Adventure Magazine Cover, December 18, 1919 — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

The Seven Cities of Cibola the ‘hill to jotn Mercedes, and to- gether they rode into the heat-haze of the West. Day after day they rode. Down through what is now Arizona, named for the forgotten sun-goddess of the elder peoples, crossing the White Mountains, then unnamed, back through what is now Tombstone arid Tubac, till they came at last to the plain that slopes upward and southward to Culiacan. “At last!” Mercedes reined in her horse at the crest of a low hill and pointed to a bright yellow spot that stood out against the sky. “Yonder is our goal, Andres—’’ yes, it was Andres now—‘the flag of Spain.” “Tt is all that Spain stands for,” said Andres softly. “It is life and liberty and——” “And——” The girl looked oddly at him. .. ~“And love,” said Andres softly and watched the red blood mantle her face from cheek to -brow. “What is that bright spot yonder?’ “TJ. think at is hope,” said Andres softly. ‘But it was not. It was only the hot rays of the evening sun shining on the burnished:steel cap of a Spanish sen- try on the walls of Culiacan. XIT S the little group, coming up the long slope, approached the gate, the sentry passed a call to the main guard, gathered in a small room in the massive walls. Followed a sudden clatter and clang. Dawn being long past, the gate was open and men and women were passing in and out, intent on the business of the day. Up they came, Andres leading the horse on which Mercedes rode, as tired and beautiful a girl as ever had been seen in any port of New Spain. Her face was delicately tanned by the fierce sun, her garments patched and pieced with parti-colored cloths, some of Indian weave, some of Spanish make, till they resembled nothing. But her glorious eyes shone with a misty blue fire as they searched out the walls, the gate, the houses of the town and, last of all, on which they dwelt lovingly, the great 107, golden flag of Spain, flapping idly on its staff above the governor’s house. As~they entered the gate, the officer, standing tense and rigid before his men, took one look at her. Then his half- pike clattered imto the roadway as he sprang forward with a cry. “Sefiorita de Acasta! Sefiorita Mer- cedes! Is it indeed you come back as from the dead!” “No, Senor Gomez, dead, but from the living. Can we pass m?” “Pass? You can walk over our dead bodies if it pleases you! Guard, there! Send a man at once to tell the governor.” A man sprang forward from that as- tounded guard and saluted. “What shall I tell him, setior?” 7 “Tell him,” said Andres coolly enough, “that Sefior Don Andres de Avilez has come back with the Sefiorita de Acasta, and requests an accounting that he may justify himself.” The man dashed off at speed and long before the party, gathering adherents as it came, had reached the governor’s house, it was the center of a great gath- ering, so that Mendoza, running out of the house as the heavy doors opened, had to fight his way through a dense throng. “Way there! Way for his Excel- lency !” : He flung himself at Mercedes. “My child! My child! Come back as from the dead! Avilez, how have you done this wonderful thing? Where were you? Where did you find her? I tell you, man, there is not that in all New Spain that will reward you for what you have done this day.” “Poco-d-poco. Give me an_ hour, Sefior Governor, and I will tell you all.” “T tell you, man, that if you have done this thing “Peace, sevior! I did not. Under God, Xicotl yonder, my trailer, and my horse did it—especially, I think, the horse.” he looked into Mendoza’s eyes. “T have come back, as you see, and as I told you I would, to clear my honor of the affair of the fiscal. The senorita knows no more of it than I did “Come with me! Wait till I have sent for Maria, Mercedes’ foster-mother.” There was no need to send for Maria, And Andres smiled a little as— not from the . oon OOR® com