The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-10-30
CHAPTER Ill
Tucayan


The morning sun dried my clothes
and filled me with comfortable
warmth. Except for inconsiderable
soreness from the buffeting of the
storm and a tender spot on my head
that kept AdolfO in my mind, | was
none the worse for the extraordinary
experience in which / had reached the
shore Of Venezuela. That | had an
implacable enemy in the person of
Adolfo de Fuentes was somewhat dis
Quieting, for Spain ruled Venezuela,
and if De Fuentes survived the wreck
my stay in the country would be to me
a constant source of danger. Yet to
leave Venezuela would be to turn my
face from the lOdestar of love that
had directed my actions since that
night of mOon-madness in the Place
dArmeS. If the Senorita Dulce lived
she was even now in Venezuela. and
where the Senorita was there / would
be also.
I turned my face to the southwark
and moved through the solemn silence
of primeval forests. | left the jungle
floor ar last and climbed the timbered
slopes TO the crest of a mountain
range that paralleled the coast. Ex-
tending far TO the south. ! saw the
checkered green and brown of cult
waited fields, and the irregular outlines
of few tiny villages. and even farther
southwark yet the forested slopes be-
gan again, to disappear in the misty
distance.
Musing, | looked upon this land of
beauty, where peace should have
reigned supreme, but did not, because
Bolivar and his revolutionary army
contended for its possession against
La Tore, the right hand of Ferdinand
VII. august king of Spain. Even as
I stood. lost in admiration of the love
" scene, the clank of arms came to
me. and the gathering of shod hoofs
upon rocky road. A body of soldiers
mounted on mules passed in single
file along a narrow way that the un-
derbrush had hidden from my view.
I watched them from the concealment
of great ceiba tree.
"A sweet reception" said voice, in
Spanish, ito our colonel. wonder
if he lost his lady-love."
a thing of no Importance" said
another: there are many more-and
De Fuentes never lacks a lady-love"
Then Adolfo had been saved I.
but the SenOrita Dulce! Ah-had the
storm, after all. claimed that lovely
lady? Ny mad worship would not let
me believe it. Surely the Master of
our souls would not have brought me
through and taken her. Well. | would
know. for they were evidently going to
Adolfo now; they were travelling west
and the coloners destination had been
Caracas. Caracas, therefore. was east.
After the sounds of their passing
had died away descended the rocky
declivity TO the road and bent my
steps to the east. | heard, after three
hours of rapid walking, the mingled
noises of town, so, leaving the road.
/ beat back into the forest and passed
north of the settlement, which. | was
TO learn, was Maracay, a city OF the
lake
Just before the sun went down |
came TO a village Unexpectedly, be-
cause it did not offer the mixed
noises that Indian villages always
have. The village lay under the SON.
Der silence of tomb. | was in it
before l realized that any settlement
was near.
The first few jacals passed were in
ruins, and neither dogs nor children
came out to greet me- | began TO
wonder if the storm had reached this
far. Now came across a prone figure
III the path. flattened figure with
face pressed against the earth as
though he were endeavOring to look
through it. l had seen dead men be-
fore: | Lad seen scores of them upon
the battlefield. Now ether fgureS-a
woman and a child-lay before me;
and now five men upon a single glib
bet, and boy of ten or less hanging
by vine around his neck. his slim
bare feet pointing pathetically toward
the earth. Every house was down
burned or crushed as though a giant
hand had pressed upon them, and
every occupant was dead.
| went through the awful length of