The Washington herald., 1921-06-26

pierced the armor Of her heart until the
Americana came. He had the face Of a saint,
the form of a god She listened with will
Ing ears to his honeyed words, believed in
his passionate promises-too long. Then,
when the bitter awakening came. he was
gone-faded away in the mist that preceded
clouds Of revolution in her beloved Mexico.
Game the night when revolutionists,
erazed by victory and lusting for blood,
surrounded their home. Her father, high
in the councils of. the Federal Government,
was shot down and all his retainers slain.
But the thing that scared itself into her
brain with ineffaceable memory was that he,
the Gringo god she had worshiped not
wisely but too well, had fired the bullet that
branded her for life, had torn from her arms
their child-4e one thing she had left to
love and live for. Then, when she learned
that he was a paid agent of the revolution
lists, that his attentions to her had been
chiefly for the purpose of betraying the home
he had ruined, she became Nemesis with
her hand against all men. Each night as
she lay down to sleep she repeated her oath
ruin he had wrought.
ana now soon ne must pay!
She was brought from her bitter reverie
by a groan from the man on the bunk A
few inarticulate words fell from his white
lips. Then his eyes opened-not black, as
she had fancied; but blue as the star
spangled sky without-the counterparts Of
those that looked out of the miniature in
the locket.
He smiled wanly up at her.
II am-ill What-is-the-matter NY
hesd!" He groaned and his eyes grew dim
with pain. What place is this? Why am
/ here"
You were hurt down the trail and took
you in to dress the wound" The woman
spoke almost mechanically. her, eyes fixed
incredulously upon his face But" her
voice grew tense, metallic, "who is this
man? What is he to you?"
The stranger gazed upon the painted fea-
lures, his face softening.
''He-was-my-father, he replied,
'Was? Them
'fHe is dead!'
He rose and put forth his hand for the
locket. But the exertion was too great and
he fell back unconscious.
Long Sonora Diablo stood there In the
dim glow Of the candle, piecing together
the developments that had come into her
life with such stunning suddenness The
man she had hunted so unrelentingly was
gone forever beyond the hand of vengeance,
the helpless stranger thrown so providen-
TALLY into her hands was his son-and
hers! The warm glow that the thought
brought into her heart gave way to poig-
nant fear as her eyes wandered back to his
face. 1t was ghastly in the wan light
"Diosl He must liven' the woman
cried. ''My boy-my boy! You must not
die you shall not ~
All through the night the distracted wo-
man watched at his bedside, hope and fear
fighting for supremacy in her" heart When
at last the sun fought its way over the
westward ranges he awoke, but with the
awakening came fresh fears, new despair
to Sonora Diablo. He was delirious and
his fever was so high that her practiced
eye knew it spelled death unless it could
be broken before nightfall. and there was
not q doctor within a hundred miles!
So with all the crude skill she had gath
cred from the mountain Indians, Sonora
Diablo took into her own hands the task
of bringing back to life and health the man
Of her flesh ID blood who had come out
of the long dead past into her heart again.
The days and the long sometimes storm
swept nights that followed were living
terror to the woman of the mountains, but
in those wearisome hours of vigil beside her
sons bedside life came to mean something
new and real to Sonora Diablo. The old
stratum Of revengeful bitterness -sloughed