THE VALE
OF ARAGON
‘By
FRED McLAUGHLIN
v
Author of
“The Blade of Picardy”
¥
Copyright by Dobbs-Merrill Co,
(WNU Service.)
THE STORY
At aightfall, in the old elty of
New Orleans, in the year 1821,
Loren Garde, recently an office
under General Jackson, sur-
prised by the appearance of three
figures, in anclent Spanish
tume, two men and a woman
whose beauty enchants him. Re-
senting the arroga of the
of the two men, Garde
} a duel with him with
ords, and wounds him. After.
ward he learns his opponent is
Adolfo de Fuentes, colonel in the
Spanish army in Venezuela, Gar-
de flees from gens darmes, tak-
ing refuge in a garden, where he
overhears a plot to overthrow
Spanish rule In Vene 1a, Dis
covered, he fights, but is over.
powered, recovering ious-
ness to find himself a prisoner
lanta Lucrecia, Spanish
yr contraband arms
7 me the
suelans under Bolivar. On board
are the conspirators he had over.
heard, the lady of his 1 her
brother FPolito, and De Fuentes,
An attempt to seize the ship
falls. From the girl, Garde learns
her name is Dulce Lamartina He
does not tell her of his but
i ! is ne indifferent to
dur-
is
COR
nee
zile
cons
Ver
vy ene-
we,
fe
t
CHAPTER III
ssn
Tucayan
arning sun dr
The 1
and filled me
warmth, Except
soreness from the
storm and
that kept
none the
a tender spot
Adolfo In
worge for the
experience in which I ha
shore of Venezuela, Th
implacable t
Adolfo de
ot
enemy in
Fuentes wa
for
if De Fuentes survived the wreck
quieting, Spain ruled Venezuela,
and
my stay in the country would be to me
a constar Yet
leave Venezuela would be to turn my
face from the lodestar of love that
had
urce of danger. to
it 80
directed
that
"
nee
1 turned
and move
of primevi
floor at k
slopes
tend
checkered
vated fields
of a few tiny villages
southward yet the f
gan again, to disappear
distance
Musing
gular outlines
d even farther
1 pes be
in misty
this
rut? peace shoul
reigned supreme, but did not,
Bolivar and his
contended for
I looked upon
where
Ea
weause
revolutionary
against
La Torre, the right hand of Ferdinand
Vii, august king of Spain. Even as
I stood, lost in admiration of the love
ly scene, the clang of arms came to
and the clattering of shod hoofs
upon 8 rocky road. A body of soldiers
mounted on mules passed in single
file along a narrow way that the un-
derbrush had hidden from my view,
I witched them from the concealment
of a great ceiba tree,
“A sweet reception,” said a voice, In
“to our colonel, 1 wonder
if he lost his lady-love.”
“A thing of no importance’
another: “there are many
De Fuentes never lacks a
Then Adolfo had been saved
but the Senorita Dulee! Ah-—had the
after all, claimed that lovely
Iady? My mad worship would not let
me believe it. Surely the Master of
our souls would not have brought me
through and taken her. Well, I would
know, for they were evidently going to
Adoifo now; they were traveling west
and the colonels destination had been
Caracas, Caracas, therefore, was east,
After the sounds of their passing
had died away I descended the rocky
declivity to the road and bent my
steps to the east, I heard, after three
hours of rapid walking, the mingled
noises of a town, so, leaving the road,
I beat back into the forest and passed
north of the settlement, which, I was
to learn, was Maracay, 'a city on the
lake,
Just before the sun went down I
came to a village unexpectedly, be.
cause it did not offer the mixed
nolges that Indian villages always
have, The village lay under the som-
ber silence of a tomb, I was in jt
before I realized that any settlement
Wis near,
The first few jacials I passed were in
ruing, and neither dogs nor children
came out to greet me. I began to
wonder if the storm had reached this
far. Now 1 came across a prone figure
army
its nossession
ne,
K|panish,
sald
and
lady-love.”
ROT (ee
form,
a a
in the path, a flattened figure with
face pressed against the earth as
though he were endeavoring to look
through It, I had seen dead men be-
fore: I had seen scores of them upon
the battlefield, Now other figures—na
woman and a child--lay before me;
and now five men upon a single gib-
bet, and a boy of ten or less hanging
by a vine around his neck, his slim
bare feet pointing pathetically toward
the earth. Every house was down-—
burned or crushed as though a glant
hand had pressed upon them, and
every occupant was dead,
I went through the awful length of
that silent village—which must have
had three hundred souls—with a
dreadful desolation of death around
me, and dropped to my knees at the
end of the street of terrors and raised
my face to the graying sky. A figure
rose up beside me, rose up slowly, the
horribly emaciated fizure of an aged
man whose unseeing eyes were fixed
upon space and whose thin lips were
forming faint words, “My wife,” he
whispered, “and the two boys—and a
girl—" He was silent a moment.
“Gone, all gone!"
“Who did It? I inquired, “In the
name of God, Senor, who could have
done this thing?”
“Morales,” he gasped. He drew In a
long breath for one last effort, raised
@ right hand in half a salute, and
whispered: *“Viva Bolivar!"
Now, like 8 man possessed, I got to
my feet and ran through the wood;
ran madly, wildly, stumblingly, fren.
ziediy, wringing my hands and calling
down the curses of God upon a people
who would do atrocious a thing.
Through the long night I went, raving;
antil I fell at last exhausted, and
awoke with the blessed sun upon my
face,
With much labor, for my
seemed to be the habitation of a hun.
dred aches, I got to my feet and stood
in a wide road. Flanking the road
wins a broad ragged hedge, over which
a man leaned, who considered me with
mild concern in his blue He
long barrel of a gun in
general direction; upon his head
he wore a wide sombrero, and on his
80
body
eyes,
pointed the
my
profusely freckled face a friendly grin,
“Hi, towhead,” sald he, and while |
stared, marveling, he ‘are
beds so scarce you must sleep beside
continued :
the road and pillow your head upon
I gasped, for the
f the night still bore upon me,
He th
French"
h t's Frend
, Well, if |
1
”~
’ - d
~ » -
7a
aly. . x
I Wondered Even More
Giant Wave, Receding,
Stranded in a Tree,
Until a
Left Me
want here goes though it seems
a little odd that an Irishman from
London should be speaking French in
Venezuela to an American”
I was sure then that | was awake
and that the figure beyond the hedge
was no apparition. “I am not French,”
I explained, “though 1 have lately
from France. Jou gave me 80
severe fo shock that I reverted to the
tongue of my mother, a thing 1 often
Josides, 1 have just left a village
of death, and the terror of the thing
is still with me.”
“Tucayan,” he sald; “Morales passed
that way two days ago. Such Is the
Spaniard’s method ; man in his
path is left alive”
“The last man in Tucayan died in
my arms” I said, “and wits his last
breath he whispered, ‘Viva Bolivar!" ”
“Simon Bolivar has so great a hold
upon his people . . , he will win,
His blue eyes went over
me appraisingly. I think I read ap-
proval there. “Tall,” he mused, “with
shoulders, and a light in the eye; knows
the woods and the sea, | take it, and
may have had a turn at soldiering.
May I ask you who you are?”
come
do,
no
some day.”
“Assurediy; I am Loren Garde, My
father is Norse, a planter of the Jower
Mississippl valley, and my mother In
her youth was the belle of Vieux
Carre.”
He leaned the gun against his shoul-
der, “Norse and French such
a combination ought to make you fight
and love--like the devil!"
“lI fear I have had my share of
fighting,” I admitted, “but as for
love—" 1 sighed because I visualized
the glorious Lamartina,
“If you have come to Venezuela to
fight, the ranks of Simon Bolivar are
open to you, and I ean promise you—"
“Francisco Perez intimated much
the same thing.”
There was studied ealeulation in his
survey of me. “You know Francisco
TL
Perez?
“I have come from New Orleans with
him on the santa Lucrecia”
He twisted a finger in his ear,
“Balmy,” he said,“ a touch of the sun”
He looked at me with professional
sympathy, “Did you say the Santa
Lucrecia?
“Exactly: would
name of the ship
from New Orleans
“Oh, sure.” He
the Santa Lucrecia
sighted. When it is I shall hear a
whistle from the east, and when 1
hear it 1 shall face west and whistle,
and another man a kilometer from here
will send the signal along. On the
Puerto Cabello road other sentinels
will signal to one another, and on the
Valenecla road, and the road to Barce-
lona, and roads to Calabozo and Ocu-
mare, A man stationed upon the
heights will sight it as it the
harbor of La Guaira, which is the port
of Caracas, and in five minutes every
follower of Bolivar within fifty miles
shall know it, and soldiers will spring
up like spirits out of the earth, for
the Santa Lucrecia brings a eargo of
arms and knives and ammunition sul
elent for an army. And then will
the
me
know
brought
I not
that
an
laughed, “Only,
has not been
enters
we
take"
“If the men
the Santa
La
into any
ful
take
whist
of Belivar ean whistle
Lucrecin into the harbor of
fred } led
other port except
Gualra, my patriot, or
that dread
¢
port OF
missin
the prize
jers of the
ghts and a day ago the de
tunate ship was the scene of mn
and tropical storm came
shed th alm of victory
As I fell into the water 1 sas
them working with the lifeboats
ndly spar, ¢
arried me on
He stood,
Francisco and
He stopped, alert
’
out the sounds of
the eavales
Adolfo led
wee, his heavy
lines of grimness
beside him A mules
them rode Polito,
length beh
a voluminous ha
around his head, eyes
ng HUHrn Sv
age upra ]
westward winging clouds, ane
whistled tune
: the hoy
ther
seized me
find myself shot
the “Irishman from London
h ng through his teeth, and whose
gun was riging carefully to bear upon
Ide Fuentes rm
I grabbed
grimiy
“No,” I whispered, “no
him we contended
in for
of the weapon, the cavaleade passed
on. Then I loosed hin
“What a powerful brute you are
And then, “Dizzard.” he gasped, “you
poor doodle! That man is De Fuentes,
aide of Morales, and a greater butcher
by far than the infamous Butcher
himeelf.”
“You might have missed
said, “and killed the lady.”
“Oh, the lady? Humph™
“Yes, the lady. Besides, Adolfo be
longs to me”
and,
gilence
as
poOREeSS ion
and waited.
ve
him,”
He found his sombrero and pulled
it down over tumbled red hair, “So
Adolfo belongs to you My eye!”
he oged. “Yet De Fuentes went to
Spain to get a bride—and 1 can say
this much for him: He has surely
picked the fairest flower in the Span-
igh garden!”
“It's a long way from Spain to the
eathedral,” 1 said.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
The continent of Australia was not
discovered until just before the Ameri:
ean Revolution, Louis de Torres, sail
ing from Peru in 1606 thought the
northern Queensland coast was an
other of those island groups—the
Marquesas, Soloman, New Hebrides
through which he had passed, The
Dutch proceeding from Java several
times met the west and north of Aus
tralia, but reported a barren wild
country inhabited by barbarous, cruel,
black people, Abel Tasman, in 1642
found Van Diemens Land, Tasmania,
and left in disgust, In 1688 Willinm
Dampier, an English buccaneer, landed
in West Australia, and the following
year mapped the coast, In his report
to King William he described the land
as “sandy and waterless,” with stunted
trees, inhabited by “the miscrablest
people in the world” A hundred
years later the English scientific expe-
dition under Captain Cook revealed
the presence! of wide belts of fertile
land, and his landing at Botany bay,
Sydney, April 28, 1770, resulted in an.
other continent for the British crown,
Telephone Courtesy
A western hospital has made itself
known a8 a “friendly place,” largely
through its attention to telephone
calls, Superintendents know how
many calls come In each day and how
anxious most of the people are who
make inquiry concerning some relative
or friend, This hospital has realized
that this is the time to treat people
the most carefully In order to make
a good Impression.—The Modern Hos:
pital, Chicago, iL
M RS, HERBERT
l Hoover Jour
Washing-
Ohlo,
graciously
neyed from
ion to Akron,
and there
christened the world's
largest dirigible, the
Akron, which has been
built for the United
States navy. As the
First Lady pronounced
the name of the huge
airship, tradition.
al ceremony of releas
ing a flight of white pigeons was ob-
Before the the
monster was brought to life by the in-
flation of twelve of its cells with hell
raise it about
cradle. It was then
sideways forty feet and
secured as In actual operation by sand
ballast, it was really afloat when
Mrs. Hoover set
eons to
to the various navy stat ‘
The of the Akron will take
place In the latter part of August or
under supervision
the
Mrs, Hoover,
christening
um gus, enough to ten
from ts
80
free the homing pig-
CArry messages the even
trials
in September,
of
of a board and survey.
They will consist of five or six flights
including of
ne
to determi speeds,
ingEpection
of various
forty-e
duration, one
ight hours,
tion, endurance, structur-
3
i
parts and other details
ce and handling.
satis: an
ames C,
ard
ong the
would
nor
nich was ta
the Northwest
come into line
nia
Nat
g activities
lionel to take over
of the tween
peratives composing its list
K Ider members
Farmers’ Union Terminal
i ARsO
on was the first co-operative
in
and it now owas
of the Farmery'
¢int
Nat
the Farmers
30 per cent
stock
ional
onal
Acceding the
central
in
outstanding.
(rat organization,
program of
it sold out
the Farmers’ National
west Grain association, howevdr, re
fused to Briefly, it gave as iis
reason that with the power exercised
by the Farmers’ Union Terminal
gociation In the National and the close
the
its marketing facilities to
The North
sell.
fs
ties exisiing between the terminal as
®OW and the
ment, it soon would be forced entirely
out of the picture
PP RESIDERE
ver, a
in
intion National manage
HOO
long
conference at his Vir
ginia week-end camp
with Secretary of La-
bor Doak, virtually
completed his plans
for the organization
of government and
charitable agencies to
care for the unem-
ployed and others in
distress during the
coming winter. Mr
Hoover is unchanged in his opposition
to anything like a dole, or direct gov.
ernment assistance, and will continue
to rely on organized charity. He is
willing, however, that the army should
be used as a distributing agency, ns
it is in the times of flood disasters,
and to communities where distress Is
acute there will be loans of army
blankets and supplies. The Red Cross
will be, as heretofore, the backbone of
the relief organization.
Mr. Doak presented t. the President
a report from the recent survey of
conditions throughout the country.
Neither of them would make publie
the estimate of the number of people
who would be out of work during the
coming winter, but both admitted that
it would be little different from last
year,
However, It was learned that the
President, ns head of the Red Cross, has
directed the Red Cross to start a new
drive to raise funds and that the ma:
chinery has already been set In mo.
Sec'y Doak.
tion. He also has Issued the neces-
sary instructions to the army to have
concentrated at the various bases,
most of which are located near the
big Industrial centers, all of the sur-
plus property available should they be
called upon to use it,
Y AN unanimous vote in a
provincial plebiscite Catalonia
gave Its euthusiastic approval to a
constitution which defines the liber-
ties of the people and fixes the status
of the province as antonomous within
the Spanish If this is not
granted by the new government of
Spain, the Catalonians seem willing
to fight for it under the leadership of
that elderly patriot, Col. Francisco
Macia., The apparent danger of Cata-
lonia lies in the fact that Macla and
his followers have given commitments
to the syndicalists who form the huge
labor organization and who
ready threatening a general
hel: including higher woges
are not granted, Macia
his friends he would be able
almost
republic,
are #l-
strike if
demands,
for family men,
promiseq
to get out of this difficulty when the
time was ripe
HER
given
F® RT relief
wis
in
the
London
the
EOVernors
Bank International
Settlements at Basel
ordered
Ger-
accordance
decisions of
confer.
board
of the
many,
with
the
when
or
ical details
KTH ¢
POSH of
Cts
» said to be
lor Sackeit the
to Berlin ths
was ms it
amounts of
parc
ton now held by the fed-
it was promised
be ar-
in Wash-
would both aid
relieve the farm board,
and the idea was well received in Ber
lin. Germany is especially to
get American cotton and for this rea-
son might also take the wheat, al-
though unofficial reports sald she had
already contracted with Rumania for
wheat. She needs, In addition to her
own production about 25,000,000 bush-
els of the grain.
When it seemed such a deal might
be put through, objections to the sale
of the farm board's cotton to Germany
came from the ern producers,
Senator William J. Harris of Georgia
sald he had received a protest to the
effect that such a sale would tend to
depress the world price of cotton and
that the policy of the farm board
should be to hold its cotton and en-
courage purchases direct from the pro-
ducers. There were indications,
that some foreign countries would op-
pose the wheat and cotton proposal on
the ground that it would be tanta-
mount to dumping and would put Ger-
many in an advantageous position over
competitors
Ase jarge
board. and
term credits would
The administration
thought this
and
Germany
eager
soutl
too,
HERE was uni
versal grief and
anxiety when it was
reported that Thomas
A. Edison had cor
lapsed at his home in
Liewellen ark, Wes!
Orange, N. J, and was
at the point of death.
Members of the aged
inventor's family were
summoned In baste
and his personal phy-
gician, Dr. H 8 T. A, Edison.
Howe, &ped to his bedside by alr
plane. Mr. Edison was Indeed In a
precarious stale, but three doctors,
after thorough oxamination, sald he
was. not In immediate danger of
death, He le eighty five years old and
is suffering from diabetes, bright’s dis-
enge and stomach ulcers, as well as
uremic poisoning, but he declared he
wins too busy to dle now and that he
would soon be able to resume his
———— ————— 1 OO SA ORI
work, His determination apparently
conquered and and within a few days
Doctor Howe acknowledged that the
“Wizard” had a good chance of being
able to return to his laboratories.
Mr. Edison soon was recovered suffi-
cleptly to sit In his library and read
the newspapers, and he wanted to
smoke, but this was forbidden. He
war sleeping well, and his son Charles
sald his father was “in good spirits
and feeling very chipper.” His health
had been falling since his return from
Florida seven weeks ago and the col
lapse was no surprise to the phy-
sicians or his family.
HARLES BOYD CURTIS of New
York, minister to the Dominican
tepublic, has been appointed by Pres-
fdent Hoover to be minister to El Sal-
His place in Dominlea is filled
by the appointment of H. ¥. A. Schoen-
feld of Rhode Island as minister there
To more reports from the Wick-
ersham commission were made
public. One deals with the federal
courts, those of Connecticut having
been studies In especial detail, and the
conclusion is reached that prohibition
cases dominate “the whole character
of the federal criminal proceedings.”
Prohibition cases in the Connecticut
district increased from 60 per cent of
the total number of cases in the first
year of the studyy the commission re-
ported, to 81 per cent in the study's
third year which ended June 30, 1800.
The total in had been
furnished by prohibition cases, it was
explained; other types remained sta
vador,
increase CREES
deals with the
lice of the country, and it
that they have forfeited
confidence because of their
failure
is blamed mainly on political
ull! and protection, the she
ffice of the average police
the burdening of
of
as a city with an
» other report po
is asserted
the public
“general
This
power.
rt tenure
" to perform their duty
chilef
the ice wi
poli
Milwaukee
Lie
tiplicity duties,
prompt
me, and the n was
¢t that It has had onl;
in 40 years
YORK is
wes Of
alker of New
ed with a physical
rmany to take
His bl
wt 1
gar: is
ood
weak
{5 OYERSOR MURRAY
boma, having been
worsted
Okla-
somewhat
of
bridges”
use for
coniro-
the “war the
Texas, found
Guard in
made good his threat to
all the oil wells in the
state except the small strippers if the
price of crude oil were not put at $1
a barrel. A proclamation to that ef-
fect was issued and martial law was
declared within fifty feet of each of
the 3,106 wells within the proration
ara, National Guardsmen with fixed
bayonets were placed in control of the
twenty-seven oil fields designated.
In his order the governor defended
his actions the grounds that he
is protecting the natural resources of
the A considerable portion of
the proclamation was given to an ai-
tick on the Harry Sinclair interests
"The governor charged that Sinclair at
tempted to bribe forty members of the
legislature and to impeach the gov.
ernor; that Sipelair maintained a
large oil lobby during the last session
of the legislature and that the Sin.
clair company has continually attempt.
ed to break down proration of prodoc-
tion.
in of
he waged
National
He
down
with
his the oil
versy
close
on
state,
T WAS an eventful week in aviation.
Colonel and Mrs. Lindbergh flew up
bevond the Arctic circle with success
and precision and rested at Aklavik
before proceeding to Point Barrow.
Parker Cramer was found to be mak.
ing an unannounced flight to Norway
by the northern route, the news breal.
jing when he landed at Angmagsalik,
Greenland, He was attempting to blaze
an air mail route to Copenhagen for
the Trans-American Airlines. Hern.
don and Pangborn reached Tokio on
heir world tireling flight, and planned
to try for a nonstop (rip from there ta
Seattle. Just before their arrival in
the Japanese caplial Amy Johnson, the
English aviatrix, also landed there,
JNO TABLE among the deaths of the
week was that of I, BR. Anthony,
whe for vears represented the Firat
Missouri district in congress. He wae
a very active and Influential membe:
of the lower house. Mr. Anthony was
a nephew of Susan DB. Anthony, the
noted suilragist.
18 1951, Western Newspaper tinlon.)