With dismal monotony
and startling variety the uncanny
and multiform shapes Of the cacti
lift their twisted trunks, and fat,
pristly hands to cucumber the way.
The demon plant. appearing to live
without soil or rain, seems to taunt
the parched traveller with its lush
grey greenness. 1t warps itself a
thousand times about whaf look to
be open and inviting paths, only to
lure the rider into blind and Inn
passable spine-defended Bottoms of
the bag" leaving him to retreat, IL
he can. with the points of the COM
pass whirling In his head.
To be lost In the pear Is to die
almost the death Of the thief on the
cross, pierced by nails and with
grotesque shapes of all the fiends
lowering about.