Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1918 — RAINBOW'S END A NOVEL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RAINBOW'S END A NOVEL

By REX BEACH

MrmmL ojra 777£^PO7L^S M COPyW&HT, by harper, and brothers . A

SYNOPSIS. .1 1 CHAPTER I—Don Esteban Varona, a juban planter, possesses a great treasure xoard. This wealth has been hidden in i well on the estate by Sebastian, a slave, md only he and his master know the seiret cache. Don Esteban’s wife dies at he birth of twins, Esteban and Rosa. >on Esteban marries the avaricious Donna ■abel, who knows there is hidden tre^ s * ire and tries to wring the secret from Setastlan. When the slave refuses she tries o hurt him by having Evangelina, his laughter, whom he loves dearly and who ■ the special servant of the twins, sold. CHAPTER H—Through Donna Isabel’s icheming Don Esteban risks Evangelina it cards and loses. Crazed by the loss of its daughter, Sebastian kills Don Esteron end himself. ; CHAPTER in—Many years Donna Imbet searched for the hidden wealth of the fean she had married. A Is'”?**™ She seeks to marry Rosa to the rich Don Mario, but Rosa Is promised to O Reilly, me American, and awaits his return from Mew York, whence he has gone to break iff his engagement to his employer’s, daughter. Esteban is secretly aiding the fnsurrectos. f CHAPTER TV—Donna Isabel is at the taercy of Pancho Cueto, her unscnipulous administrator, who knows the deeds to the plantation are lost with the treasure. One night she walks in her sleep and meets her death in the treasure well. Esteban and Rosa are forced to flee when Cueto denounces them m rebeln. {■ CHAPTER V-Rosa writes to bf their plight and urges him to come and save her. CHAPTER VI— O’Reilly soon lands In Cuba but finds he will have hard work to reach Rosa, as communication with the Insurrectos is difficult and dangerpus. i CHAPTER VH— O’Reilly meets Leslie Eranch, newspaper man, who Isa victim of tuberculosis, and they plan a way to Join the Insurrectos together. i CHAPTER VIII—In the meantime Cueto plans to lead Cobo, a Spanish colonel of volunteers, execrated for his cruelty, to the hiding place of Esteban and Rosa. I CHAPTER IX—Cobo and his men capture Rosa, but she is Immediately rescued by Esteban, and Cobo is Injured in the fight. O’Reilly plans to reach the Inl6urrectoe»by the aid of Doctor Alvarado, |a friend of the Cuban cause. i CHAPTER X—O’Reilly is about to Ireach the Insurrectos. but his plans miscarry. He and Leslie Branch are arIrested and sent back to America. Estet>an tells Rosa of the coming of General Weyler to “pacify" the island. > CHAPTER XT—Esteban raids Cueto’s Itiome and kills him, but Spanish troops come up and Esteban escapes badly Grounded. He does not reach home. With Esteban missing, Rosa. Evangelina and Tier husband. Asensio, with whom Rosa ihas been staying, give up hope and go Into a Spanish concentration camp. CHAPTER XII—In New York O’Reilly ■plans a filibustering expedition to Cuba <nd Is offered assistance by Norlne Evans, a wealthy girl, who insists on financing the venture and going along as -a nurse. Soon the expedition starts for Cuba in a small tramp steamer. CHAPTER XIII—The filibusters land in ’■Cuba and O’Reilly learns pf Esteban and Rosa. Norine begins her duties as nurse. Rose, in Matanzas, visits her old home, which is in ruins. CHAPTER XIV—In a raid Esteban, dangerously ijl, is rescued from a Spanish prison by O’Reilly and the Cubans. • r CHAPTER XV—Esteban tells O’Reilly the believes the treasure is hidden in the Sell on the plantation. O’Reilly learns e town in which Rosa Is held prisoner jand determines to go to her. CHAPTER XVII. r~-' Rosa. ‘ “Look!” Jacket clutched at O’Reilly find pointed a shaking finger. “More beggars 1 Christo! And those little ichildren I” The boy tried to laugh, but his voice cracked nervously. “Are they or gourds with legs under them?” O’Reilly looked, then turned his ifeyes away. He and Jacket had reached the heart of Matanzas and were facing the public square, the Plaza de la Liblertad it was called. Matanzas appeared poor and squalid, depressingly jwretched; its streets were foul and the Plaza de la Libertad —grim mocklery of a name —was crowded with a throng such as it had never held in O’Reilly’s time, a throng of people who {were, without exception, gaunt, listless, ragged. There was no afternoon parade of finery, no laughter, no noise; the benches were full, but their occupants were silent, too sick or too weak Ito move. Nor were there any romping {children. There were, to be sure, vast

numbers of undersized figures in the square, but one needed to look twice to realize that they were not'pygmles or wizened little old folks. It was not strange that Jacket had compared them to gourds with legs, for all were naked, and most of them had bodies swollen into the likeness of pods or calabashes. They looked peculiarly grotesque with their spidery legs and thin faces. O’Reilly passed a damp hand across his eyes. “Just Heaven !” he breathed. “She —she’s one of these!” The reconcentrados overran Matanzas in an unclean swarm; streets and plazas were congested with them, for no attempt was made to confine them to their quarters. Morning brought them streaming down from the suburban slopes w’here they lived, evening sent them winding back; their days were spent in an aimless search for food. They snatched at crumbs and combed the gutters for crusts. How they managed to exist, whence came the food that kept life in their miserable bodies, was a mystery, even to the citizens of the city; no organized effort had been made to care for them and there was insufficient surplus food for half their number. Yet somehow they lived and lingered on. At the time of O’Reilly’s arrival the sight presented by these innocent victims of war was appalling; it roused in him a dull red rage at the power w’hich had wrought this citme and at the men who permitted it to continue. Spain was a Christian nation, he reflected; she had set up more crosses than any other, and yet beneath them she had butchered more people than all the nations of the earth combined. This monstrous, coldly calculating effort to destroy the entire Cuban people seemed to him the blackest infamy of all, and he wondered if it would be allowed to succeed. Fortunately for the two friends, General Betancourt’s generosity served to relieve them from any immediate danger of starvation. After making a few purchases and eating with the utmost

frugality, they began their search. Later they stretched themselves out to sleep on the stones beneath the portalea £f the railroad station. They spent a horrid, harrowing night, for now the general distress was brought home to them more poignantly than ever. At dawn they learned that these people were actually dying of neglect The faint light betrayed the presence of new corpses lying upon the station flagstones. From those still living, groaps, sighs, sick mutterings rose pptll O’Reilly finally dragged his youthful companion out of the place. x “I can’t stand £bat,” he confessed. “I can’t sleep when people are starving to death alongside of me. This money burns my pocket. I —I—" Jacket read* his purpose and laid a detaining band upon his arm. „ “It will save our lives; too," he said simply. .“Bah! We wjempn. There are women and chi’fjjpn yonder— But. Jacket’s peMfiibUities were calloused, it TOf what use wo.uld your few pesets< he apjpng so many?” he.inquired. “God has willed this, and he knows' wbaVKi-fa doing. Besides, your ’pretty one', is probably as hurt? gry as these Jto doubt we shall find that she, tqj^gestarving.” -O’Reilly slbwir Withdrew his hand from his pocket- "Tes! It’s Rosa’s money. But —«ifae; I can’t endure this.” ' - 4 k . He led the wax back fa the Plaza hX

Liberty and there” on an "Iron bench they waited for the full day. They were very tired, but further sleep was impossible, for the death wagons rumbled by on their w’ay to collect tne bodies of those who had died during the night. Neither the man nor the boy ever wholly lost the nightmare memory of the next few days, for their search took them into every part of the reconcentrado districts. What they beheld aged them. Day after day, from dawn till dark, they wandered, peering Into huts, staring into faces, asking questions until they were faint from fatigue and sick from disappointment. As time passed and they failed to find Rosa Varona a terrible apprehension began to weigh O’Reilly down; his face, grew Old and drawn, his shoulders sagged, his .limbs began to drag. It was all that Jacket could do to keep him going. The boy, now that there was actual need of him, proved a perfect jewel; his optimism never failed, his faith never faltered, and O’Reilly began to feel a dumb gratitude at having the youngster by his side. Jacket, too, became thin and gray about the lips. But he complained not at all and he laughed a great deal. To him the morrow was always another day of brilliant promise toward which he looked with never-failing eagerness; and not for a single moment did he question the ultimate success of their endeavor. Such an example did much for the older man. Together they practiced the strictest, harshest econ-, omy, living on a few cents a day, while they methodically searched the city from limit to limit. At first O’Reilly concerned himself more than a little with the problem of escape, but as time wore oil he thought less and less about that. Nor did he have occasion to waste further concern regarding his disguise. That it was perfect he proved when several of his former acquaintances passed him by and when, upon one occasion, he came face to face with old Don Ma- ] rio de Castano. Don Mario had changed; he was older, his flesh had softened, and it hung loosely upon his form. He appeared worried, harassed, ] and O’Reilly recalled rumors that the war had ruined him. The man’s air j of dejection seemed to bear out the story. They had been enemies, nevertheless ( O’Reilly felt a sudden impulse to make ( himself known to the Spaniard and tp appeal directly for news of Rosa’s fate. But Don Mario, he remembered In time, had a reputation for vindictiveness, so he smothered the desire. One other ( encounter O’Reilly had reason to remember.

It so chanced that one day he and Jacket found themselves in the miserable rabble which assembled at the railroad station to implore alms from the incoming passengers of the Ilabana train. Fow people were traveling these days, and they were, for the most part, Spanish officers to whom the sight of starving country people was no novelty. Nowand then, however, there did arrive visitors from whom the spectacle of so much wretchedness wrung a contribution, hence there was always an expectant throng at the depot. On this occasion O’Reilly was surprised to hoar the piteous whines for charity in the name of God turn suddenly into a subdued but vicious mutter of rage. Hisses were intermingled with vituperations, then the crowd fell strangely silent, parting to allow the passage of a great, thick-set man in the uniform of a colonel of volunteers. The fellow was unusually swarthy and he wore a black scowl upon his face, while a long puckering scar the full length of one cheek lifted his mouth into a crooked sneer and left exposed a glimpse of wolfish teeth. O’Reilly was at a loss to fathom this sudden alteration of attitude, the whistle of indrawn breaths and the whispered curses, until he heard some one mutter th,e name, “Cobo.” Then Indeed he started and stiffened in his tracks. He fixed a fascinated stare upon the fellow.

Colonel Cobo seemed no little pleased by the reception he created. With his chest arched and his black eyes gleaming malevolently he swaggered through the press, clicking his heels noisily upon the stone flags. When he had gone Jacket voiced a vicious oath. “So that Is the butcher of babies!" exclaimed the boy. “Well, now, I should enjoy cutting his heart out.” O’Reilly’s emotions were not entirely unlike those of his small companion.

His lips became dry and white as he tried to speak. ~ ~~ ~~ “What a brute! That face— Ugh I” He found himself shaking weakly, and discovered that a new and wholly unaccountable feeling of discouragement had settled upon him. He tried manfully to shake It off, but somehow failed, for the sight of Rosa’s archenemy and the man’s overbearing personality had affected him queerly. Cobci’s air of confidence and authority seemed to emphasize O'Reilly’s impotence nnd bring it forcibly home to him. To think of his lustful persecution of Rosa Varona, moreover, terrified him. The next day he resinned.his hut-to-hut search, but with a listlessness that came from a firm conviction that once again he was too late. That afternoon found the two friends among the miserable hovels which encircled the foot of La Cumbre, about the only quarter they had not explored. Below lay San Severino, the execution place; above was tlie site of the old Varona home. More than once on his way about the city O’Reilly had lifted his eyes in the direction of the latter, feeling a great hunger to revisit the scene of his last farewell to Rosa, but through fear of the melancholy effect it would have upon him he had thus far resisted the impulse. Today, however, he could no longer fight the morbid desire and so, in spite of Jacket’s protest at the useless expenditure of effort, he set out to climb the hill. Of course the boy would not let him go alone, i

Little was said during the ascent. The La Cumbre road seemed very long and very steep. How different the last time O’Reilly had swung up it 1 The climb had never before tired him as it did now, and he reasoned that hunger must have weakened him even more than he realized. Jacket felt the exertion, too; he was short of breath and he rested frequently. O’Reilly saw tliat the boy’s bare, brown legs had grown bony since he had last noticed them, and he felt a sudden pahg at having brought the little fellow Into such a plight as this. “Well, hombre,” he said when they paused to rest, “I’m afraid we came too late. I’m afraid we’re licked.” Jacket nodded listlessly; his optimism, too, was gone. “They must all be dead or we would have found them before this,” said he. When O’Reilly made no answer he continued, “It is time we thought of getting away from here, eh?” • , Johnnie was sitting with his face In his hands. Without lifting his head he Inquired: “How are we going to get away? It is easy enough to get into Matanzas, but —” He shrugged hopelessly. Jacket brightened at the thought of escape. “Hol I’ll bet we can find a hole somewhere,” said he. “We’re not like these They haven’t the spirit to try.” There was a moment of silence, and then : “Caramba 1 You remember those jutlas we ate? They were strong, but I would enjoy the smell of one now. Eh? Another week of this and we shall be living on garbage like the rest of these poor people.” _ ■

Leaving Jacket to take his time, Johnnie completed the elimb alone, meditating upon the boy’s words. “The spirit to try!” Where had his spirit gone, he wondered. Perhaps it had been crushed beneath tlie weight of misery he had beheld; surely he had seen enough. Hourly contact with sickness and misfortune on such a gigantic scale was enough to chill anyone’s hopes, and although his sensibilities had been dulled, his apprehensions had been quickened hour by hour. Now that he looked the matter squarely in the face, It seemed absurd to believe that a tender girl like Rosa Varona eould long have withstood the hardships of this hideous place ; stronger people than she had succumbed, by the hundreds. Even now the hospitals were full, the sick lay untended in their hovels. No one, so far as O’Reilly knew, had undertaken to estimate how fast they were dying or the -number of dead which had already ridden out of Matanzas In those rumbling wagons, but there were many. What chance was there that Rosa had not been ampng the latter? (TO BE CONTINUED.)

“I Can’t Stand That," He Confessed.