The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-06-18

"Some one has been here said
Brena. I'm just Irish enough to say
that, Peter"
Hush he said. I've seen more
than you have seen. 1t means every
thing to u.s."
He bent over her as if he were go
ing to take her in his arms, but he
tossed his bead at some thought that
had restrained him, and took the
wheel once more.
At nine o'clock they came within
sight of a great mound on the desert /;
1t appeared as if it were the fat round
back of some gigantic creature that
had buried itself for a sleep of centu-
ries in a sand wallow of vast area.
"There it isl" exclaimed DeWolfe.
Look, Brena. Look to the west.
Somewhere up there is the Llano Es-
tacado-the Staked plain-as the
Spanish explorers called it. And
there's the haze on the horizon-the
haze that the Jesuit missionaries told
about. 1t comes from the colder air of
the Mescalero ridge!"
And it means that we have found
our way?"
Eyes, found our way. There's ninety
miles more"
"Where are we going?'
ITO the Oldest city, Brena. in Amer
ica. To a city at the base of a high
Cliff, built of clay which crumbled CEN
turtles ago into dust. The wall is left
perhaps as it was two centuries ago.
A dry well. 4 carving upon the rock.
A MINDLESS place occupied only by
horned toads and perhaps one other
misshapen thing"
At three o'clock they had stopped
again to eat they were able to see in
the west the tops Of distant mountains
marked by a deeper, duller blue than
the thin cloudless rotunda of the sky.
An hour later they came within sight
of the lakeland upon which these
mountains we're set like piles of food
upon a giants doorstep. And this
step up-this mesa-with its precipi-
tous edge, marked the end of the des-
ert.
"The cliffs that rise to that table
land are impossible" said Peter, with
his eyes alight and his voice filled
with excitement. 1.-THE city was built
below their protection around a great
well and walled in front with thick
Notifications. We shall see them,
Brenal !"
He looked at the opening in the high
wall as if it were the NAV of Destiny
onened to belch forth upon them a SEN
tence.
Tell me, Peter-are there dangers
there? Do you known
81 only guess" he answered. Il
think there are none l think, Brena,
that beyond that wall there is free
dom for us-life for us-a message for
us."
81 must go with YOU"
He nodded.
At the entrance he stopped, gazing
down at the ground-the Aim, the blan-
ket of fine dust. He uttered an excla-
nation.
'What do you see, Peter?"
81 see a record in the sand"
"What record?"
"We shall see more" he said grimly.
Come"
Toward this memorial of tragedy, Of
death, of decay, of the in~signihcance
OF time, Of the inconsequence of an
g of man, Brena and Peter, like two
creatures of a moment of life, walked
with solemn, awed faces.
Look! ?" said Peter suddenly. "Have
you your nerve? Look |"
He pointed to a pile of charred
bones lying close to the well. Among
them was a piece Of human skull
blackened as if by fire.
"Wait," Peter commanded.
He went forward, bent over the
CHASTITY pile, kicked the sand that sur
rounded it and, STOPPING down, gath.
cred a number of objects into the cup
of his hand.
"This was no prehistoric man" he
said solemnly. "See The eyelets and
the nails of shoes. The leather long
ago vanished. Here are two mother
of pearl buttons, a pocket knife,
coins. the sna on a wallet. This man
lost his life, Brena, many years ago"
She tried to speak, wetting her dry
lips with the tip of her tongue.
"There are things of gold, too" said
Peter. Keep your nerve, dear. Look
at this !"
He held out in his trembling fingers
a signet ring with an 81 deeply en-
graved upon it.
THAT" exclaimed Brena with nor
ror. 1T was his!-Jim Hennepin's.
This is-him?
Eyes"
Brena moved toward the pile of
bones half consumed by fire; then she
stopped and looked away.
"He was killed." she said. HI was
shot or stabbed
mo" replied Peter grimly. ut was
"