The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 167: what you’re looking at

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

THE FIFTH unconscious, and carried me into Limasito, where your good friend Jim Baggott took care of me. It was weeks before I was able to be about again, but I had time to think it all out. “Of course I had not seen my assailant, but I had had an uncanny intuition all day that I was being shadowed — it was the very day of your departure, by the way— and I knew of only one other besides my- self who had taken that legend seriously. ‘“‘ Wiley was doing his best to locate the Pool. He was aware that I was there for the same purpose, and he would have stopped at nothing to win out, for, as you know, there was bad blood between us. If he did not actually strike the blow that felled me, I solemnly believe that he was instrumental in it in some way. Please don’t think me ungenerous toward an en- emy because I tell you this, but events really seemed to bear out my suspicions.”’ “No” —Willa was gazing moodily straight before her—“I do not think you are ungenerous, and I am-very glad that you are telling me. I believe, too, that you are right; I feel sure that he must have been responsible for your injury. But I am amazed about the map.” “T found it in the ashes of Tia Juana’s fire; the little fire in the grove of zapote- trees where she cooked her tortillas and brewed her strange concoctions. - You had told me of it, do you remember? But per- haps you have not heard; Tia Juana and the boy, José, have disappeared! “They must have gone on the very day you started for New York. No one has been able to discover a trace of them, ex- cept one, and that is very significant. Have you no curiosity about the Pool?” He turned to her suddenly, but Willa could not raise her eyes to meet his now. ‘“‘ Of course,’”’ she stammered. “Tt is located on a grapefruit ranch known as the Trevino hacienda, about two hundred miles due north of Limasito. Wiley made the best of his time while I was laid by the heels, but his treachery didn’t do him any good in the end. He found the Pool, but another had been there before him; old Tia Juana herself!” Willa’s lips moved, but no sound came ACE. 161 from them. She was praying that he would not look at her again. ‘“‘A few days before Tia Juana and the boy disappeared, the Trevino hacienda changed hands. It was sold for twenty- five thousand dollars to one Juana Reyes. Reyes, if you recall, was the name of the old Spaniard who owned the Pool origi- nally, and whose daughter, Dolores, was killed by the Indians on her wedding night. “Reyes is also the almost forgotten sur- name of Tia Juana; so it looks as if the old lady had come into her own at last. It is a mystery, of course, where she got the money to purchase the hacienda, but it may have been hoarded in her family for generations. It is possible, too, that she only then succeeded in deciphering the map, and tracing the location of the Pool from it.” ‘“So you and Starr Wiley both failed.” Willa spoke as if to herself. “Not I!” Thode’s eyes flashed with determination. ‘I told you I had only just begun. I am going to find Tia Juana, if she is above ground, and buy out her claim. To her it only means the ancestral estate. That is much, to be sure, if she has gone through her long life in poverty and want in order to hoard her riches for its purchase; but it is only a sentimental consideration. ‘“When she learns that she has a for- tune in petroleum, worthless without the money to develop it, I think she will agree to share her interest. The casa and the land about it can still be hers; we only want to drain and develop the Pool, and my chief will be strictly fair with her. The old lady will be rich beyond her wildest dreams, and we will have the greatest pro- ducer known since the Dos Bocas gusher went up in flames!” Willa rose. “Tf you find Tia Juana, Mr. Thode, don’t build your hopes too high. Should she prove to be indeed the owner of the Pool of the Lost Souls, I am confident that you can never gain possession of it.” “IT can try.” He took the hand she held out to him. “ You seem very sure, Miss Murdaugh.”’ ‘‘T cannot imagine Tia Juana relinquish- oO Comicbooe S CO