The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-08-24

| verify starr stone was paying TOT
his sins, and she paid with him for
that love which had redeemed him to
manhood's high estate, which had
made Of her fugitive, an outcast
from her own, but which burned In
her soul with indestructible beauty.
So be 1t, thought Sonya Savarin, so
be 1t.
Down In that dim world below, the
last act Of this drama of the sage land
was preparing for enactment. Posse
after posse, securing the lone levels.
had turned back toward the railroad
and the town. Baffled, wondering,
they sought new relhforcements, made
more extensive preparations to search
the canyons and the Bad Lands coun-
try. Only Serge Savarin, the two men
with him, rode and would not give up.
Two Fingers, Hosteen Nez, Hosteen
T'so hunted patiently In ever widen
ing circles that had covered all the
face of the fiat land.
In the quest of these three silent
trailers there was more than a mere
search for lost white woman. There
was the dim and gentle shadow of that
legendary deity the Blue South Wom-
an who made her hogan" in the
white girls heart.
So the Navajos rode steadily, would
ride until they found her, either living
or dead, if she was anywhere In the
wide land, and destiny came to meet
them.
They had done with the sagebrush
levels. Lone Mesa doomed before
them. Silently save for the click of
the climbing hoofs, they assembled, fam
tastic figures from long dead past,
the low moon red behind them.
And in the magnificent heavens Starr
Stone, looking desperately down ahead,
caught the dim outline Of Lone Mesa's
crown, its shining white stone level.
Here was a landing place. Here
were walls against which man might
make stand If he were armed, find
shelter behind which if he were not,
providing he could get the time to
/
Sonya at his back felt the ship be-
meath her tilt in long smooth de-
cline, saw the moonlit earth come up
toward them.
And she too saw and recognized
Lone Mesa.
It was almost level with them-was
so-the ship was leveling off-dis-
lance, height, had dropped away-they
were skimming the mesas surface
touching-bounclng on the uneven rock
were still.
Behind them that other was at the
very edge-above them-passing over.
Starr Stone, with his arms about
Sonya, dragging her over the side, cast
one flashing glance ahead.
"Kismet!" he said with white lips.
"They beat us after all They're
down between us and the pueblo"
So they were, the rocking gray ship
still a hundred feet beyond. And Ell
Diablo, Manuel, deadly shapes Of
menace, were climbing out, coming
toward them.
| Calmly Sonya stood beside her man.
"Come back" she said touching him,
toward the cliff. 1t is our only way"
With his arm around her Starr
Stone turned, and, stumbling, hurry
ing, they crossed the space between
them and that sheer lip where once,
ages ago, it seemed, they had looked
into each others tragic faces and
found their destiny.
Darling" the man said softly,
"hold to me-tight-don't be afraid"
Sonya Savarin laughed, a little low
sound.
"AfraidY' she said, running. with
you?"
"Halt" came the great voice of Ell
Captain Diablo. "Halt Or fire"
There was yet a moonlit space for
the running feet. Death might catch
them before they leaped to meet it.
Crack Crack! Crack
The sharp barking Of an automatic,
not the machine gun.
Bullets whined about them, clipped
into the rock beyond.
And Sonya Savarin looked up for
the last time into the face which had
filled her heart, her soul, to the exclu-
sion of all else since that wild day in
spring here on this wind-swept height,
when she had first beheld it.
The man looked down, slowed in his
stride.
One moment more-a kiss, maybe,
and this glorious adventure would be
done forever-sealed like deathless
flame in the casket of eternity.
And then, high on the thin blue air
there came a sound as old as the
ruined walls behind, a sound to chill
the blood, to shock the very soul.
Clear and high and savage, primitive
as life itself, the war cry of the Nav
ajos. 1t pealed above the cracking
gun, stopped the man and the woman
like a hand upon their shoulders.
And out from the dusky shadows of
| eho