New-York tribune., 1921-06-05

noiseless expert motion, surrounded the three
men and the girl.
Pug and Goneli had no idea who was who
in the silent scuffie which took place in the
smothering blackness of that unfamiliar place.
1t was all black-sky, earth, sea--and to have
fred into the pressing bodies about them
would have been to chance killing Blanchard.
Of the Great Trunk, or that pretty girl with
the steady heart.
A match flared. Rita saw a crowd Of lean.
dark men in wide-brimmed hats. Their eyes
glittered out of the dark like the eyes Of
wolves Four of them sat on the protesting
body of old man Fairchild's son.
"Name of God!" one cried in a solemn
voice. ut is Signor Pug himself!"
"At your service" Pug remarked.
Rita looked from him toward the man who
had fought for Magella's freedom He was
bending over the engine. AS if the deep cut
on his hands were not enough, the Nationalist
had wounded him again during the brief scuf.
fe on the wharf; there was blood on his cbeek
and his natty bow tie had worked itself into
a ribald position at the back of his neck.
The light fiickered out, and the launch, fin.
pink dizzily beneath the unaccustonaed weight.
moved out into the harbor.
Rita dreamed Of a rose colored boudoir
of snowy pillows and scented tubs, of crystal
and lace and silver-of New York.
She awoke to luminous dawn The
launch lay in shallow water beyond a Whit
beach fringed with cocoanut palms. Pug and
her father were wading ashore, knee-deen in
the surf. Gonelli was wrapping his wounded
hands about with strips of cloth torn from
his tattered shirt. He met Rita's eyes and
smiled.
Good morning, signorina," he said
Rita thought: 'FHe isn't such monkey.
after ALL
One of the Nationahsts offered to carrv
her ashore, but she pushed him aside and
waded in with Gonelli, the small, crested
waves breaking to her waist
what is going to happen to us?" she de.
manded
"God knows, sgnorina These men look
upon Signor Pug as their hereditary enemy.
He is the personifcation of the hated Yank.
the spirit Of progress, the symbol of political
sanity. They will kill him if they can. They
will kill me because / am his friend. You
they will hold for ransom, somewhere in the
hills"
Things like this don't happen"
''They happen in Magella, signorina."
why don't you do something?"
Goneli stared down at her with look of
amused admiration. "Why not? Why not,
indeed?' He glanced over his shoulder at
the picturesque ragamuffin who was proddine
him forward with gentle insinuatons and
pressures. 'Signorina," he said in low
voice, you are the prettiest girl have ever
seen. expect to die very shortly-ten min-
utes, OF ten hours; it is all one! Dying men
should have certain privileges. Forgive me,
signorna, if tell you that I loved you when
saw you. I am Neapoitan by birth,
Magellan by choice. We Magellans live for
the fun of living. We fight for the JOY Of
fighting. We love for the glory of loving.
We die when there is no longer honor in lv-
ing. I will fight to live, to love you, and
to win you. Ebbene?"
II don't know what ebbene means" Rita
said, "but grasp the plot"
And be it frankly said, she smiled into
Gonelli's eyes,
They were met on the beach by the ten
Nationalist. The ten had, by some obscure
political sum in arithmetic, become twenty
And there were horses. tethered in the mea-
ger shadow of the cocoanut palms.
Pug smiled at Rita. "They are taking
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