The Elbert County tribune. [volume], August 31, 1917, Image 2

About The Elbert County tribune. [volume] (Elbert, Elbert County, Colo.) 18??-1920

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Patria
Louis Joseph Vance
NOVEUZATION OF THE MOTION PICTURE PLAY OF THE SAME
NAME. PRODUCED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL FILM SERVICE. INC.,
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF WHARTON, JNC. corrmcm: jtar conruiv
THE CABT.
MRS. VERNON CASTLE as
Patrla Channing.
MILTON BILLB a« Donald Parr.
WARNER OLAND as Baron
Hurokl.
DOROTHY GREEN as Fanny
Adair.
SYNOPSIS.
Huron Hurokl of Tokyo, conspiring to
emhroll tlie United States with Mexico in
order to pave the way for Japanese inva
sion of the Pacific coast, is hunted from
the country by Patrla Channing, sole ex
ecutrix of a 1100,000,000 trust secretly cre
ated by patriotic progenitors to combat
the national peril inherent in “unprepar
edneßS.” Fearing for the safely of her
properties in the Southwest, Patrla leaves
Hew York to Investigate along the border,
accompanied by her fiance, Capt. Donald
Parr.
ELEVENTH EPISODE
Lovers’ Leap.
THE BORDERLAND.
Ever since enrllest dawn the train
hud been alternately climbing with
stertorous respiration the straightened
passes atid sweeping down in wild,
free flight through the widening val
leys of a great and spacious land of
haggard beauty.
And since her eyes had first opened
to this new day it had not been possi
ble for long to distract Patria’s atten
tion from that endless panorama of
grim, stark hills, pointed desert and
boundless plains.
And In Patria’s eyes, while she
watched, a gladness shone deep and
tender; and ever and again her young
bosom would lift and fall with a gen
tle sigh of happiness.
For this, to her, was home-coming;
she was returning, nfter a long so
journ in a strange far country, to the
laud which held first place in her
henrt.
Toward mid-afternoon the train
pausel at a little station.
Here there was uncommon hustle of
life. In addition to the customary
groups of idle Mexicans and half
breeds, squaws with crude pottery to
sell to the avid tourist, and assorted
loafers, a company of hard-riding cow
people had gathered, and a couple of
rough-coated motorcars stood wait
ing.
As Patrla, with her little train of
servants and companions, descended
to the platform, high-spirited cheering
greeted her; the horsemen and women
yelled piercingly, and tossed aloft their
hats; and from one of the motorcars
a man whose heaviness of stature as
sorted oddly with his alertness of ges
ture strode forwnrd sombrero in hand,
then paused, stured and said in a
voice of wonder:
“Patrla Channing!”
The girl Identified him after a mo
ment of perplexity, during which her
memory harked back to days a decade
ago. Her characteristic little frown of
thought was dispelled by a smile and
a laugh of joyful recognition.
“Itodman Pillsbury!” she exclaimed
—and gave him both her hands.
He took them awkwardly, shaking a
still bewildered head.
“I dont’ know you at all, Pat,” ho
said. “I was waiting for a little girl
—a freckled, long-legged tomboy who
could beut me riding and shooting and
—’most every way. And here you’re
a woman grown . . . Lord I how
antique you make me feel!”
“You needn’t,” she told him gayly.
“You’ve grown up every whit as much
ns I —but no more, not the least bit.
When I went East you were us sturdy
and husky as a stringbean and now
you’re as slim and lissome as a water
melon 1 Heavens! don’t accuse me of
having changed! . . . But forgive
me ...”
Swiftly she made Pillsbury known
to her chaperon and Captain Parr.
“I want you to be great friends,” she
said with just a hint of embarrassment
ns these Inst clasped bunds. “Rodman
was the first sweetheart I ever had,
Don—and Donald,” she added charm
ingly to Pillsbury, “Is my last; we are
eugaged.”
To her Immense relief there was no
trace of hostility in the greeting which
Itodmkn accorded her betrothed.
Mr. Pillsbury had grown up In more
than physique In the course of ten
years. The ability to mask his feel
ings with impenetrable dissimulation
was only one of the accomplishments
which he had acquired, and which fit
ted him so admirably to command ut
once the friendship and respect of the
small army of employees who looked
up to him as the local representative
of the Channing Interests—as, in short,
what Rodman Pillsbury really was,
Patria’s viceroy, ruling dominions of
land and men—broader, if less popu
lous, than many u European principal
ity.
That exhilaration which had been
mounting in Patrla ever since her
awakening that morning grew still
more intense ns tier motorcur swung
away from the station and over a
winding highroad. Now she was thor
The Great Romance
of Preparedness •
] oughly at home. She seemed to rec
| ognlze as old friends not only those
I well-remembered landmarks but every
tree and boulder on the way—even
that slow-plodding ox-cart with Its
heuvy wooden wheels, primitively
spokeless, and Its Mexican driver with
his goad trudging beside the yoked
beasts, was like a brightly colored il
lustration from the Book of Yester
day.
“They, at least, don’t change,” she
said to Rodman, nodding toward the
cart with Its load of straw.
“No,” he agreed with a thoughtful
frown; “the only thing that resigns the
Greaser to the march of clvllizutlon is
an opportunity to do murder with a
modern magazine rifle or run guns and
ammunition across the border in a six
cylinder machine!’’
“Where is the border —I mean, the
boundary line?” Parr Inquired.
“I’ll show you in a minute,” Patrla
answered.
And presently, as the car topped a
long, slow upgrade, gaining an emi
nence that overlooked much of that
rolling countryside, she pointed out a
bridge that spanned a gulley off to the
right.
“That’s the boundary line,” she said;
"that arroyo; beyond the bridge Is
Mexico.”
“Is there much of that sort of thing
going on hereabouts?” —Purr turned
to Pillsbury—"gun running, I mean?”
“I hardly think so. Things have
been very quiet in this neck of the
woods. It’s to the southeast, along the
Rio Grande, that the most of the trou
ble bus occurred, to date.
Three miles beyond the point where
the roud forked, one arm running down
to the bridge at the border, the car
drew up in front of the Channing ha
cienda, a century-old structure built
upon rambling lines of Spanish archi
tecture.
With a cry of delight Patrla felt her
self folded In the aged arms of Rod
man’s mother —a slight and delicate
little woman who had for many years
been a second mother to Patrla, the or
phaned, only when the little girl went
East to complete her education yield
ing place to Mrs. Wrenn In Patria's af
fections.
And Mrs. Pillsbury proved not to
have changed in the least!
Then there was Bess Morgan wait
ing to greet her —a tow-headed little
imp ten years ugo, toduy a slender and
dignified young woman whose serene
poise did not in the least detract from
her ability to ride harder and faster
and shoot stralghter than any man or
woman within two days’ journey of
the Channing ruuch.
Sister of Bud Morgan, now foreman
of the Chunnlng cowpunchers—an up
standing youngster of ftve-aud-twenty
—Bess lived with her mother and
brother some twenty miles from the
hacienda. She had ridden over to wel
come an old rival for the affections of
Rodman Pillsbury.
Their ancient enmity thawed to the
warmth of a spontaneous kiss; and the
relief, Imperceptible to any but an
other woman, with which Bess re
ceived the news of Patria’s betrothal
to Donald, provided even more com
forting reassurance to Patrla In re
spect to the affections of Kodmuu.
ACROSS THE BORDER.
While the hacienda slept lu peace,
that primitive oxcart pursued labori
ously Its patient, creaking way across
the bridged arroyo und the desert
country beyond toward a far-flung line
of mountains which loomed uguinst
the horizon in serrated array like the
frozen profile of a stormy sea.
Distancing the oxcart as fast as
willing hoofs could run, a horseman
who, leaving the station aimlessly
shortly after the departure of Patria’s
ps\rty for the hacienda, had spurred
his steed to its swiftest puce as soon
as lie felt secure from observation, ar
rived in the early evening at u strag
gling row of udobe huts which figured
us the nearest Mexican village.
Twilight wus still bright when he
dropped from his fagged animal und
sought one of the dwellings which
wore a slightly less unkempt appear
ance than its fellows.
In the doorwuy of this hut, some
what contemptuously watcLlng the
evolutions of a squad of listless Mexi
can Infantry in the village plaza, stood
u gentleman in the field uuiform of
an officer of the Japanese army.
Hearing the thud of hurried foot
steps In the deep dust of the street,
the Japanese turned toward the ap
proaching horse an expectant eye.
“Well, Gomez?” he said in Spanish.
“Excellency, 1 have to report that
the Channing gxrl, with Captain Parr
und a small company of friends ar
rived from the East this afternoon.’’
The Japanese nodded gently. “Many
thanks,” he said in an indifferent
voice. “You will be duly rewarded for
your vigilance. Good-night.”
As the Mexican disappeared in the
gathering darkness, the Japanese
smote his palms together smartly.
In response a wiry little Japanese,
of vicious gesture, In the uniform of
an orderly, came out of the hut uud
paused at attention.
ELBERT COUNTY TRIBUNE.
“Go Immediately, Kato,” his superior
ordered—“find Senor Zeiaya, present
my compliments and say that Baron
Hurokl will be obliged If General Ze
iaya will consent to honor this humble
abode with his verminous presence, at
his exalted convenience this evening.”
Sooner than Baron Hurokl antici
pated, Zeiaya shouldered through the
doorway of his adobe quarters, a huge
and, forceful personality.
“Well, my friend,” he said, leering
coinpanionably and slapping a boot
leg with the quirt which swung by Its
leathern thong from his right wrist,
“There is news, I hear?”
“Sit down,” Hurokl suggested, nod
ding. “It Is true; the Channing girl
has come to the border to look after
her possessions—-even as I foretold she
would.”’
“The dear little creature who has
a hundred million of gold dollars to
spend making fools of Japan and Mex
ico, eh?” iielaya laughed. “How
sweet of walk within our reach!
Just when I could use a little money,
too I”
"Undeceive yourself,” Hurokl re
plied brusquely; “these hundred mil
lions remain well beyond our grasp;
the girl Is no such fool us to curry gold
about with her In such quantities. She
Is not,” he pursued In tone of thought
ful reminiscence not lacking a hint
of vindictiveness, “in uny way a fool.
I tell you frankly—ns I have said be
fore —she will upset all our schemes If
we discount her shrewdness and abil
lty.”
“And so—what?”
“We must find away to trim her
claws.”
“You did not send for me to ask my
advice,” the outlaw laughed.
“No,” Hurokl admitted, “only your
co-operation.”
“Your scheme, then. Is matured?”
The Japanese nodded. “Our course
is plain* my friend. Leaving all other
consideration aside for the time being
—forgetting, that Is, your patriotic un
selfishness and my loyalty to Nippon
—we both need money—much money."
“Granted,” Zeiaya said, with glisten
ing eyes.
“And Miss Channing has it—and
means to keep it. How, then, to per
suade her to give us enough for our
modest needs?”
“Do go on I”
"The girl is madly infatuated with
a young man very dangerous to our
common cause,” Iluroki pursued
smoothly—“ Captain Donald Parr. He
has accompanied her on this Journey
to the border. It Is he, indeed, who
jogs her elbow’ whenever she Is In
doubt ns to how and when and where
she ought to strike at us next.”
“I should much enjoy meeting this
gentleman,” the bandit announced.
“I should much enjoy effecting the
Introduction,” Iluroki assented. “So l
mean to do it. But you must first
promise me not to flay him alive. Liv
ing. he is of incalculable value to us;
dead, a deathless peril—for the Chan
ning girl would never rest till she had
avenged his death, though she were to
plunge her beloved country into war
with our two nations.”
“I am all • impatience Tor your
point.”
“It is simple enough. For months
we have seen to it that tills section of
the border was undisturbed. That
served our interests in more ways than
out*. By keeping the peace, we provid
ed safe transit for arms and ammuni
tion shipments from the North; we
also Inspired in the bosom of these
fools hereabouts confidence in a con
tinuance of immunity from our raids.
. . . So tonight the Channing haci
enda will sleep in tranquillity, never
dreaming that you, my friend, with a
large force of your picked horsemen,
will raid it at dawn and bring back
to me the living—if somewhat dam
aged—body of Captain Donald Parr, to
be held for ransom—for a round, cor
pulent ransom which the Channing
girl will gladly pay rather than imperil
the life of her betrothed by any at
tempt to rescue him. Do you see,
O brother?”
“I see,” Zeiaya agreed, licking his
thick lips as lie rose. “I see uud Igo
to pick my men!”
RIDERS OF THE DAWN.
In the first dim flush of that cool,
sweet duwn, Putrlu wakened with a
smile, und turning oil her pillow,
looked out through the open window
at her bedside before snuggling be
neath the covers for another hour or
two of sleep.
And because the dew-wet world she
viewed was so very beautiful, she
could no more sleep, but must needs
get up and move gently about her
The Patio Was a Panorama of Inferno.
room, bathing, and dressing In her rid
ing clothes.
While she dressed she saw one of
the cowpunchers pass beneath her win
dow. and called down to him softly,
begging him to saddle a horse for her
and fetch it to the entrance to the
patio, without “letting on”/ to any
body.
He promised cheerfully, and went
his way, and had the annimal waiting
for her when at length, fully attired,
she descended to the patio and crept
furtively toward the arched passage
that opened on the out-of-doors.
But she was not to get away so eas
ily. Parr’s voice hailed her In amused
expostulation before she gained the
passageway.
“Here, now! What’s all this?”
“Oh, dear!” she complained. “It’s
just my luck I”
“Why, what’s the matter?”
“I did so want to go riding all by
myself—this once! And, of course,
you had to be up and about and spoil
everything!”
“Bless your heart!” he said. “I’m
going to ruin your day the very
first thing. Far be it from me to butt
In where ungels fear—where one angel
does not fear to tread,” he corrected,
laughing. “Besides, I only got up so
early in the hope of being permitted
to smoke at least one pipe in pefcoe.
Cut along with you—and mind you’re
not late for breakfast!”
With this she turned and scurried
out of the patio; and Donald filled and
lighted his pipe, smiling tenderly to
himself as he heard the drumming of
her horse’s hoofs die out In the dis
tance.
Something like a quarter of an hour
later a heavy and confused roll of
hoofs roused him from the idlest and
pleasantest of daydreams. Knocking
out his pipe against the sill of the pa
tio well, he sauntered curiously
through the passageway—and saw
that which startled him out of his
false feeling of security In the twink
ling of an eyelash.
A small squad of the border patrol
was bearing down upon the hacienda
at a dead run, desperate haste and
anxious purpose written plainly on the
face of each man.
Reining in nnd dismounting In the
same breath, the officer commanding
the patrol turned and wuved half of
his men away.
“Get on!” he cried. “Rouse the boys
in the bunkliouse—get every man on
the place under arms, and send him
here in a hurry!”
“What’s up?” Donald asked quietly.
“Devil’s loose —or I’m in wrong,”
the officer told him. "We’ve just sight
ed half a hundred or more ‘Greasers’
headed this way. They crossed the
border by the bridge over the arroyo.
God knows what they mean, but if it
Isn't mischief, I don’t know the signs.
Get your people together und shut
the house up tight before —”
He could not finish for the sudden
ness of that onslaught which, with no
more warning, swept down upon the
devote® hacienda with the fury of a
black squall out of a blue sky.
In mid-speech the officer broke off
nnd ducked into the pussageway us
the vanguard of the raiders appeared
on the crest of the nearest rise and
incontinently opened fire on the group
at the entrance to the patio.
His men followed him without an
Instant’s hesitation, leaving tlielr
mounts to run free; and then Donald,
obliged to concede the impossibility of
facing that charge In the hope of
breaking through and satisfying his
frantic solicitude for Patrla, was
driven into the patio by a veritable
liuil of bullets.
Stout wooden doors, strapped heav
ily with iron, closed the inside end of
the passage; and these were hastily
barred by the troopers, while Donald
run to find himself a weapon and the
household wakened to find itself be
sieged.
Following the disappearance of Don
ald there was a brief lull, during
which no shots were fired by the ruid
ers.
Then, us Donald ran out from his
room to the gallery, a rifle In hand, a
frightful detonation rocked the hacien
i da on its foundations and the dyna
! mited gates of the patio were blown
in, hopelessly shattered and splintered.
A cloud of smoke momentarily filled
the passage; as the draught drew It
outward, bullets began to rain Inward.
The defenders were driven to cover
behind the well and other coigns of
shelter, whence they responded with
.an ineffectual fire; half a dozen Mex
icans fell, but the momentum of their
charge curried two score into the
courtynrd uninjured, and firing fast, j
immediately the defense of the ha- 1
clenda resolved Itself Into a series of
hand-to-hand encounters. Parr, crouch
ing behind the well sill, had two troop
ers shot down at his side before ne was
enveloped In a rush, borne bodily from
his feet, disarmed and man-handled.
Fighting as he had never fought be
fore, he struggled clear for an instant
—flung off the raiders who clung to
him like wolves to the flunks of a stag,
and found his feet again, half his cloth
ing ripped from his body, his hands
empty.
In that abbreviated breathing spell
he saw the patio as a panorama of In
ferno, a pit of smoke and flame where
in men weltered and writhed like rep
tiles in a furnace. High above him
he caught a giimps of Bess Morgan,
kneeling before her bedchamber door,
on the gallery, and defending the
stairs, a revolver In either hand, dead
ly determination in her look.
Then Parr was assailed from be
hind. A clubbed rifle descended on
his skull with murderous force. He
rocked blindly for an Instant, then
pitched forward Into unconscious night.
That proved the culmination of the
attack. With Captain Parr insensible
and a prisoner, the leader of the raid
ing party ordered a retreat In good
time to escape the charge of the Chan
ning cowpunchers through the rose
garden.
LOVERS' LEAP.
Pelting across country at a round
pace. Joying In the free swing of the
unjaded animal beneath her, drinking
In delight with every deep-drawn res
piration of the .clean, "cool air of early
morning, Patrla swung a wide arc
through trackless fields before, some
twenty minutes after leaving the ha
cienda, she drew rein to rest and
breathe her horse.
It was then that a sound of distant
firing was carried to her on the wings
of the wind which was moving from
the quurter wherein lay the hueiendn.
Definitely frightened, she swung her
horse’s head about and spurred him
down the main road, but a hun
dred yards or so short of the junction
with the road to the bridge at the bor
der checked the animal again and sat
still, listening to the growing rumble
of many hoofs.
Fearing lest she be caught In this 1
rush of horsemen, she Jumped down
nnd led her mount Into the shelter of
the roadside trees, then scouted on
afoot for a little distance to a point
whence she commanded a view of the
fork in the roads.
There she suw, first, an oxcart,
counterpart of that which she had j
passed in her motorcar the previous I
afternoon, stalled by an accident to j
one of the wheels, which the Mexican j
driver had just succeeded in repairing.
An instant later a cloud of Mexican
horsemen swept up the road from the
hacienda and paused at the fork. The
leader, a burly ruffian, stopped long
enough beside the cart to admonish
the driver in accents that carried
clearly to the girl—familiar as she
was with Spanish:
“Hurry that ammunition across the
river before the Gringoes get here —If
you set any value on your skin!”
That was all; but the sight of the
captive lying unconscious across the
horse ridden by one of the Mexicans —
a figure all too readily Identified by
the girl as that of her betrothed —wus
enough to decide Patria's course of ac
tion. •
The raiding party swung on at top
speed for the bridge. The driver of
the oxcart picked up his goad and
prodded his beasts to the best pace
they could make. Patrla ran back to
her horse, fumbling in the pockets of
her riding coat and finding there the
envelope of an old letter.
With the soft-nosed bullet of a load
ed cartridge for a pencil, using the
saddle for a desk, she contrived to
scrawl a simple message on the back
of the envelope:
Mexicans with Capt. Parr prisoner
crossing border by bridge—safe and
trailing them—rush help—P. C.
Folding and tucking the envelope In
to the bridle, Patrla turned the horse’s
head homeward and slapped Its side
with the flat of her hand. Surprised
and indignant, the animal snorted and
scurried off. Without giving It an
other thought the girl set off after the
oxcart.
She was somewhat surprised to find
thnt It had made such progress;
obliged to overtake it ere it came with
in sight of the bridge, or else give up
her foolhardy scheme, she succeeded
in the nick of time, with none to spare.
An instant before the cart, lumbering
in a haze of dust, left the shelter of
the woods that cloaked the road, the
girl labored up behind It and, unseen
by the terrified driver, climbed aboard
and buried herself in the mass of
straw that hid the cases of ammuni
tion.
Then, lialf-choked with dust and
suffocating with lack of air and heat,
as the sun beat down upon the straw,
she resigned herself to enforced inac
tion that endured for many hours.
The cart had successfully negotiated
the passage of the bridge and won to
a considerable distance beyond it
when a fusillade in the rear erabol
i dened the girl to lift up her head, be
' neath the straw, and gasp In a few
breaths of clean air while reconnolter
' log.
The cart was then on rising ground.
1 The bridge across the arroyo lay be
neath It and some distance back. She
could see the main body of the Mexi
cans which ambushed the Channing
cowpunchers.
A few fell in the charge. Her heart
bled for them, hut her grief on their
account was a trifle compared with her
: anxiety for Donald. He was already
1 fur ahead of the oxcart, escorted by [
Zeloya and a picked guard. So much
she had gathered from a conference
at the bridge, when the cart paused
for further instructions; and more, she
had then learned that the cart was to
proceed with all speed to a receiving
depot in the hills where Zeiaya was to
wait with his prisoner till joined by
the men he had left to guard the
bridge.
It was high noon when at length the
cart lurched its last lurch and came to
a dead stop.
The complaint of its greaseless
wheels had barely ceased when Patrla,
moveless beneath the straw heard a
voice she knew only too well. It wus
Hurokl’s, ordering the driver to hasten
Instantly to a nearby village and find
Zeluya, to advise him that it seemed
best to remove the prisoner instantly
to a safer place; he—lluroki—wanted
horses and a guard for this purpose
without delay.
When the driver had gone, grum
bling. Hurokl spoke briefly with an
other Mexican, ordering him to stand
guard over the prisoner pending the
arrival of the horses and the guard,
when he was to summon Hurokl from
some observation point at no great dis
tance.
There followed three minutes of
quiet. Then the girl took her life In
her hands and poked her head out of
the straw.
The oxcart was at rest before a
small adobe hut with an open door.
She could not see through the door-
They Arrived on the Lip of a Cliff.
way, but from the fact that the ragged
Mexican sentry stood close by under
stood that this hut was Donald’s tem
porary prison.
In the distance she saw Hurokl and
his creature, Kato, passing from view
behind a thicket, walking rapidly to
ward what appeared to be' the brink
of a cliff.
There was no time to be lost. Hast
ily drawing her pistol, the girl
emerged from the straw und covered
the sentry, ordering him to drop his
rifle and put up his hands —which he
did with gratifying alacrity.
But he demonstrated more courage
and initiative than she had anticipated
of his kind. For when she left him
momentarily uncovered, while she
clambered out of the cart, the fellow
made an ill-advised snatch for his gun.
It was necessary to shoot him or be
shot.
Hastening by that twitching body in
the dust before the door, the girl en
tered the hut, finding Donald there,
conscious but sorely battered, and
bound to a chair.
It was a matter of seconds only to
free him. But, once he was freed, the
riddle of the next step toward safety
loomed imperatively, its solution a
thing of the utmost urgency.
Already Kato and Huroki, alarmed
by the shot, were nurrying back to
ward the hut. Alrendy the sounds of
hoofs approached from the opposite di
rection.
There was a window in the hack of
the hut; through this the fugitives es
caped, even as Huroki and Kato en
tered the ammunition depot by its door
way.
Then, skirting through underbrush,
they skulked off as far as they might
under cover. When the pursuit obliged
them to take to the open, they found
themselves hemmed in on three sides,
und under lire. The only way they
dared run was In the direction of Hu
rokl’s point of observation.
Two minutes later, hotly pressed,
they arrived on the lip of a cliff not
h*SB than two hundred feet in height,
commanding a wide view of the sur
rounding country.
At bay, Parr turned and emptied
Patria’s pistol at their pursuers, drop
ping two Mexicans and momentarily
checking their rush.
Then—there was nothing else for it
—one after the other the lovers leaped
from the cliff.
A dense growth of foliage at the bot
tom saved them, breaking the force of
their falls.
Half senseless, bruised and scratched
and breathless, they lay on the ground
beneath thnt friendly screen of leaves
till the sound of hoofs and firing drew
them out, cautiously, to the edge of
the forest.
Along the road that skirted It tie
rear guard of the raiding purty wu
flying for Its life.
In pursuit came a strong company
of the Channing cowpunchers.
1 (END OF ELEVENTH EPISODE.)