Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 707 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

| / ~ J — ee eee ( back to ‘‘ poor Papita,” but he said in a kindly tone: ‘* Yes, little senor, I’ll take you home.” At last the summit of the ridge was reached, and there a korse awaited. All dripping as he was the man mounted, and holding the boy in bis arms rode on at a rapid ace. : He did not slacken his speed even at nightfall, aud for several hours held on until he came to an adobe but in the mountains. A woman heard the hoof-falls and stood in the door. It was a peon woman, and she said, politely: ‘‘ Have you the child, senor?” ‘‘ Yes, Francesca, here he is and asleep, ‘‘ Take off the clothing he has on, and put on him what you prepared. * After he has forgotten do as I told you and the gold I promised 1s yours,” ‘‘{ will obey, senor, but do you go on to- night?” * Yes, at once!” and as the woman took the child the man rode on, It was Felipe Soto. He had had his orders to act from Hammond Hughes, and he had obeyed, but only in part, And at the Eldoro Hacienda? As the shadows began to lengthen ‘‘ The Senor” began to grow strangely anxious about his boy. He went to the window of his wife’s room, and looking out toward the river said anxious- vi Why does not Papita return, Dolores?” ** She will soon.” ‘* Where did she go?” ‘‘ Toward the river, for Elroy is so foad of his gallop on his pony, and catching a fish delights the little man above all things.” ‘‘T wish Papita would come, for I feel anx- ious about the boy whenver she goes to the river.” , ‘¢ Papita swims, you know, and she is so care- ful; but really, Hammond, you do look pale and worried, so [ will send after them.” She called for her maid, and a servant from the stables was dispatched at once for Papita. He went off at a gallop, Hammond Hughes sitting in the window watching him, He saw him enter the timber, and tried to talk calmly to his wife, who laughed at his fears, Then he sprung to his feet, and cried: ‘‘He is coming back at the full speed of his - horse, and alone!” ‘* My God! can harm have befallen my beauti- ful boy?” groaned Dolores, and springing to the window she dropped upon her knees before it while her lips parted in prayer. The man went to another room and returned with a glass, ‘‘ He is spurring his horse desperately, ‘‘OQh, Dolores, what has happened to our boy?’' he cried. But the beautiful woman uttered no response, and her lips moved only in prayer for the satety of her child. Toward the hacienda dashed the horseman, halting a moment at the adobe wall, and as he neared the house, from the window rung the voice of Hammond Hughes: ‘‘ What word do you bring of my boy?” The man halted beneath tbe window and cried: ‘¢ The horses are there, senor, but they are not to be found, and—” A shriek of despair came from the mother, while tae man called to her maid to help him re- vive her, for she had fallen forward in a swoon. Couriers were sent for a physician and the priest, and then Hammond Hughes rode off with a party of men to the timber. There was the little senor’s gold-embroidered sombrero, his whip, and the fishing-rod of Papita half-drawn out upon the bank. apita’s horse and the boy’s pony stood hitched under the trees, but the riders were missing, Thesearch was kept up for days, and at last, bruised and lodged against the rocks in the shal- lows, the body of poor Papita was found, and buried decently, for if was felt that in trying to save the young master she had lost her life. But the tiny form of the little senor the river did not give up; it had not lodged among the rocks of the shallows, but bad drifted on to th sea—it was supposed ! ; CHAPTER XIII. UNVAILED. WHITE-FACED avd wan-looking, Dolores at last arose from the bed where her life had so nearly ended. For two months she had lain ill with brain fever, after the truth dawned upon her that she had lost her darling boy. All through the long illness of his wife The Senor was a most devoted purse, His devotion and self-sacrifice had been the talk of all at the hacienda, and he had received the sympathy of every one, He seemed happy indeed when his wife re- covered, and urged her to go with him, as the physicians ordered, for a change of scene. A sea voyage was taken, and Dolores returned after six months strong and well, but with her heart still heavy with grief. Back to the old scenes she came, and only the devotion of her husband had saved her life, all said, and she believed it. Whether it was that the coming back remind- ed Dolores of her loved dead, her father, her boy and Papita whom she nad been deeply at- tached to, for they bad been children togetber, certain it was that she soon began to look ill and pale again. One day a padre called at the hacienda and asked to see ber. It wasthe Padre Aldama, and he was a priest from the Rio Grande country. He asked to see the Senora Hughes, and was admitted to the pretty sittimg-room where she passed most of her time. The Senor was a.way, hunting, but returned a few minutes after the arrival of the priest, and as be reached his own room heard him greeted by his wife. He was about to enter the room, but words he heard checked him, and knowing that his pres- ence was unknown, he concealed himself behind the folds of a curtain and listened, and he heard that which made his knees tremble and his face become pallid, while he had to shut his teeth hard to prevent them from clicking together as with a chill. ‘* My poor senora, I have come to see you up- on an errand which will wring your heart with pain, ‘* Be brave, be strong, and hear all that I have to say.” So said the priest, and with a low moan Dolo- res replied: ‘** Little can give me deeper pain than what I have suffered, holy father,” ** My child, let me tell you the whole truth. ‘* I knew your father well, and a noble man he was. ‘*T am known in the church as Father Alda- ma, but my name was Aldama Soto. ‘*[ have a brother who went to the bad from boyhood, and ke now lies at the point of death, and it was by him that I was sent to you. ‘*Do you remember, when away from home on your travels, your husband left you in San Antonio for a week ?” ‘*T do, father.” “Well, it was at that time my brother was shot down by an assassin, who sent for him to come to him, and believing he had killed him, he left him lying where he fell, ‘* But Felipe, my brother, did not die, and was found and taken to a place where he was well cared for. ‘* He'sent for me and I went to him, and when he was able had him removed to my home. ‘* But be began to fail and made his confession to me, and my God! what a confession it was from human lips. ‘*T am to make known to you that confession, and as it deeply concerns you, my poor woman, : will tell it to you, for so Felipe would have me 0. ‘* Nerve yourself then to hear the bitterest tale of wrong and sorrow, cruelty and inhuman- ity ever poured into a woman’s ears,” Then, in a low, earnest tone, the priest told of the stopping of Hammond Hughes by the ban- dits, and the story he had told them of bis pov- erty, with his compact to aid them frob Colonel Eldoro. After that came the plot against the colonel, his death at the hands of the American, for Fe- lipe said that he had put no ballet in his rifle, and only one hit the colonel. Then the priest handed over the watch and jewelry of Colonel Eldoro, which Felipe Soto had kept most sacrealy. The visit of the American to Felipe, to pay the mouey he had agreed upon, his being tracked to New Orleans, where he sold the jewels stolen from her to a dealer in gems, and Felipe’s visit after him, and demana that the man should keep them until called for, all was told, with the plot to destroy his own son. Felipe confessed that he had followed and robbed Hammond Hughes, and handed to the priest the jewelry of the American as proof. The Red Sombrero Rangers. ‘s ny And more he gave the letters of Hammond Hughes to him, with the written pledge to pay twenty-five thousand pesos, after the assured death of the infant son of Senor Dolores, Like a statue sat Dolores listening to all. She could not grow whiter, and her face could not become more rigid than it was, She heard yet did not move, and the priest told how his wicked brother had gone to the river and hurled the boy over the bank, while Papita had sprung after bim, hen he continued: “With acry my brother bade me leave him and come at once to you, ‘“‘He could say no more, andI was glad to come, so left him with one whom I could trust to care for him, and came to you to tell you all, that your husband married you for your gold, killed your father to get it, and thwarted by the will, hired my brother to take the life of the little senor, your son and his, “Then he sought to put my. brother out of the way, and God grant that he has, and I am sure that your failing health is the secret of his threat to Felipe, to remove you by slow poison, for he hesitated to tell bim nothing as he ex- pected to silence his tongue in the end, ‘Such is my cruel story, my poor child, and here are my proofs in full, and Heaven have merey upon you.” A silence of some minutes followed and then Dolores said in a low voice that was hushed in its suppressed emotion: ‘‘ Rather, you bave opened my eyes, and un- masked the man I call my husband, ‘6 He must die by my hand !” CHAPTER XIV. THE VAILED LADY, THe Padre Aldama was frightened at the look and words of Dolores. Had she burst into tears, or mourned, he could understand it; but her heart seemed to have turned to stone, She uttered the threat in a manner that told the priest she meant to keep it; then she arose and glided into her husband’s apartments. A short stay and she returned with a bottle without any label. ‘‘ This is what he gives me each night before I retire, as he said, to make me strong again, but 1 have been worse ever since I took it. What is it, holy father?” The priest looked at it, inhaled it, and said: ‘* The deadliest of poisons, madame!” ‘‘Now to my jewels, for I have not opened the case since my father’s death.” She took the key from its secret hiding-place, opened the secret panel, and then the jewél- case, It was empty! ‘““Yes, he stole them, as you said, and your description of them, as told you by your brother, is perfect, ‘It is getting dark now, father, so I will have lights brought, as my husband must soon arrive, and I will receive him here— Ah Anita is bringing lamps now, and thé maid of Dolores entered the room, ‘¢ Anita, when my husband returns, bid him come at once to my rooms.” ‘¢- Yes, senora; but I thought he was here,” ‘¢ Has he returned?” quickly asked Dolores, ‘* Yes, senora, over an hour ago, and he came here, I thought,” ** Anita, go at once and find him,” and the girl was startled at the voice and manner of her mistress, But, soon she returned, and made report: ‘‘ Senora, Pedro says that the senor returned to the stables, mounted his swiftest horse and rode away half an hour ago.” ‘*My God! He has heard all, and has es- caped, and in the darkness we can never track him. *‘Qnick, Anita! Order every man on this ranch to arm himself and go in chase of Senor Hammond Hughes, for he must be found, Quick! obey!” Anita sped from the room and then, turning to the padre, Dolores dropped upon her knees before him, raised her hands and said in a voice that rung through the room: . ‘* Holy father, upon my knees before you, I vow to vail my face from all human kind until [ have tracked to his grave that man who mur- dered my father and ~y child. ‘Register my vow on earth, holy father, as it is registered in Heaven!” The priest fairly shuddered at her awful vow, while she sprung to her feet and left the room. All through the night the cowboysscoured the prairies, hills and mountains in search of the fugitive.