Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, June 4, 1914, Page 2

AP NN g, PRY - PR Ty A Stirring Story of the Mexican Revolution Kruger's magazine of glant powder, exploded in one big blast, had de- stroyed all traces of his mine, besides starting an avalanche of loose shale that had poured down and filled the yocket. Added to this, Aragon and his men had rooted around in the debris in search of the vein, and the story of their inefficient work was told by great piles of loose rock stacked up beside caved-in trenches and a series of timid tunnels driven into the neigh- boring ridges. Under the circumstances it would certainly call for a mining engineer to locate the lost lead, and De Lancey looked it over thoughtfully as he be- gan to figure on the work to be done. Undoubtedly there was a mine there— and the remains of an old Spanish smelter down the creek showed that the ground had once been very rich— but if Kruger had not told him in advance he would have passed up the Job in a minute. “Well,” he said, turning coldly upon the fawning Mendez, who was all curves in his desire to please, “where §s your prospecto?” “Aqui, senor!” replied the Mexican, pointing to the disrupted rock slide. “Here it was that the Americano Crooka had his mine—rich with gold— much gold!” He shrilled his voice emphatically, and De Lancey shrilled his in reply. “Here?” he exclaimed, gazing blankly at the hillside, and then he broke into a laugh, “All right, my friend,” he said, giving Bud a face- tious wink; “how much do you want for this prospect?” Bud furnea uipon them with a slow, good-natured smile. “Oh, nothing much,” he answered, rumble of his voice struck fear into the old man's heart. Phil laughed and looked grimly at Mendez while he delivered his ultl- matum, “Very well, my friend,” he gaid. “We will stay and look at this mine. If we think it is good we will take you ‘o the mining agent and get a permit .0 dig. For sixty days we will dig, and if we find nothing we will pay you fifty dollars, anyway. If we find the ledge we will give you a hundred dol- lars. All right?” “8Si, senor, si, senor!” cried Mendez, “one hundred dollars!” “When you give us the papers!” warned Phil. “But remember—be careful! The Americans do not like men who talk. And come to the hotel at Fortuna tomorrow—then we will let | you know.” “And you will buy the mine?” begged Mendez, backing off with his hat in his hand. “Perhaps,” answered De Lancey. i “We will tell you tomorrow.” “Buen’!” bowed Mendez; “and many thanks!” “It is nothing,” replied De Lancey smile he gazed after the old man as he went hurrying off down the canyon. “Well,” he observed, “I guess 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.” “Four hundred dollars,” answered Mendez in a tone at once hopeful and apologetic. “It is very rich. Senor Crooka shipped some ore that was full 9! gold. I packed it out for him on my burros; but, I am sorry, I have no plece of it!” : “Yes,” responded De Lancey, “I am porry, too. 8o, of course, we cannot buy the prospecto since you have no ore to show; but I am glad for this, Senor Mendez,” he continued with a kindly smile; “it shows that you are an honest man, or you would have stolen a piece of ore from the sacks. BSo 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- jpounce the claim for us.” § At this the one good eye of Cruz Mendeg lighted up with a great hope and, skipping lightly over the rock piles with his gandaled feet, he ran to a certain spot, locating it by look- Ing across the canyon and up and down the creek, : “Here, senores,” he pronoynced, “is here the mouth of the oid tunnel pare out. Standing inside it I could “That’s right,” sald 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 VIL There are doubtless many philan- thropists in the Back Bay regions of Boston who would consider the whip- sawing of Cruz Mendez a very repre- henelblp 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 '.heI next morning and lingered around an hour or so, Waiting for the American gentleman to arisé &nd tell him his fate, everything that he could think of, in- cluding a quantity of mescal. Hie poe that tre over there, and l00kIng | 11oqt gried at the thought of it fiown the pmelter around the point. e gold must be in there.” ed toward the hill. “Surely,” said De Lancey; where?” The old Mexican shrugged his shoul- Mers deprecatingly. “I do not know, senor,” he answered; *put if you wish to dig I will denounce the claim for you.” “For how much?” inquired De Lan- ey guardedly. “For one hundred dollars,” an- gwered Mendez, and to his delight the American seemed to be considering it. MHe walked back and forth across the glide, picking up rocks and looking at them, dropping down into the futile 'h-enchos of Aragon, and frowning with studious thought. llis pardner, however, sat listlessly on a boulder and tested the action of his six- shooter. “Listen, my friend,” said De Lancey, poming 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 1 should spend gall my money for nothing it would be but one hundred dollars more, But listen! I have known some false Mex 4cans who, when an American paid them to denounce a mine, wantage of his kindness and refuse d to give it over. Or, if it turned out to be rich, they pulled a long face and claimed that they ought to be pald more. Now if—" “Ah, no, senor!” clamored Mende holding up his hand in protest a poor man, but I am hones give me the hundred dollar river I could just see the So, then, He point- “but took ad 1 am Onl “Not a dollar do you get!"” cried De | Lancey sternly; “not a dollar—until you turn over the concessi t mine. And if you play paused impressively cuidadc bre—look out!” Once more Cruz Mendez pr his honesty and ! trust, but De Lancey siler patiently “Enough, hor are not friend over Bud, against the sky line there He who, huge and g his pistol. “Buen’! pabe? A Texan! You know the Te janos, eh? They do not like Mex cans. But my friend there, he likes Mexicans—when they are honest 1t pot—no! Hey, Bud,” he called ix English, “what would you do to this gellow if he beat us out of the mine? Then the gentlemen appeared and asked him many {uestlons—whether he was marrled 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. 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, 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 Tuerto, the one-eyed, to pack out a few tools and supplies for them; and then, to keep him busy, they employed D ) u expect to become “salary ‘.\.[..1‘1'1«\11" on ].if\";\‘ Fo;nl,“.i\‘h[\: Telephones; Street Car | pl'eCia(e your bllSineSS. | Reasonably Well Off by sim- you MUST be alive to INVEST- | Service, Ete, away a Part of your MENT OPPORTUNITIES. : SARIE 5as | thly Salary? | You must be Ready to Investi- .1\111{';\‘}1\1\ :l];%'\ I‘ln-i\lf\l'}]_llc& T — et i 111 > 1 i} -0 o ot am- | en you certainly expect to Sut¢ and ACT QUICKLY. — | Sptie B R M o o — { cthing that Few, if any,| "“”‘1,()1’]"'“,”“‘““" do not St Deyel m\u:' 3 \;l!a»i11~ tluc [cople in This World have ever|#nd wait long for a Taker. IYDE PARK section. Is ap- ! | [Z are offerng vou just such |proached a \4';~‘ L :\- ‘, s i : ce: Say you Cnnul“‘wu.:; Opportunity Tf YOU !]H ~'l!v1\.vll s v I|h\k' B\\'\fvllli " JUSt recelved a SOhd car load Of 823.00 in a ik EVERY |are Awake, YOU will Investi-|with Brick—and over-looks!| . \t the i thegate TODAY, i Hillsborough Bay ; Year. $3000. | Buildine Toes tn PALMA CEIA |« There is EVERY REASON| , YEAR. onlv $ ARR—Tampa's: ClosesIn R \\\u‘ PALMA CEIA PARK %, | "ARK—Tampa’s Close-In Resi-| o, '14 continu s Db . A Suburb—which yon can e’ Devkiye Also a car of pitch pine fence post. 1g wase NOW at prices that, Wt tiras A UES N Vil YOU purchase NOW at s Only a Small Cash Pavment is ¢s and share ¢ red 'ROFITS, or wil YOU [11 = % h O LATE? Y ¢ th W\ ate Svstems 1 > irther ; ) (Copyright, 1914, by Frank A. Munsey.) putting up his gun; and the deepl poiltely, and then with a crooked | A hundred dollars would huy | Having answered all | these in the affirmative, he was taken | Then there was another trip to the | 1 | grounds with a surveyor, to make re-! their eye, the Americans engaged El| The Land of Broken Promises By DANE COOLIDGE Author of “THE FIGHTING FOOL,” “HIDDEN WATERS," “THE TEXICAN," Etc, Dlustrations by DON J. LAVIN him further to build a stoné house; All these activities were, of course, not lost on Don Cipriano Aragon y Tres Palacios, since, by a crafty ar- i 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 triy of the strange Americans he kept | within his dignity, hoping perhape Ithat. 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 i cast his proud Spanish reserve to the | | winds and waylaid them on the street. | “Buenas tardes, senores,” he salut- ! iod, as they rode past his 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 | Ipast several times—are you worklngl | for the big company up at New For- | tuna?” “No, senor,” answered De Lanceyl 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 I wish you well, but since you are strangers to this country and | peljiaps do not know the people as THE EVENING TELEGRAM LAKELAND, FLA., JUNE 4, 1914, well as some, I desire to warn you against that one-eyed man, Cruz Men- dex, 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. “I have no desire to speak ill of my neighbors, but since he has moved into the brush house up the river 1 have lost several fine little pigs; and his eye, as I 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 ralsed his bridle reins to go. “We hired him to pack out our tools and supplies and he has done it very reasonably. But many thanks, sir, for your warning. Adijos!” 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, Phil?” 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 eee. No, sir, the only way to get along with these Mexicans is8 not to have a thing to do with ’em. ‘No savvy'—that's my motto!” (Continued on Page 6.) | Nillan's Demk-~ \ NWomans Drsnk- Guerybodys Denk i and refreshing, Demand the genuir | { THE COCA-CCL. Whenever you see an Arrow think of Coca-Cola. i TAMPA, FLORIDA Vigorously good -~ and keenly delicious. 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