The Pearsall Leader (Pearsall, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, October 30, 1914 Page: 3 of 8
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THE PEARSALL LEADER, PEARSALL, TEXAS
Broken Promises
By DANE COOLIDGE
Author of
•’The Fighting Fool”
”Hidden Watere”
”The Taxi can. '* Etc.
Illustration* by Don J. Lavin
Lancey are
>n In Mex-
clatm and
a. In the
3ud meets
niner, who
return to
very rich
n up when
ted out of
le Mexican
an unsuc-
the vein
and to re-
De Lancey
ve at For-
known as
nd get in-
a Mexican
friendly to
irixtu 1914, by Frink A. Manser)
an honest man, or you would hare
stolen a piece of ore from the sacks.
So show us now where the gold was
found, the nearest that you can re-
member, and perhaps, if we think we
can find it, we will pay you to de-
nounce the claim for us.”
At this the one good eye of Cruz
Mendez lighted up with a great hope
and, skipping lightly over the rock
piles with his sandaled feet, he ran
to a certain spot, locating it by look-
ing across the canyon and up and
down the creek.
“Here, senores,” he pronounced, ‘‘is
where the mouth of thg. old tunnel
came out. Standing inside it 1 could
see that tree over there, and looking
down the river I could just see the
vne smelter around the point. So, then,
iook- the gold must be in there.” He point-
ed toward the hill.
"Surely,” said De Lancey; ‘‘but
a motion where?”
The old Mexican shruggdfr his shoul-
ders deprecatingly.
‘‘I do not know, senor,” he answered;
■ aim ‘‘but if you wish to dig I will denounce
the claim for you.”
‘‘For how much?” Inquired De Lan-
cey guardedly.
“For one hundred dollars,” an-
swered Mendez, and to his delight the
American seemed to be considering it.
He walked back and forth across the
slide, picking up rocks and looking at
hem, dropping down into the futile
trenches of Aragon, and frowning
with studious thought. His pardner,
however, sat listlessly on a boulder
and tested the action of his six-
shooter.
‘‘Listen, my friend,” said De Lancey,
coming back and poising his finger im-
pressively. “If I should find the ledge
the one hundred dollars would be noth-
ing to me, sabe? And if I should spend
all my money for nothirg it would
be but one hundred dollars more. But
listen! I have known some false Mex-
icans who, when an American paid
them to denounce a mine, took ad-
vantage of his kindness and refused to
give it over. Or, if it turned out to
its.
an-
z, glancing
"But I am
cannot de-
[t for some
d buy it. I
b man—in
:ome; so 1
jested Phil
aere thinks
he wants
this, and
what blast-
to boast of
>ry of the
umstantial-
was a lost
ing back to
the bridle,
r. They're
ou can eee
he church.
tno
Sat Toying With His Pistol.
rich, they pulled a long face and
claimed that they ought to be paid
f r | more. Now if—”
Ah, no, senor!” clamored Mendez,
. ; up his hand in protest; “I am
:t poor man, but I am honest. Only
Up ; give me the hundred dollars—”
Nut a dollar do you get!” cried De
Lancey eternly; “not a dollar—until
; i turn over the concession to the
mine. And if you play us false”—he
a used impressively—“cuidado, hom-
cey I bre—look out!”
Once more Cruz Mendez protested
>■ ! ins honesty and his fidelity to any
: trust, but De lancey silenced him im-
ish j patiently.
at Enough, borabre!” he said. “Words
| are nothing to us. Do you see my
in ; friend over there?” He pointed to
Lud, who, huge and dominating
against the sky line, sat toying with
!<-. pistol. “Buen’! He is a cowboy,
a l abe? A Texan! You know the. Te-
; mo1-, eh? They io not like Mexi-
ak3 Hut my friesd there, he likes
*!• xieans—when they are honest. If
1 not—no! Hey, Bud," he called in
English, “what would you do. to this
low if he beat us out of the mine?”
Bud turned upon them with a slow,
By. I good-natured smile.
“Oh, nothing much,” ho answered,
- putting up his gun; and the deep
x.ble of his voice struck fear into
my j the old man’s heart.
Phil laughed and looked grimly at
Mendez while he delivered bis ultl-
I maturn.
Very well, my friend,” he said. “We
^ ill stay and look at this mine. If
.ve think It i*i good we will take you
> the mining agent and get a permit
o dig For sixty days we will dig, and
» if find nothing we will pay you
fifty dollars, anyway. If we find the
r dge w f; will give you a hundred dol-
not lars. All right?”
senor, si, senor!” cried Mendez,
a, “one hundred dollars!”
When you give us the papers!"
earned Phil. “But remember—he
careful! The Americans do not Mke
men who talk. And come totbe ho.tsl
at Fortupa tomorrow—then^we will let
you know.” .
“And you will buy the mine?”
begged Mendez, backing 6ft with his
hat in his hand. * 4
“Perhaps,” answered De Lancey.
“We will tell you tomorrow.”
“Buen’!” bowed Mendez; “and many
thanks!” ;
“It is nothing,” replied De Lancey
politely, and then with a crooked
smile he gazed after the old man as
he went hurrying off down the canyon.
"Well,” he observed, “Lguees we’ve
got Mr. Mendez started just about
right—what? Now If we can keep
him without the price of a drink until
we get our papers we stand a chance
to win.”
. “That’s right,” said Bud; “but I
wish he had two good eyes. I knowed
a one-eyed Mex up in Arizona and he
was sure a thieving son of a goat.”
CHAPTER VII.
There are doubtless many philan-
thropists in the Back Bay regions of
Boston who would consider the whip-
sav/ing of Cruz Mendez a very repre-
hensible act. And one hundred dol-
lars Mex was certainly a very small
reward for the service that he was to
perform.
But Bud and Phil were not traveling
for any particular uplift society, and
one hundred pesos was a lot of money
to Cruz Mendez. More than that, if
they had offered him a thousand dol-
lars for the same service he would
have got avaricious and demanded ten
thousand.
He came to the hotel very early the
next morning and lingered around an
hour or so, waiting for the American
gentleman to arise and tell him his
fate. A hundred dollars would buy
everything that he could think of, in-
cluding a quantity of mescal. Hie
throat dried at the thought of it.
Then the gentlemen appeared and
asked him many questions—whether
he was married according to law,
whether his wife would sign the pa-
pers with him, and if he believed in
a hereafter for those who played false
with Americans. Having answered all
these in the affirmative, he was taken
to the agente mineral, and, after sign-
ing his name—his one feat in penman-
ship—to several imposing documents,
he was given the precious permit.
Then there was another trip to the
grounds with a surveyor, to make re-
port that the claim was actually va-
cant, and Mendez went back to his
normal duties as a packer.
In return for this service as a dum-
my locator, and to keep him under
their eye, the Americans engaged El
Tuerto, the one-eyed, to pack out a
few tools and supplies for them; and
then, to keep him busy, they employed
him further to build a stone house.
All these activities were, of course,
not lost on Don Cipriano Aragon y
Tres Palacios, since, by a crafty ar-
rangement of fences, he had made it
impossible for anyone to reach the
lower country without passing through
the crooked street of Old Fortuna.
During the first and the second trip
of the strange Americans he kept
within his dignity, hoping perhaps
that they would stop at his store,
where they could be engaged in con-
versation; but upon their return from
a third trip, after Cruz Mendez had
gone through with their supplies, he
cast his proud Spanish reserve to the
winds and waylaid them on the street.
“Buenas tardes, senores,” he salut-
ed, as they rode past hie store, and
then, seeing that they did not break
their gait, he held up his hand for
them to Stop.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said,
speaking genially but with an affected
Spanish lisp, “I have seen you ride
past several times—are you working
for the big company up at New For-
tuna?”
“No, senor,” answered De Lancey
courteously, “we are working for our-
selves.”
“Good!” responded Aragon with fa-
therly approval; “it is better so. And
are you looking at mines?”
“Yes,” said De Lancey non-commit-
tally; “we are looking at mines.”
“That is good, too,” observed Ara-
gon; “and 1 wish you well, but since
you are strangers to this country and
perhaps do not know the people as
well as some, I desire to warn you
against that one-eyed man, Cruz Men-
dez. with whom I have seen you rid-
ing. He is a worthless fellow—a very
pela’o Mexican, one who has nothing—
and yet he is always seeking to im-
pose upon strangers by selling them
old mines which have no value.
“1 have no desire to speak ilFof mv
neighbors, but since he has moved
into the brush house up the river I
have lost several fine little pigs; and
his eye, as 1 know, was torn from his
head as he was chasing another man’s
cow. I have not suffered him on my
ranch for years, for he is such a thief,
and yet he has the effrontery to repre-
sent himself to strangers as a poor but
honest man. I hope that he has not
imposed upon you in any way?”
“No; not at all, thank you,” respond-
ed De Lancey, as Bud raised his
bridle reins to go. “We hired him
to pack out our tools and supplies and
served De Lancey. “It doesn't cost
anything, .JWd. it hu^s & whole lot”
“Sure,” agreed -Bud*;: “but we ain’t
buying’ "nothing from him—rhe’s the
one particular horn bre we want to
steer clear of, and keep him guessing
as long as we can. That’s my view
of It, pardner.” - —
“Oh, that’s all right," laughed De
Lancey, “he won’t* get anything out
of me—that is, nothing but a bunch
of hot air. . Say, he’s a shrewd-looking
old guinea, Isn’t he? Did you notice
that game eye? He kept it kind of
drooped, almost shut, until he came
to the point—and then he opened it
up real fierce. Reminds me of a big
fighting owl waking up in the day-
time. But you Just watch me handle
him, and if I don’t fool the old boy
at every turn It’ll be because I run
out of bull.”
“Well, you can hand him the bull
if you want to,” grumbled Bud, “but
the first time you give anything away
I’m going to pick such a row with
the old cuss that we’ll have to make a
new trail to get by. So leave 'im
alone, if you ever expect to see that
girl!”
A close association with Phil De
Lancey had left Bud not unaware of
his special weaknesses, and Phil was
undoubtedly romantic. Given a barred
and silent house, shut off from the
street by whitened walls and a ve-
randa screened with flowers, and the
questing eyes of Mr. De Lancey would
turned to those barred windows as cer-
tainly as the needle seeks the pole.
On every trip, coming and going, he
had conned the Aragon house from the
vine-covered corredor in front to the
walled-in summer garden behind, hop-
ing to surprise a view of the beautiful
daughter of the house. And unless ru-
mor and Don Juan were at fault, she
was indeed worthy of his solicitude—
a gay and sprightly creature, brown-
eyed like her mother and with the
same glorious chestnut hair.
Already those dark, mischievous
eyes had been busy and, at the last
big dance at Fortuna, she had set
many heads awhirl. Twice within two
years her father, in a rage, had sent
her away to school in order to break
off some ill-considered love affair; and
now a battle royal was* being waged
between Manuel del Rey, the dashing
captain of the rurales stationed at
Fortuna, and Feliz Luna, son of a rich
haciendado down in the hot country,
for the honor of her hand.
What more romantic, then, than that
a handsome American, stepping grace-
fully into the breach, should keep the
haughty lovers from slaying each
other by bearing off the prize himself?
So reasoned Philip De Lancey, mus-
ing upon the ease with which he could
act the part; but for prudential pur-
poses he said nothing of his vaunting
ambitions, knowing full well that they
would receive an active veto from Bud.
For, while De Lancey did most of
the talking, and a great deal of the
thinking for the partnership, Hooker
was not lacking In positive opinions;
and upon sufficient occasion he would
express himself, though often with
more force than delicacy. Therefore,
upon this unexpected sally about the
girl, Phil changed the subject abruptly
and said no more of Aragon or the
hopes within his heart.
It wa6 not so easy, however, to avoid
Aragon, for that gentleman bad appar-
ently taken the pains to inform him-
self as to the place where they were
at work, and he was waiting for them
in the morning with a frown as black
as a thunder cloud.
“He’s on!’’ muttered Phil, as they
drew near enough to see his face.
“What shall we do?”
“Do nothing,” growled Bud through
his teeth; “you jest let me do the talk-
ing!” N
He maneuvered his horse adroitly
and, with a skilful turn, cut in be-
tween his pardner and Aragon.
“ ’S dias,” he greeted, gazing down
in burly defiance at the militant Ara-
I gon; and at the same moment he gave
who follow their Instincts are hard-to
change. So they put in the day in
making careful measurements, ac-
cording to the memoranda that Kru-
ger .had given them; having satisfied
themselves as to the approximate
locality of the lost vein, they turned
back again toward town with their
heads full of cunning schemes.
Since it was the pleasure of the
Senor Aragon to make war on all
who entered his preserves, they check-
mated any attempt on his part to
locate the lead by driving stakes to
the north of their ledge; and, still fur-
ther to throw him off, they decided to
mark time for a while by doing dead
work on a cut. Such an approach
would be needed to reach the mouth
of their tunnel.
At the same time it would give
steady employment to Mendez and
keep him under their eye, and as soon
as Aragon showed his hand they could
WAS SHIPWRECKED
WITH HER CHILDREN
De Lancey's horse a furtive touch with
his spur.
"Buenos dias, senores!” returned
Aragon, striding forward to intercept
them; but as neither of the Americans
looked hack, he was left standing in
the middle of the street.
“That’s the way to handle ’im,” ob-
served Hooker; as they trotted briskly
down the lane. “Leave *im to me!”
“It’ll only make him mad,” objected
De Lancey crossly. “What do you
want to do that for?”
“He’s mad already,” answered Bud.
“I want to quarrel with him, so he
can’t ask us any questions. Get him
so mad he won't talk—then it’ll be a
fair fight and none of this snake-in-the-
j grass business.”
“Yes, but don’t put it on him,” pro-
tested De Lancey. “Let him be
friendly for a while, If he wants to.’’
“Can’t be friends,” 6aid Bud lacon-
ically; “we jumped his claim.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want it,” sug-
gested Phil hopefully. “He’s dropped
a lot of money on it.”
“You bet he wants It,” returned
Hooker, with conviction. “I’m going
to camp out there—the old boy is
liable to Jump us.”
“Aw, you’re crazy, Bud!” cried Phil;
but. Hooker only smiled.
“You know what happened to Kru-
he has done it very reasonably. But j ger,” he answered. “I’ll tell you what,
many thanks, sir, for your warning. ! we got to keep our eye open around
Adios!”
He touched his hat and waved his •
hand in parting, and Bud grinned as !
he settled down to a trot.
“You can’t help palavering ’em, can
you, j'hil?” he said. “No matter what
you think about ’em, you got to be
polite, haven’t you? Well, that’s the
way you get drawn In—next time you
go by now the old man will pump you
dry—you see. No, sir, the only way
to get along with these Mexicans is
not to have a thing to do with ’em.
’No savvy’—that’s my motto!”
“Well, ’muchas graclas’ Is,mine.” ab-
“By What Right Do You Take Pos-
session of My Mine?”
make out their final papers in peace
and send them to the City of Mexico.
And not until those final papers
were recorded and the transfer duly
made would they so much as stick
a» pick into the hillside or show a
lump of quartz.
* But for a Spanish gentleman, sup-
posed to be all supple curves and sinu-
ous advance, Don Cipriano turned oat
somewhat of a surprise, for when they
rode back through his narrow street
again he met them squarely in the
road and called them to a halt.
“By what right, gentlemen—” he de-
manded in a voice tremulous with
rage “—by what right do you take
possession of my mine, upon which I
have paid the taxes all these years,
and conspire with that rogue, Cruz
Mendez, to cheat me out of it? It
is mine, 1 tell you, no matter what the
agente mineral may say, and—”
“Your mine, nothing!” broke in
Hooker scornfully, speaking in the
ungrammatical border-Mexican of the
cowboys. “We meet one Mexican—
he shows us the mine—that is all. The
expert of the mining agent says it is
vacant—we take it. Stawano!”
He waved the matter aside with
masterful indifference, and Aragon
burst into a torrent of excited Span-
ish.
“Very likely, very likely,” comment-
ed Bud dryly, without listening to a
word: “si, senor, yo pienso!”
A wave of fury swept over the Span-
iard's face at this gibe and he turned
suddenly to De Lancey.
“Senor,” he said, “you seem to be a
gentleman. Perhaps you will listen to
me. This mine upon which you are
working is mine. I have held it for
years, seeking for the lost vein of the
old padres. Then the rebels came
j sweeping through the land. They stole
j my horses, they drove off my cattle,
’ they frightened my workmen from the
mine. I was compelled to flee—myself
and my family—to keep from being
held for ransom. Now you do me the
great injustice to seize my mine!”
“Ah, no, senor,” protested De Lan-
cey, weaving his finger politely for si-
lence, "you are mistaken. We have
inquired about this mine and it has
been vacant for some time. There is
no vein—no gold. Anyone who wished
could take it. While we were pros-
pecting we met this poor one-eyed
man and he has taken out a permit
to explore So we are going to dig
—that is all.”
“But, senor!" burst out Aragon—and
he voiced his rabid protests again,
while sudden faces appeared in the
windows and wide-eyed peons stood
gawking in a crowd. But De Lancey was
equally firm, though he glimpsed for
the first time the adorable face of La
Gracia as she stared at him from be-
hind the bars.
“No, senor,” he said, “you are mis-
taken. The land was declared forfeit
for non-payment of taxes by the min-
ister of Fomento and thrown open
for location. We have located it—that
is all.”
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
Captain’s Wife Directed the Res*
cue Work as Ship Pounded
on the Rocks.
San Francisco, Cal.—Shipwrecked,
facing starvation for five months on a
desert guano island 700 miles off the
coast of Mexico, with her two babies,
one two months old and the other two
years, Mrs. Jens Jensen, the wife of
the 6klpper of the schooner Nakomis,
reached San Francisco, to find her-
self the heroine of one of the most
thrilling stories which has come out
of the Pacific.
Mrs. Jensen with her babies, her
husband, and eight members of the
crew of the Nakomis, returned on the
Pacific Mail liner City of Sydney, from
Acupulco, Mexico, to wblcb place they
had been carried when rescued by the
cruiser Cleveland, sent by Admiral
Howard to take the marooned people
The Crew Took to the Boats.
off Clipperton island, where they
Were wrecked on February 28.
“For five long months we had little
to eat but fish and sea birds’ eggs,
which were plentiful enough,” said
Mrs. Jensen. “My youngest baby was
only a few days old when we went to
sea last January 15 and less than two
months old when our ship was
wrecked. Both my. children have
spent nearly their whole life at-sea,
but it agrees with them, as you can
see.” She pointed proudly to her two
daughters, who, like herself, are true
descendants of the Vikings.
The Nokomis left Port Townsend
January 15 for Palta, Peru, laden with
lumber. Five days out she ran into
cne of the severest storms of the win-
ter and was damaged, putting into
Grays Harbor fer repairs. Mrs. Jen-
een, whose home is in Olympta, re-
fused to go hack, however, and pro-
reeded with the ship on its long voy-
age south. On February 28 the Nako-
niis was driven upon the reeky shore
off Clipperton island, about seven hun-
dred niil^s off San Bias, Mexico. The
crew took to the ‘boats. One of the
children fainted in the mother’s arms,
hut no one was drowned. The crew
managed to save a small quantity of
-he ship ? stores before the vessel
pornded to pieces.
During the work of rescue Mrs. Jen
f n ren amed bravely on the deck of
• ’'o rapidly splintering vessel and with
■ cr bnh'cs in Ijer arms spoke words
. f encouragement to the sailors at
Viieir perilous task. She was one of
the last to leave, and was loudly
Ciioerec: hv the men for her heroism
rs the boats put off from the doomed
'chooner.
DUEL AND FiRE IN ONE NIGHT
West Virginia Man Outshoots Burglar,
But His Store Goes Up
in Smoke.
here^”
They rode on to the mine, which
was only about five miles from For-
tuna, without discussing the matter
further; for, while Phil had generally j
been the leader, in this particular case j
Kruger had put Bud in charge, and j
he seemed determined to have hie !
way go far as Aragon was concerned :
In the ordering of supplies and the j
laying out of development work he \
deferred to Phil in everything, hut for I
tactics he preferred his own Judgme.nt. j
It wae by instinct rather than rea- |
son that he chose to fight, and peoole j
Ruskin on Traveling.
To any person who has all his senses
about him, a quiet walk, over not
more than ten or twelve miles of road
a day, is the most amusing of all trav- !
eling; and all traveling becomes dull
in exact proportion to its rapidity. Go-
ing by railroad I do not consider as
traveling at all; it is merely “being
sent” to a place, and very little differ,
ent from becoming a parcel.—
Ruskin.
Springfield, W. Va.—The store- of B.
j A. Poland was destroyed by fire of
I incendiary origin the other morning,
and while the fire was at its height
Mr. Poland was having a pistol duel
with a robber In his home.
Mr Poland was alone at his home,
several hundred yards from his store]
when he was awakened by a man In
his room. Mrs. Poland was away on
a visit. Poland shot at the intruder,
who returned the fire and then ran
from the house pursued by Poland,
but the man got away, leaving behind
a quantity of silverware, which he
had collected on the first floor. It
was while pursuing the man that Mr.
Poland observed that his store was
in flames.
It is thought that the robber first
visited the store and set it on fir©
and then went to Poland's home. Mr.
Poland carried a stock worth about
four thousand dollars.
Diplomacy or Dishonesty?
Commend a fool for his wit, or a
knave for his honesty, and he will re-
ceive you into his bosom.—Fielding.
Salmon Weighs 87 Pound^.
Astoria. Ore.—The largest royal
Chinook salmon taken this year was
caught by H. P. Nelson, a gillnetter,
It is a fine specimen and weighs 87
pounds. This fish will be preserved
and if it is the largest caught will be
exhibited at the 1915 fair in Ran Fran-
cisco.
Girl Leads Band Concert*
.Jersey City. N. J.—Margaret M.
Meehan, nineteen, will lead five oi
the municipal band concerts scheduled
for the summer. The young miss will
receive $100 per concert.
■M
■tm
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Hudson, C. H. & Woodward, Roy. The Pearsall Leader (Pearsall, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, October 30, 1914, newspaper, October 30, 1914; Pearsall, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth920732/m1/3/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .