Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1918 — RAINBOW'S END A NOVEL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RAINBOW'S END A NOVEL

_ -A. FMOVEU

AUTHOR. Of* MW 772A7L * - OF TEE by HARPER. AND BROTHERS ■ a

SYNOPSIS. rWAFTrR I—Don Esteban Varona, a Caban alanter, possesses a great treasure Board. This wealth has been hidden in a well on the estate by Sebastian, a slave, and only he and his master know the se*ret cache. Don Esteban’s wife dies at the birth of twins, Esteban and Rosa. Don Esteban marries the avaricious Donna Isabel, who knows there is hidden treasure and tries to wring the secret from Sebastian. When the slave refuses she tries to hurt him by having Evangelina, his daughter, whom he loves dearly and who (a the special servant of the twins, sold. CHAPTER ll—Through Donna Isabel’s Scheming Don Esteban risks Evangelina At cards and loses. Crazed by the loss of pis daughter, Sebastian kills Don Esteban end himself. CHAPTER Hl—Many years Donna Isabel searched for the hidden wealth of the toan she had married. A few years later she seeks to marry Rosa to the rich Don Mario, but Rosa is promised to O’Reilly, the American, and awaits his return from wew York, whence he has gone to break fff his engagement to his employer's daughter. Esteban Is secretly aiding the Insurrectos. CHAPTER TV—Donna Isabel is at the taercy of Pancho Cueto, her unscrupulous 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. Raff han and Rosa are forced to flee when Cotto denounces them as rebels. ! CHAPTER V—Rosa writes to O’Reilly •f their plight and urges him to come •nd save her. CHAPTER Vl—O’Reilly soon lands in Cuba but finds he will have hard work to reach Rosa, as communication with £he Insurrectos is difficult and dangerous. * CHAPTER VTI-O’Reilly meets Leslie Branch, newspaper man, who is a victim of tuberculosis, and they plan a way to pstn the Insurrectos together. _ CHAPTER VIII—In the meantime Cueto Mans to lead Cobo, a Spanish colonel of volunteers, execrated for his cruelty, to Che hiding place of Esteban and Rosa. CHAPTER IX—Cobo and his men captore Rosa, but she is immediately rescued by Esteban, and Cobo is injured in the fight. O’Reilly plans to reach the In■urrectos by the aid of Doctor Alvarado, la friend of the Cuban cause. CHAPTER X—O’Reilly is about to teach the Insurrectos. but his plans mlsjearry. He and Leslie Branch are arrested and sent back to America. Esteft>an tells Rosa of the coming of General iweyler to “pacify” the island. CHAPTER XT—Esteban raids Cueto’s Home and kills him, but Spanish troops come up and Esteban escapes badly He does not reach home. With Esteban missing. Rosa, Evangelina and Sher husband, Asensio, with whom Rosa lias been staying, give up hope and go Into a Spanish concentration camp. CHAPTER XII—Tn New York O’Reilly plans a filibustering expedition to Cuba and Is offered assistance by Norine 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 of 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 ill, is rescued from a Spanish prison by O’Reilly and the Cubans.

CHAPTER XV—Esteban tells O’Reilly ftie believes the treasure Is hidden in the .well on the plantation. O’Reilly learns (the town in which Rosa Is held prisoner And determines to go to her. ' CHAPTER XV£~.~Wlth Jacket, a Cuhan [boy, O’Reilly starts out determined to leave Rosa. After many trials they enKer Matanzas, the City of Death. CHAPTER XVH—After a long searcn (O’Reilly finds Rosa, ill and but a shadow ■ot her former self. He tells her Esteban hs not dead, and she partially recovers Sier health. O’Reilly determines to search •for the treasure in the well on the old [plantation. CHAPTER XVlll—O’Reilly finds in the .well indications that he is on the right (track, but is handicapped by weakness 41ue to lack of food. Colonel Cobo learns someone is looking for the treasure, and resolves to investigate. CHAPTER XlX—O’Reilly finds the (treasure at the moment Cobo reaches the .scene. Cobo endeavors to kill O’Reilly, •but Is himself slain by Jacket and falls Unto the well. CHAPTER XXI. Three Travelers Come Home. Esteban Varona made slow progress toward recovery. In the weeks following O’Reilly’s departure from Cubitas his gain was steady, but beyond a certain point he seemed unable to go. Then he began to lose strength. Esteban awoke to the fact that he was losing ground, and his dismay was keen, for a wonderful thing had come into his life and he scent much of his time

In delicious contemplative day dreams concerning it, waiting for the hour when he would dare translate those dreams into realities. It seemed to him that he had always loved Norlne; certainly she had enshrined herself in his heart long before his mind had regained its clarity, for he had come out of his delirious wanderings with his love full grown. The time came finally when he could no longer permit the girl to deceive herself or him with her brave assumption of cheerfulness. Norine had just told him that he was doing famously, but he smiled and shook his weary head. “Let’s be honest,” he said. “You know and I know that I can’t get well.” “You mustn’t be discouraged," she told him, earnestly. “Remember this is a trying climate and we have nothing to do with. Even the food is wretched. I’m going to take you away.” Esteban stroked her hand softly. “You can’t do that, Miss EvAns. You have been wonderful to me and I can’t begin to express my gratitude—”, Norine stirred, but he retained his grasp of her fingers, gaining courage from the contact to proceed. “I have been trying for a long time to tell you something. Will you listen?” “Not now,” she exclaimed, with a visible lessening of color. “Don’t bother to tell me now.” “I’ve waited too long; I must speak. You have stayed on here just to nurse me.'lsn’t that true?” She nodded somewhat doubtfully.

“Now, then, you must stop thinking about me and —make your arrangements to go home.” There was a moment of silence. “Yes. Yoh see, I know how tired, you are of this misery, this poverty, this hopeless struggle. You’re not a Cuban and our cause isn’t yours. Expeditions come from the United States every now

and then and the government will see that you are put safely aboard the first ship that returns. I’ll manage to get well somehow.” Norine’s color had returned. She stood over the hammock, looking down mistily. “Don’t you need me, want me any more?” she inquired. Esteban turned his tired eyes away, fearing to betray in them his utter wretchedness. “You have done all there Is to do. I want you to go back into your own world and forget—” A sudden impulse seized the girl. She stopped and gathered the sick man into her young, strong arms. “Don’t be silly,” she cried. “My world is your world, Esteban dear. I’ll never, never leave you.” “Miss Evans! Norine!” Varona tried feebly to free himself. “You mustn’t —” Norine drew him closer. “You’re going to tell me that you have nothing, can offer me nothing. You’re going to do the generous, noble thing. Well! I hate generous people. I’m selfish, utterly selfish and spoiled, and I don’t propose to be robbed of anything I want, least of all my happiness. You do love me, don’t you?” Esteban’s cry was eloquent; he clasped his arms about her and she held him fiercely to her breast. “We’re quite mad, quite insane,” he told her after a while. “This only makes it harder to give you up.” “You’re not going to give me up and you’re not going to die. I sha’n’t let you, Think what you have to live for.”

"I—did wrong to surrender.” “It was I who surrendered. Come! Must I say it all? Aren’t you going to ask me—” “What?” “Why, to marry you, of course. We’re going to be married, and Im going to take you out of this miserable place." “What happiness!” he murmured. “If I were well— But I won’t let you marry a dying man.” Norlne rose, her face aglow with new strength, new determination. “I brought you back when you were all but gone. I saved you after the others had given you up, and now you are mine to do with as I please. You belong to me and I sha’n’t consult you.” She turned, for a figure had darkened the door; it was one of her Eng-lish-speaking convalescents who was acting as a sort of orderly. “Senorita,” the man said, with a flash of white teeth, “we have another sick man, and you’d never guess who. It is that American, El Demonio —’’ “Is he sick or wounded?” Esteban Inquired. “Shot by a Spanish bullet. He asked at once for our senorita.” “Of course. I’ll come in an instant.” When the messenger had gone Norine bent and pressed her lips to Esteban’s. “Remember, you’re mine to do with as I please,” she said; then she fled down the grassy street Branch was waiting at Norlne’s quarters, a soiled figure of dejection. His left arm lay in a sling across his breast. He looked up at her approach, but she scarcely recognized him, so greatly changed was he. “Hello, Norine!” he cried. “Well, they got me.” Norlne paused in astonishment. “Why, Leslie! 1 was so frightened 1 But —you can’to.be badly hurt.” “Bad enough so that Lopez sent me in. A fellow gets flyblown If he stays in the field, so I beat it.” ‘•Has your arm been dressed?” “No. I wouldn’t let these rough-and-tumble doctors touch it. They’d amputate at the shoulder for a hangnail. I don’t trust ’em.” “Then I’ll look at it.” “It doesn’t hurt, really,” he declared. “It’s only a scratch.” “Then behave yourself.” Norlne forced the patient into a chair and withdrew his arm from the sling. Then, despite his weak resistance, she deftly removed the bandage. From his expression she felt sure {hat she must be hurting him, but when the injury was exposed she looked up in .wonderment.

“Leslie!” she exclaimed. “What in the world—” Branch struggled with himself, he swallowed hard, then said: “You can see now why I didn’t go to a doctor; I did it —shot myself. You won’t give me away?” Norine seated herself weakly; she stared in bewilderment at the unhappy speaker. “Afraid? You, El Demonio! Why, you aren’t afraid of anything!” "Say! You don’t believe all that stuff, do you? I’m afraid of my shadow and always have been. I’m not brave and never was. They told me I was going to die and it scared me so that I tried to end things quickly. I couldn’t bear to die slowly, to know that I.was dying by inches. But, Lord! it scared me even worse to go into battle. I was blind with fright all the time and I never got over it. Why, the sight of a gun gives me a chill, and I jump every time one goes off. Lord! how I’ve suffered ! I went crazy at our first engagement—crazy with fear. I didn’t know where I was, or what happened, or anything. Afterward, when they hailed me as a hero, I thought they were kidding, -that everybody must know how frightened I was. After a time I saw that I’d fooled them, and that shamed me. Then —I had to keep it up or become ridiculous. But it nearly killed me.”

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

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"Esteban, Dear, I’ll Never, Never Leave You!"