Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-06-23

trait or feeling Yadui pointed down
the lava slope, pointing with finger
and arm and neck and head-his
whole being seemed to have been ami
mated and then frozen.
ashore he sees somethin," said
Ladd. but my eyes are no good"
81 reckon l amt sure OF mine," re-
piled jim I'm bothered by a dim
movin' streak down there"
Thorne gazed eagerly down as he
stood beside Mercedes, who sat mo-
tionless facing the slope Gale looked
and looked TIL he hurt his eyes. Then
he took his glass out Of its case on
SOILS saddle.
There appeared 10 be nothing upon
the lava but the lnnumerable dots of
choya shining in the sun. Gale swept
his glass slowly forward and back.
Then into a nearer fiald of vision crept
a long white-and-black line of horses
and men. Without a word he handed
the glass to Ladd. The ranger used
it, muttering to himself.
They're on the lava fifteen miles
down in an air line" he said present
ly. "Jlm, shore they're twice that an
more accordin' to the trail"
Jim had his look and replied: 81
reckon we're a day an a night in the
lead"
as IT RojasY burst out Thorne
with set jaw.
'Yes, Thorne. It's Rojas and a
dozen or more" replied Gale, and he
looked up at Mercedes.
She was transformed. She might
have been a medieval princess en-
bodying all the Spanish power and
passion of that time, breathing re-
venge, hate, unquenchable spirit Of
fire. If her beauty had been wonder
full in her helpless and appealing mo-
ments. now, when she looked back
white-faced and fiame-eyed, 1t was
transcendent.
Gale drew a long, deep breath. The
mood which had presaged pursuit
strife, blood on this somber desert,
returned to him tenfold He saw
Thorne's face corded by black veins,
and his teeth exposed Ike those of a
snarling wolf. These rangers, who
had coolly risked death many times,
and had dealt It often, were white as
no fear or pain could have made them.
Then, on the moment, Yaqui raised his
hand, not clenched or doubled tight,
but curled rigid like an eagles claw;
and he shook 1t In a strange, slow ges-
ture which was menacing and terrible.
It was the woman that called to the
depths of these men. And their pas
sion to kill and to save was surpassed
only by the Wild hate which was yet
love, the unfathomable emotion Of a
peon slave. Gale marveled at 1t,
while he felt his whole being cold and
tense as he turned once more to fol-
low In the tracks of his leaders, The
fight predicted by Bedding was at hand.
What a fight that must be Rojas
was travelling light and fast. He was
gaining. He had bought his men with
gold, with extravagant promises, per
haps with offers Of the body and blood
of an aristocrat hateful to their kind.
Lastly, there was the Wild desolate
environment, a tortured wilderness Of
jagged lava and poisoned choya, a
lonely, fierce and repellent world, a
red stage most somberly and fittingly
colored for a supreme struggle be
tween men.
Yaqul looked back no more. Mer-
cedes looked back no more. But the
other looked, and the time came when
Gale saw the creeping line Of pur-
suers with naked eyes
A level line above marked the rim
of the plateau. Sand began to show
In the little lava pits. On and upward
toiled the cavalcade, still very slowly
advancing. At last Yaqui reached the
rim. He stood with his hand on
Blanco Diablo; and both we're sllhou-
cited against the sky. That was the
outlook for a Yaqui. And his great