Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 109: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

PRIDE OF TYSON. ‘Heary Tysen, 2 faint smile, as though the jeyousness of golden youth struck a dim reflection in his quiet heart. Somehow, that expression exaggerated the sense of suffering which the man bore about him. And the single deep wrinkle which cleft his fore- head gave a touch of the wistful to his giance as it rested upon Tyson. “This is a pleasure, sexor,’ saki the pedre, in his formal, careful English, with its delightful taint of the foreign accent, ‘which T ave been promising myself since we first met. I hoped 1 sheuld see you again, sear, that we might come to know one another better.” Tyson. was shaking the cold, small, clew- like hand. “That’s good of you,” he nodded. ““Woen’t you come up to my room for a talk?” “T must go back to the mission,” sighed the padre. walk with me? A part of the way?” “Vm hungry as a wolf, padre,” said Ty- son, ‘‘ but I’m glad to go. Eating can wait.” The padre looked up to him, and then shook his head. It had been long smce foad. meant as much te him as it did to Tyson. a, He sighed as the youth turned again, and went up the street at his side. As they walked along, the peons in pass- ing raised their sombreros to the padre, and bowed their heads; but always, just before _they passed, their eyes flashed up and their teeth glinted over a smile as they hailed El Oro. Truly, his deimgs in the cement heuse had passed the rounds, and the tale of his gambling against Sefer Kennedy rounded out the story. The padre took heed of these greetings in silence for a time. He talked of the people they met, and he spoke of the buifdings; he told little anecdotes of the families in the town.. He reverted, now and again, with a touch of awe, to the labors of the great engineer who had built all these things in the desert. But at last he sak: “ You know my peo- pee, Sefer Tyson!” . “Fhe Mexicans?” answered Tysen, sur- prised. “A fine, simple-minded lot. Yes, J lke them very much.” “Tam expected there. Will you — 391 “Truly?” echoed the padre. “‘ Well, my friend, a little kimdliness goes a long way with them.” He considered his own thought for a time, nodding his head, and casting little side glances at Tysan. Very plainly he could mot quite make out the young American, though he was concentrating, for some yea- son, upon the problem. So they began to cut up the valley of the Chiluah, the pedre lengthening his stride until it extended even Tyson to keep pace with him. Watching the swishing robe and the steady, plodding gart of his companian, and the bended, thoughtful head, Tyson began to feel oddly as though he were walking © back not only through distance of paces, but through distance of time inte the days when the mission of Sam Vicente was first established in the valley of the Chihush. The padre told him litthe stories of these early days, and as they went along he talked enough for Tyson. te patch together a more ox less broken histery ef the mission and its work. | They had been hard days fer the fathers. in the first place, the men whe estab- lished San Vicente had not been taken from old Mexico xself. They were men brought directly from Spain, and therefore they had been ignorant of the ways of the Indians and all methods of approaching them. Which was worse than putting a pedestrian for the first time on the hack of a wild mustang and expecting the unfortunate to stick there. For the flock in the Chiluah were not the peaceable natives who had made the Cali- fornia mission rich, for instance. The Indians of the Chiluah were the fiercest warriors on the continent, the savage Comanches, wild as the horses they rode, with tempers as restless as their knives. Yet the patient Franciscans had kept true to their task, and gained slowly in power. : Warriors who came home erippled from distant raids were nursed back to health, and these formed the nucleus of the con- verts. The neighbering Apaches looked upon the mission of San Vicente as 2 shelter and stronghold for their natural enemnes, and twice the mission hsd hees stormed and Original froma mniclboe® —ap ma) So C@ THE OHID