The Washington herald., 1921-06-26

She sprang to the doorway, every sense
alert, gun in hand, ready f r another shot.
A groan drifted to her on the night air. Her
darting eyes found q dark figure face DOWN
ward and inert under the moonlight.
Swapping her gun into its holster, Sonora
Diablo went to the form prone there in the
dust of the trail. She rolled 1t over. Moon
beams bursting through the mist clouds fell
squarely upon the white, upturned face of .
man she had never known.
Across the strangers brow was q GRIM
soning wound where her bullet had plowed
its way. He was unconscious. Only the
low moans that fell from his lips indicated
that he still lived.
- the shack and stretched him upon her
bunk. Then she lighted a candle and pro-
ceeded to dress the wound.
he was young-not more than twenty one
this first man who had crossed Sonora
Diablo's threshold in more than twenty
years. His skin was the dark, healthy tan
that comes from long days under blazing
suns. His hair was jet black and curled
about the bullet-creased brow. Somehow
Sonora Diablo fancied his eyes were of the
same raven hue. He was handsome In q
rugged, virile sort Of way. Something in the
cast Of his square features stirred a dim
memory In her heart. She knew she had
never seen him before, but there wasf a
vague, haunting similarity to some one who
had been a part Of her dim past-before the
sunshine died.
Rapidly and with deft fingers the woman
he nhrtt
collar Of the flannel shirt and proceeded to
bathe and bandage the wound. When she
had finished and WAS moving the still un-
conscious patient to a more comfortable
posture her eyes fell upon q slender cord
about his neck. Lifting it, she brought
forth q gold locket.
1.-The picture of some sweetheart" mur-
INJURED Sonora Diablo.
Curiosity as to what type Of woman this
man, so evidently Of the great octdoors,
would choose forced her to open the en-
graved gold case. Then she started to her
feet with a wild, choking cry.
Within the locket reposed the portrait,
not; Of q girl or woman, but Of q man. 1t
was q painted miniature and the artist had
cunningly brought out the mass Of tawny
hair, the blue eyes, the mobile features of
the man she had trailed tirelessly, relent-
lessly, vengefully for half lifetime!
Stunned and bewildered, Sonora Dtablo
stood for many moments gazing upon the
pictured face, her mind darting back through
bitter scenes Of her sealed past. Then, with
q mighty rush of exultation, came the
thought that at last, in the stranger so mys-
teriously cast upon her care, she had found
a key 10 her vengeance. Soon, now, she told
herself, this man must pay!
It had been long, long before the world
knew her as Sonora Diablo that she had
awakened in a new distorted world; but II
seemed to her now but yesterday that she
had fought her way, wounded, bleeding,
near death, through enemy ranks before
which her father had died-a mnrtyred pa
triot. She could hear again the rattle Of
murderous guns taking their toll Of lives
she loved, feel the torturing burn of bullet
that tore its way across her temple, see the
universe transformed into q vortex of vari-
colored, brain stunning lights which carried
her down, down into a blackness from which
she emerged more dead than alive-and
alone save for the mutilated dead strewn
around her and the smoking embers of what
had been her last refuge. Again she lived
the moments of grief. despair, Of Unsuitable
hatred that consumed her heart as she
vowed over the grave Of her father to fol-
low to the end Of the earth IL need be the
man who had brought to them desolation
and death.
So, she-once the adored belle Of an
Sonora-had become Sonora Diablo / Even
now, In the face Of startling revelations Of
the moment. something of fierce, tigerish
pride famed in her somber eyes as she
thought how mankind had come to fear and
respect that name.
None Of her lovcrs-and she had them
By the score In the old, csrefres days-had