The Washington times., 1934-12-11

A41C LII 81 0l%uI OL C1 OCs
Solon Lowell slept on.
Closing the throttle, Dick
glided still lower. Near a clump
Of mesquite a herd of cattle
looked up from their grazing
in quick alarm, then numbered
clumsily away, heads lowered,
tails high in the air. A sheep
herder bending over his tiny
fire Strengthened to watch the
planes passing. Then, almost
In the next moment, he saw
it-Verde!
rrOud Days
There. on the edge Of the
desert a little cluster of adobe
dwellings threw back the suns
rays. Low and rambling, they
surrounded the small shaded
plaza that still remained as a
token of the towns Spanish
ancestry, in the proud days
before the Gringo. Beyond.
dominated by the old vine
covered cathedral. lay Verde's
modern section. and further
out toward the desert, dusty
and contented, lazily stretched
the colorful Mexican Quarter.
Yesterday and today. Latin
and Anglo-Saxon, romance and
reality. The leisurely courtesy
OF old Spain. the careless
Swagger of the border ranch.
men-all this was Verde.
To the east a long, precipi-
tous wall of rock stretched be-
hind the city, dividing the
desert from the hills, and
north of this, just where the
dark rampant of pine reached
down out of the foothills, Dick
caught a gleam of the blue
waters of Azure Lake.
No time to see more. Al
ready he was gliding lower,
circling, seeking a suitable
landing field close to town.
Satisfied at last. he throttled
down the engine, and amid the
low singing of wind through
the wires, he guided the little
monoplane over a fringe Of
tamarisk and into a pasture
beside the main Verde road.
The wheels touched gently
the plane ran within a few
feet of the wire fence then
stopped as Dick cut the switch,
and opening the door he
jumped out to stretch his
cramped legs. He looked down
the deserted road toward town,
then called back to his father,
II wired from Santa Fe while
you slept and asked Barnes
to send car when he heard
us fly over" Again he flexed
his powerful muscles. Lord
I'm tired" he added.
Still seated in the obScurity
Of the plane Solon Lowell
placed a black, unlit cigar be-
tween his teeth, while with a
kind of baffled pity Dick looked
in at him. Perhaps he suf.
tered-he must be suffering
yet he was so inaccessible, so
utterly withdrawn from the
world and from those who
might help him.
Bond of Sympathy
One thought alone brought
Dick comfort-Nora. Nora
would understand and aid. He
remembered the great bond of
sympathy that had endured
between this hardfiSted, we'll
hated warrior and the slender
brown-eyed girl that all the
border loved. And as he stood
there waiting by the road his
vagrant memories ran back to
the girl, this childhood play
mate who through the years
had wrapped herself so com.
pletely about his yesterdays.
1t was as if she had always
been part of his very living
there on the deserts edge, and
now at thought of seeing her
again his eyes relaxed some
thing of their strained. in
tenSity, and the square line Of
his jaw became less grim.
DiStantly the rumble of a car
broke in upon his revery, and
down the road from Verde a
low roadster hurtled at full
speed. Amid a cloud of desert
dust it stopped just beyond the
barbed.wire fence, and with a
R11ddaT1 thrill of olno SI1ra ha cou