THE DOUBLE CROSS PER CUPID.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2678, 11 August 1913, Page 7

THE DOUBLE CROSS PER CUPID.

(By Herman Whitaker.)

Had 11 happened toward evening, tiro sharp map mat • disturbed the sauht peace 01 lho Street 01 tuo illustrious Men would probably have been o* t in , n fcjDut spat of mwiiuncraole boitmas r t Z co U ho feminine palms, ibo mot on its smgu lari by destroyed tne only otiier Hypothesis of maternal conectioi * uimistorea to some muid-, loi yd ittiaua mother never does thtnfe* L tiie ves. Occurring, as it did, ior afternoon, it stood startlingly , that win oh it was—to wit, a slap by some girl delivered m the late "iiK*""' *». ' ita 'sr had traveileu the length el 01 J® ■ , heads came pupping out o ot e nay, and the young man who came simmering backward out ol the milk SShee£ shop at the corner had to endure the additional mortiheatiou u tailed by ruiuuug the gauntlet ol urn ous ieinuiiue eyes. , • The ripple oi whispers that ilotved m Uk 'vaku w lie moved <* <>?*"*£ t xpi.W uei ““tv suri>n»o, buti alsu unite informative. Ha '" e • vOU -Sf to He aing after Felicia, the milkwomans k” “Only to get her hsi in his face. •‘Row dare she? And ho the jtle, j that call tliretf U*r. if to vnll. .me lh "l"dlaFO,.ai r likeo.irse.^ Oaramba! neighbor, .ho ™ V'Xm proud thing, but tins beats . • , she will bo claiming to bo ol the alta . sociedati." . jt !t “.Not if one gees by his eye. u t ( tell the truth, sne will soon bo mug ■ , nor right place.’' ... h „ vp I The last whisper might easily Inm , included the .man s enure lace ul cli , express'd evil anger m I When quiescent, ua general w uktte. , , under blip tipper crust of ,000.1 conceit, raised the question of its own S’Tfitnow for his present post; and, as a matter of fact a was the date j of powerful family influence. His , Lions of the peona having been to>und j mum the degraded lumas 01 - • - , : City slums, he had i>rcK-ec<iod to a[M>k | them upon his arrival here u, j tepee to the Tehuanas, man "bom- , , their own peculiar "ay the holds no more rigid unnalists. And ,u,,v-«.to.d ol accopto > ‘ | correction from l-ehen. s son 1 I »id ; manlv good humor he brooded me it, , as he went down tiie street with all ol , a woman’s small spite. Ah " oll,oU thoughts of revenge ho was a m ost u down by tho mule tram ol Ch<u.o tin arriero, as ho turned into the , of Good Fortune from that oi the Illustrious Men. , ~• ; •• ’Tis some matter ol tho law that Has , heavy on Uio mind to-day ? ’ Keiumg | in im pacing mule, Chano addressotl , him. By reason of an occasional U.usk , of good spirits or a bit of rare “ice foi | its feminine sale, Chano stood well with j bha Telmantepoc powers, ana was pernutted licenses that would have got any other man of his station into pecks ot trouble. Closing a sly eye, lie now added: “Ur is it a girl? Though tis said that justice is blind, I have found love to be* equally hard on the eyesight, bu 1 but get one in my eye— car am ba . i ran no longer see even a peso. While he* stood there looking up tuto the arnero’s handsome face, it flashed upon the jefe that here was the oxac„ instrument required to carry out a hue scheme of revenge. “You will take a copa with mo?’' fie asked. Just a little oopa to wash down the* dust ol the Ui “That will 1.” Dismounting, Chauo handed his bridle W his driving boy. "Though ’twill lake* nearer a dozen m do the work. Teodoro, take yuu the mules on to tho stable.’ ~0 c"Felicia,” the* milkwoman s girl. 1 know her,” he answered the jete s question after they wore seated umnn the shady povtica of the nearest cantina. “Jn tiie days that ledro, her father, worked in the saddle shop, she used to bring him his noon meat. was then but a thin weed of a giri. nut the makings of a line flower were theie, and I had promised myself u> watch that blossoming. Then Bedro died ot tho fever, and she slid out of my memory. It has been her luck to please you? The jefe’s lull lips drew into a thin line. "Si, if you it pleasiTTe to be slapped in the lace?” ‘Caramba!” Chauo whistled sully, an accompaniment to the though*: Ihe little baggage! Now, maeod, t Dial look her up!” Aloud, he oxclaimeu: ‘‘Seiior? No! She could not be so forgetful ot the dignities!” "She did, then shoved me out to bo laughed at by every idle woman on the street.” Ho" swore venomously, “lint she shall pay!” "You will throw her into the careel?” But he nodded thoughtiully when reminded that the case was too delicate for that. Divining, moreover, with rascally intuition, what was inquired of him, he raised sly, eyebiow.s. “There are other ways.” "’Turns for that I called thee, the jefe jumped at the lead. Now’, see. Supposing that one could lead her into some looseness, then could she be seized and condemned as are the drunkards for the city’s label'. As kitchen girl, she could be apprenticed to mv own service. And unco in mv house” —his “ive shall see who gives the slaps and who receives.” "A looseness, yes.” Chauo raised dubious shoulders. “It she has not changed ” “It could, at least, he tried. ror one with thy reputation among the women, it should not be difficult. When do you go out?” "To-morrow. We make a quick loading to-night.” “Then if she can bo persuaded to slip away with thee, i shall see to it that a gendarme goes round to tinshop to take the complaint of the old woman. With a force of rurales, 1 then ride after and take her up on tho trail. Then 1 shall ” "But if she will not?” "Even then it can bo done. Every night this week, she goes to hear vespers in the plaza church. What easier than to cast a cloak over her head from some dark doorway? Then when 1 come, both thee and thy lad swear that she left of her own accord. Easy? ’Tis easy as —drinking.” "And what should one gain by it?” The arriero eyed him shrewdly. "For thee —the girl. For me ” "A fui ml ml pesos.” "Bueno! For that I would carry off all the girls of the town.” "But let it he understood”—the jefe returned the shrewd 100k —"she is not to be bothered ’’ "By me?” Chano’s shoulders and eyebrow’s this time, combined to express his reprobation. "Senor! On tho honor of an arriero that always dolivers his freight, fair weight «uid in fine condition ” ‘SI, si.” The other shrugged bis impatience. "We all know' the arrieros —as rascally a set of rogues as were ever hanged for the good of the town. In place of honor, write down profit, for if vou fail ” In his turn. Chauo interrupted. "Honor or profit, whichever suits. There’s little of tho first on either end of the bargain. As I say, for a hundred pesos I would sell every girl in the town. And they will ho paid "Tho minute I lay hands on the airl ” r» 4 *

“Bueno and bueno! Another copa to wet it down.” In the meantime, while they were drinking and planning, events were proceeding elsewhere to other conclusions. They began with the entrance of an unruly devil into Chano’s mules the instant they passed put ot his sight. Though a grunting- sow with a Jitter in tow was one of the commonest sights of the trail, the bell mule seemed to perceive therein..a fine opportunity for revolt. Erecting long ears at the familiar phenomenon, she bolted i around the corner, with the rest or the I mules in clattering pursuit, circled the 1 block, and swung at right angles up 1 the Street of Illustrious Men. 1 Heedless of the profanity of Teodoro I behind, she kept on till the steep grade I took the last of her breath and i brought her to a stop opposite Felicia s i shop. In which manner was brought i about that happiest of conjunctions, ! the meeting ol a man and a maid fitted for each other with a perfection that seemed preordained. For as the mules came to a stop, and ieodoio caught up, Felicia came running out to “Gracias, senorita! A thousand thanks!” Ho gave them for the intention, though it came too late. ‘lt is uada, senor.” She made the customary answer. “They had already stopped of themselves.” A\ ith this they stood and looked at each oilier, she very shyly, he a little more bold, drawn like two molecules through the mysterious chemistry ol love. Just twenty, he was tail, for tlie tropics; and upon a trunk and limbs that were finely formed on lines ut grace and strength, his charro suit sat like his own skin. Under a huge straw sombrero his face showed iu golden dusk, nose slightly aquiline, brows straight, mouth full-lipped, all goserued by large, amiable eyes. U1 her, it is sufficient to say that in 1 eliuaiitepec, a city of handsome women, where golden girls droop like ripe tigs irum every family tree, she could easily hold her own. Si, without difficulty, she could throw her comely shallow over any and all of the hall dozen budding Veil uses tluvt were standing, at that moment, within a sume's throw. I hough scarcely seventeen, she already exhibited that generous modeling which is the birthright of every lihuuna woman. Around a face delicately oval, masses of brown hair formed a lilting frame. Great dusky eyes aided her mouth’s sweetness iu expressing the primal mother that underlay the girl. ’Though the girl had returned Ins smile, it was the mother that followed with eyes of yearning his every movement when he began to turn the mules, if the girl waved him “adios,” it was the mother that stood looking alter him from her doorway. Though the girl it was that Hew after him to pick up and return the piece of manta that 101 l off the last mule, she did so under urge of the mother. ■•'This was kinder still.” Receiving the cloth, Teodoro’s teeth struck a white Hash in the golden dusk. “Si, senorita, for many would have kept the piece for themselves, hi return I shall bring thee n regale, some small present on the return iiom Oaxaca. ’ “Oaxaca?” Her big eyes lit up.

“ ’Tis there that my mother’s uncle’s cousin’s half brother lives, and when lie was here, in Tehhan tepee, with us, bust N’ochcbuena, he spoke always of the line sights of that town. Oh!” she finished, with a small sigh. “It must be Hue to journey, like thee, through all tlie world.”

As a matter of fact, his journcyings were strictly limited by liio Isthmus trails. But for him, as for her, this constituted the world, and he swelled with all of the important airs of tho accomplished globe-trotter. “ ’Tis so,” ho swore. “1 would not change places —no, not with the jefe of Tehuantepec.”

hj is only your civilised woman that hedges her preference around with fences of modesty. Felicia, a primal woman, made no hones a Unit voicing hers.

“Would that ! could go with thee! As 1 say. our relative lives there in Oaxaca, and yesterday the tuadre had from him a letter saying that it would c< st us mil even a centavo for lodg-

ing or living if wo could g: : u in- -ms to travel.”

While they were talking, the mules had ambled along to the next corner, and now they turned —of coiir.se, in the wrong direction. l!“ could not stay. But, hurrying away, he looked hack aid ;n rvrer' 1 ov r his shoulder tlie longing in hj r eyes. “Quinn srhe? 1 might Im done, fasten. To-night we. load quieklv, and start out with the sun. But on the return, 1 shall come to tin' shop with thy regain. Then shall we talk of it again;”

She watched him run with tho swill ease of his calling to tho corner; thou, turning, she proceeded upstreet, between flaming linos of rainbow-colored adobes, back to tho shop whore her mother was engaged in a third perusal of her nude’s cousin’s half-brother’!* letter.

So far, she had read only scraps to the girl, and tho instant her shadow fell in ihe doorway, she thrust the p, per hastily b. iieatii her scarlet huipi--1 i a ami rose to wait on a customer w io just then came in. As tiro usual flow of custom for the evening meal then set in, they were both kept too Irisy weighing out milk, lard, and goads cheese to indulge in conversaum; but all the time slie was working a paragraph of the letter ran through the senora’s head: Since mv woman died of the lever, the bakeshop has suffered for lack of a capable hand. Felicia must now lie qi a marriageable age, and if you will bring her in to Oaxaca, we shall have the grand wedding—si, in church with a priest. While she works with me at the baking. Twill then bo for thee to sit in the shop and band out the bread and the cakes. Had not the padre milked me dry for masses, I would have sent money with this for the t; avid. But by the sale of the goals you should be able In meet all charges. The las: sentence caused the senora considerable heat, and if given aloud, her musing would have gone something like this. “The Skinner! Trust him to beggar himself for masses that would flay a flea for the hide and fat ! ’Twas only that he thought to saddle mp with the charges. Nevertheless”she cooled to a change of thought that included a picture of herself, neatly d'essed, handing out clean, warm broad and sweetened cakes —“nevertheless, this is a dirty business, this milking of goats. In tho bakeshop one would be, at least, the equal of a merchant’s wife —almost of tho alta sociedad. Then there will be a centavo or two buried under his baker’s hearth, a hundred or two in gold pieces that would come to Felicia after his burying. Si, than go to Oaxaca one might do much worse.” Though a vivid image of the baker, | with his fifty and fivo years, squat 1 figure, and wizened face injected into 1 her reflections a leaven of doubt, she presently rose superior even to that. “If ono were to thrust her at him hero, among her companeros, she would surely draw hack. But caught among strangers, before some younger man gets into ber eye, she would give I in from very lonosornonowp If ono ; could but get her there —’tis good as ! done.” Almost as oho arrived at this conclusion. the clink of a spur caused, her to look up in timo to see Ohano step in

through the doorway. In the days before Pedro, the saddler; rolled his last thread, she had known him well, and it was quite easy for Chano to veil his pur{X)se under pretence of a visit, “I had always promised it to myself, senora,” he told her. “But somehow ! the business always ran the other way. ! And this will bo Felicia? Car-r-ramba! ! Wha; a growth! And pretty, too? Que j bonita! There should be more milk | than liquor drunk by the lads on this I street.” . , I Reputed quite quick with his knife 1 in a quarrel, and a gay ruffler among j the women, the arriero was something ' of a personage among the Tehuantepec j lower ten. In addition to these individual attractions, he brought into 1 the shop some flavor of his romantic ! calling, a whiff of wild jungle to mix ’ with the odors of garlic and cheese. ( Conscious of the jealous espionage of her neighbors across the way, the ' senora laid herself out to please. I “She will do, senor.” With the same breath that rebuked Felicia’s 1 smile at the compliment, she added, ■proudly tossing her head; “Though l there be others that have said it. The , young Jefe Garcia comes here every day for his glass of goat’s milk. 'Tis recommended, he says, bv his doctor.” i Her brown fat shook under her laugh, i “Si, bv el doctor, Senor Don Cupid. Came lie this afternoon, Felicia?” i “Si, raadre, while you were at your siesta.” Conscious of the rrrioro’s swift look, the girl turned to hide the rose flush that stained the rich gold of her cheek. Her friendly smile at his greeting, the soft interest in her following gaze, were really tributes to his position as employer of the youth who had jus: stormed her virgin heart. Impressionable, however, at thirty-two as he had ! in on at sixteen, Chano accepted them j for himself.

“The pretty one!” he inwardly exclaimed. “If I had not hound myself (o Gama ” His warm glance of admiration filled in the rest. After that his eyes went with her about tho shop, and under the stimulation of several smiles, addressed through him to Teodoro, a decided compunction formed iu his mind. “ ’Tis a shame,” ho cold himself. “A shame to sell such a pretty lamb to that mean-mouthed- butcher! Yet”— he stifled the good feeling in the moment of its birth —“a hundred pesos are not to is- picked up so easily every day. ir one wore to waste tears on every pretty girl that lias boon sold for a tenth of the price iu this town, there would soon he no more room in the sea. She will be no worse off than the rest.” Turning to the business in hand, he was casting about for some means to line! out the hour and the way that Felicia would take fur evening vespers when his ears pricked at a pregnant sentence in the senora’s gabble. “This is no business for a girl of her parts. Could we but gain to Oaxaca, where lives a rich relative, my uncle’s cousin’s half brother, he would see to it that she got her deserts.” Trained to quick thinking by many a sudden hap on the trails, Chano leaped at the lead. “ ’Twill he easy to lose the old woman in the first ten miles.” AN bile his mind formed the thought, luh lij>s voiced a hearty invitation. “Saiitissirnu Trinidad! Then here is your chance. Two pilgrims from Chiapas that were to travel with me as far as Oaxaca have not turned up, so 1 am left with extra riding mules. For the sake of the good Pedro that mended me many a harness, they are at your service without condition or price.”

Taught, on lier part, by a long widowhood to grab opportunity always by tho short hairs, the senora was iqually quick in seizing tlie chance. “Gracias, senor, J shall close iliq shop and make ready at once. There will l>e a loss by the goats, but ’twill balance against the rent that is backward these three months. Don Sostenes, the screw of a ground lord, may take them to milk himself.” Scarcely able to believe her ears, Felicia, in her turn, exclaimed; “To Oaxaca? Sc no r! Is k really true that we go there with thy train?” Under the soft blaze of joy and love that illumined her simple face, Chano experienced a second compunction. Crushing it down, ho warned them to be ready at daylight, and so departed to hire, for the senora’s accommodation, a mule that he knew of, which, while gentle, could always be depended upon to balk at running water. “And if she gets you across the Arroyo Grande.” lie addressed the sorry animal, leading it home, “ ’Twill he by carrying you over upon her hack.”

Bursting out of thin night with all tie blood-red splendors of a tropical dawn, the sun licked up, with greedy, shining tongues, the veil of vapor from over the jungle, revealing Chano and his mules crossing a wide glade. When he had picked them up at the shop, the tv.o women had loomed in the dusk dim. indefinite shapes without a centavo of elioico between them, and. in the damp, shivery mood induced by last night’s inflations. Chano had loaded them on to his mules with as little ceremony as if they had been so many bundles of leaf tobacco. After the first faint light had differentiated the girl’s youthful swayings from her mother's still bumpings, lie bad, however, begun to display an interest that grew with tho day. In/he rich sun blaze that now fired her crimson skirt and huipilita, clothing her golden youth in crimson flame, she was particularly enticing. Catching her smile as lie turned in the saddle, Chano was stricken again with a deep compunction.

“Dios!” he muttered. “But you are certainly the pretty ono! ’Tis lucky for tho jefe that you travel with mo only ibis day.”

Like the flowers that filled tlie glades, Felicia, too, put forth fresh charms under the touch of the sun. Under the brightness of new love, the vivid orchids that burned with a sickly flame in the dark aisles under the palms, the pretty jacal villages luxuriantly fenced with rich bananas, the bird songs above, the water song of the arroyo that bubbled and burbled through long, green tunnels, all the now sight and sounds of tho trail took on tho significance of a radiant dream. Her fresh happiness showed in her manner, intensifying her natural sweetness. Not only did her eyes, when they met Chano’s, express liking for him in his capacities as benefactor and employer of that* wonder of the world, tho youth Teodoro, but they also added a modicum extra for his handsome self. Then, with the infinite craft of woman, she was at great pains to hide her love. While she chattered and laughed freely with Chano, never, till his back was turned, did she give Teodoro so much as a glance. Indeed, so careful was she that, to an unprejudiced observer, it must havo seemed, as it did to the lad, that she was carrying on quite a violent flirtation. Chano himself so interpreted it, and susceptible always, as before said, he did not fail to respond. Approaching the Arroyo Grande, he endured an attack of conscience of a severity altogether upknown in his previous cxpoi’ionce. Jis dirty work,” no onco more told himself. “Let tlie jefe do it himself.” This sudden accession of virtue, however did not include the senora in its scope. Just before they reached the stream, ho invented a pretext of lameness in her boast to fall behind the others. By tho time ho had finished an earnest inspection of tho animal s four feet, Teodoro and Felicia had

crossed and ridden ou a good half mile. Wherefore ho lacked an audience for Ins realistic interpretation of wrath and surprise when, after half an hour’s urging, tho senora’s mule still refused to put a hoof in the water. “ ’’lts Satan himself that has entered the beast,” be assured her, at last. “And the others arc gaining upon us all this time. This beast of mine is too touchy for a woman to ride. Once mounted, it would never rest till it had gotten thy life. So, see! 1 shall ride forward and send Teodoro back with one of the pack animals. Then, at the next town, we shall hire vou a new beast.”

“This is kind of you, senor.” She called after him as he rode over the ford: “My uncle’s cousin’s half brother shall thank you for this, himself.” For half an hour thereafter she waited, too, with perfect trust. During the next hour small seeds of suspicion sprouted in her mind, and grew and throve, until they had become a great tree of doubt by the time, still another hour later, the Jefe Garcia, with two rurales, came galloping along the road. At the sight of him, she raised the cry that he had listened for all morning at his outer gate. “My daughter! Senor el jefe. she is gone! Stolen by that dog of an arriero!” Though it had come a little late, tho jefe was not slow in replying accoriling to previous rehearsal. “Stolen? Caramba ! We have heard that before. ’Tis the howl of every woman whose girl takes a leg up behind some rascally muleteer.” Vet, scenting some miscarriage from her presence there, he gave her that which she would never have obtained at his bowse —a hearing. While she was mixing impassioned appeals to the saints with fervent denunciations of Chano. his moan mouth drew into a tight line of suspicion, that went with the thought: “For fear he is up to his tricks, ’twill he well to take her along.”

So, with the senora humping heavily behind a rural, thev crossed the stream a minute later, and galloped on. Riding on, meanwhile, Chano overtook the mule train in something less than an hour, ample time for his quick wits to find an excuse for the senora’s absenee.

“At the ford we met one looking for goats at a fine price.” he answered Felicia’s inquiring look. “He turned from a side trail after yon passed, li would have been blasphemous to refuse an opportunity so plainly sent by the saints, so tho senora, your mother, turned back.”

lie hurried to meet the girl’s disappointed look: “But first she gave me ibis charge—to take you forward to the house of your relative, where she will follow on our next trip.” Any doubt that he might have felt concerning the feeling behind her disappointment was at cnee set at rest. “Oh, T thought that I, ton. would have to go hack 1” Exclaiming il, sin l glanced at Teodoro, who was driving ahead. But, more eloquently than words, his obstinate back replied, “1 would not care if you did,” thus reaffirming the substance of a lively quarrel in which they had engaged during Chano’s absence. For in the calendar of love a day counts as a year, and though hardly that time had yet ('lapsed since each had succumbed to the other, they had gone at it with a vim and vigor that would have done credit to a married couple. In return for his charge of outrageous flirtation with Chano, she now proceeded to afford a real cause by dealing out to the arriero as choice a selection of soft looks and smiles as ever melted the heart of misogynist. Being anything but a misogynist, it goes without saying that they produced in him powerful effects that presently gave liirih iu turn to a hardy resolve.

“No, senora ; she goes not to the Jefe, Garcia, but to one Chano, an arriero, that we know of.”

Being as quick in action as he was in thought, he called Teodoro at once aside ami gave him, iu few words, a neatly revised version of the whole affair. “Silting in the plaza cantina, 1 heard him plotting with his rurales, last night, to take her from us : and il she is to he sa\ed, Twill he through ihy wits. While 1 follow the main road, you will lead her around by the trail to San Miguel, that goes by the Arroyo Seco. Arrived in the town, she may he easily bestowed in some small fomia. Then, in the dark of the morning, while you go on to Oaxaca with the mules, she and I may take our own time in slipping away.” If he had had anything to go on, Ids suspicions might have been roused by tho vigor ol the lad’s answer: “For Dios! senor, no one shall take her from me!” Not having it, lie proceeded on his way in calm unconsciousness of the little scene that was being enacted beliiml his hack. Though it is true that the course oi true lovo runs alike m all lands, in that it never goes smoothly, it sometimes rakes a different course in tho tropics from that which obtains in colder lands. Chano hud no more than disappeared, before Teodoro reopened the. quarrel with a sound box on 1* elicia’s 'small ear. “That will teach thee,” he sternly reprimanded, “to learn to govern thj eyes. ’ Under like circumstances, your belle of the north would instantly call a policeman, but though Chano was still within hearing, Felicia accepted u ith only a whimper a second buffet in return for her plea that she had done all for his, Teodoro’s, good. “Good or bad, this will make sure of your behavior.” Tho third was of such soundness that she almost toppled out of tho saddle, and his righteous anger being thus appeased, they kissed and went on, she not a. whit less happy for this piynf of bus love, as that passion goes in tho tropics. Moving at top speed of her mule and his legs, they gained miles toward v lSau Miguel ‘by the time the jefe caught up with Chano. “ ’Tis ho, the liar of an arriero, that was to send back a mule to tlie fold. Robber of virtue, where is my girl!” While tho senora was exclaiming against him, Chano burned to the jute’s suspicious inspection an inscrutably innocent face. “That is for thee to answer.” He shook a virtuous Huger under her surprised nose. “When I caught up with tho train, thy girl Imd gone off with my lad. Si. and ’tis to tiro 1 shall look for recompense—both for the loss of bis service and my stolen mule. See that you find them, for if there be not full restitution, I will have thee apprenticed to the plantations till the debt be paid.” “He is a 'liar, jefe! The son of a liar and a lying mother ” While she paused for breath, Chano beckoned tho j of o aside. “Iho thing has run wrongly.” Ho went ou with a question that would have astonished himself had he known how firmly founded it was on truth. “How was I to know that she was carrying on with tho lad ? But here is thy chance without any false wprk. Ride hack to the cross trail, and you may follow their tracks in the dust of the Arroyo Seco road.” “I will. But if they be not there when ” Cbano’s shoulders threw off the threat in the pause. “Let my hack pay.” In his confidence in the goodness of Teodbro’s long lead, he rounded up his mules and proceeded calmly on his way. So certain did he feel that ho broke into song, nor failed to

exchange some jest or repartee' with such as he met on the way. “They will now be in San Miguel,” he told himself, at the end of another hour, and as, midway of the afternoon, he saw the town, a long way off, lying like a shining opal in the green embrace of opposite hills, he added: “The jefo, too, should be there now.” In fact, his confidence held till it was disrupted by the gendarme who arrested him as his mules turned into the first street. “I am sorry, amigo.” The man, with whom Chano had drunk many a co-pa, disavowed his responsibility with a helpless shrug. “Under an information of your own Jefe Garcia, of Tehuantepec, you are to bo taken to the carvel. Oh, si, you may first stable the mules.”

On their way, he further explained: “ ’Tis all the fault of thy fool boy that us picked up by Garcia while lie is showing his girl the sights of the place. Si, the pair of them are gaping up, like daws, at the bells of the church, when the jefe, with the girl’s mother, comes riding by. At once he arrests them, and, under orders of our own jefo of San Miguel, you are all to be held incommunicado till the business be sifted in court.”

Of the three prisoners, Chano was the last to ho brought in, next morning. to the court where Don lues Villagomez, a stout, brown Mexican, had already taken his seat. The delay was due. on his part, to an interruption tha; occurred while he was being ushered by his amigo, the gendarme, along illg massive portales that connected the earcel and court. For, stepping suddenly from a doorway, the Jefe Garcia halted them both. “Now, listen, arriero.” While carefully choosing his words on the gendarme's account, lie emphasised them with a threatening finger. “Be careful! If the thing fail through thy backwardness- —remember that Tehuantepec will see no more of thy trade!”

Ho could not have said a worse thuig. Reckless always, and irritated liv his night of close confinement, the threat raised in the arriero a very devil of opposition. “No more of my trade?” he sniffed. “It has gone on under four jci’ey before thee, and’ will last out a d 7.en thiat come after. Remember, on thy part, that that which is between ii■: would, make fine hearing for the Governor of Oaxaca, who is said to have a man of bis own picked for thy post. If but one single dirty finger be raised against my trade, rest easy that ho will hear of it.”

With a defiant flip of his shoulder, lie passed on in to the court, where Felicia. Teedoro, and the senora were already ranged in a row before Don 1 lies'. Following in, the Jefo Garcia took a second seat on the dais, and. while the two carried on preliminary whisperings, Chano closely watched the San Miguel man. Very quickly he perceived behind bis studied courtesy traces of the usual dislike of local appi iniees for the Federal officials, and Ids thought correctly sized the situation.

“Out of this justice should come.” After further study of the. man’s portly bulk and brown, good-natured face, he added ; “Thou art a kind one that should be easily moved to mercy. Bueno! We shall come without barm through this.” Confirming his opinion, the old follow’s whisper came, just then, down frun the dais: “The girl has not a loose look.” And though he immediately conceded, “Si, as yon say, these innocents are often the worst,” his brown eye. nevertheless, rested with kindly indulgence on Felicia’s frightened face.

I Almost immediately, he began the examination. “It is charged against you, girl, that the peace of Tehuantepec has been seriously disturbed, and its decencies brought to scandal, by your elopement with one Chano, an arriero, whose mules run through that town. If there bo any good reason why 1 should not remand you to the custody of your own jefe, it is now for thee to state it.” It 'looks constituted a defence, the ware of dark horror that swept Over the girl’s face would surely have cleared her. While she hesitated, frightened out of speech, the senoras’ pent-up wrath burst forth in a torrent.

" Ti.s a lie, a wicked lie, souor! With me, she went forth on a journey lu Oaxaca, whore she is to bo married to the half brother of my uncle’s cousin, that keeps a bakeshop on the Street of Independence. Si, with me she. went forth, and but for that thief oi an arriero and his devil of a mule, she had never strayed a foot from under my wing. ’Tis ho that should bo punished, this vile one, wicked robber of women’s ”

The girl started at the mention of her marriage, and, noting it, Don Ines interrupted. “Is this true, senorita, that you are to be married?”

“Not of my will, seaior.” She gave a little shudder. “Ho is ftfty and live, this cousin of my mother’s, and su withered that lie looks just like tho old monkey that dwells in the jungle beyond tho end of our street.” “You see, senor,” the Jefe Garcia broke in “She confesses it. Plainly as day, she ran off with the arriero to escape this marriage. There remains nothing but to hand her over to me to receive the deserts of her looseness and ”

lu turn, a wave of bright anger swept the horror out of Felicia’s wide eyes. “Looseness? It is thou that says this? Thou that —oh, I could strike thee in the black lace like I did in the shop!” “Quiet, girl!” Though he checked her, the old fellow yet noted his confrere’s dark flush. A touch of irony put an edge on his tone. _ “Lot us not go too fast Jess we get in too deep. As for this running away from an old husband, 1 can sec in it no crime. The sciptures have it that a man may not marry his grandmother, and that should bold equally of a girl. But let us hear more of it. The arriero? What has he to say?”

From bus high seat the Jefe Garcia telegraphed down a threatening look, his second mistake. Ohano assessed in full measure the generous streak that often goes with large vices; lie had been touched by the innocent fright of the girl, and, returning a second glance of defiance, ho spoke: " ’Tis as the old woman says. She and the girl went forth together. Also, ’tis true that I left her at the ford, and if strong loving be a crime, then let me pay. I did it without the girl’s knowledge. For fear of pursuit I sent her, thereafter, round with my lad by another trail. As for the scandalised decencies —there could he nothing better than this to restore their face. I will marry her now if it pleas© you to send for a priest.” “Bueno!” Don lues’ fat sides shook under his laugh. "An arriero the saviour of the decencies P Whoever heard the like? Nevertheless, so far as those of San Miguel are concerned, the business may be considered settled. What of those of Tehuantepec?’ Already the Jefe Garcia was on his feet, his mean face dark with rage. "It is not our habit to pass so lightly over misdeeds. Marry or hang them!” He Hung it back over his shoulder on his way to tho door. "I wash my hands of the affair.” Until the door closed, Don Ines observed a pause. Then, choking a laugh in his throat, he looked down at Felicia. "And you, senorita? You heard the offer?”

It had all happened so suddenly that the girl’s changing expression found it hard to keep pace. It now settled in soft pity, mingled with amusement. From Teodoro, who had clung desperately, through all, to the sombrero that he held tightly pressed to his chest, her glance went bach to the jefe and Chano. “He has made a good ending of a bad beginning, eenor; and one could find it quite easy to forgive—so easy that if I had not already married ” “Married?” It came, like a bomb, from the mouth of her mother.

“Si. Yesterday we were married, Teodoro and 1, by the priest here in San Miguel. The police took us coming out of the church gate.”

In the silence of surprise that followed , tlie jefe’s twinkling glance took in both Chano’s foolish face and the senora’s consternation. After a stout attempt to maintain his gravity, he burst out with a hearty laugh. Recovering, he surveyed Chano with mischievous stealth. “This lad, Teodoro — he works for thee?” “Si, senor.” “Now he will needs seek another employment.”’ “He is a good Lad, and drives well.” Recovering Iris usual reckless good nature, Chano answered the glance with a grin. “But the two of them could never keep skin and hide together upon his wage. So” —his smile passed between boy and girl—“Teodoro, thy wage is doubled.”