le,
like one in a dream.

"How beautiful she is!" murmured Chiquita, holding her tenderly in her
arms.

"Would to God she had been spared!" answered the Captain, his voice
choking with emotion. Yet each felt as they gazed on her upturned face,
whose expression was rather that of sleep than of death, that she was
better off thus; for what did life hold for her?

XXXVI

For most men death ends all things, but for those whose souls are
illumined by the unquenchable flame of faith, death is but the beginning
of life.

The news of the tragedy, following swift upon that of Juan Ramon's
death, spread like wildfire, fairly taking the people's breath away, and
throwing the community into a tumult of excitement. Not since the days
when the victorious American armies had entered Mexico and laid waste
the land, had there been such a commotion in the old town.

The community was shaken to its center. What would happen next? Old
women paused in the midst of their chatter and, crossing themselves,
said an extra _ave_ as a protection against the Evil One; for no one
knew who would be taken next.

Don Felipe Ramirez, the handsomest and wealthiest and most influential
man in Chihuahua, dead--at the hand of a woman--an Indian!

Most people admitted that he had merited death. That his end was a just
punishment for his misdeeds, but then, had it not been for the woman who
had wrecked his life, how different his end might have been!

Juan Ramon would be missed for a day at the gaming tables, but the
beautiful American Senorita--why should she have paid the price of
blood? It was too much. The popular outburst was tremendous, quite
beyond Padre Antonio's influence or control. The evil and tragedy which
the witch seemed to draw with her in her train far outweighed the good
she had accomplished since her advent in the town. And if the grand
Senor, Captain Forest, of an alien race, still chose to remain in the
place, why, let him look to his personal safety if he still set store
upon his life.

Such was popular sentiment, and out of the countless maledictions that
were heaped upon the dark woman and the man she had bewitched, there
grew that sullen and ominous silence of presentiment like that preceding
a storm, and which boded but one end to them both--death.

Jose and Dick were the first to apprise the Captain of the true state of
affairs, although he had not remained insensible to the threatening
looks and dark, sullen