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Mine with the Iron Door

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<h2>CHAPTER XXXV FREEDOM</h2> <div class="blockquot">It was the plan that had been arranged by Saint Jimmy. </div> LATE in the afternoon of that appointed day, an automobile from Tucson turned off from the Bankhead Highway into the old road that leads to the Cañada del Oro. At the point where the road enters the Cañon of Gold, which is as far as an automobile can go on that ancient trail, Hugh and Marta, with old Thad, were waiting. The automobile would take them, without a stop, straight south through Tucson to Nogales, where they would cross the international boundary line into Nogales, Mexico. From there, immediately after the wedding ceremony, Donald Payne and his bride would travel by rail to Mexico City, from which point in due time they would go to the lands of the old world. Thad would return to the Cañada del Oro, and would, for a while at least, make his home with Saint Jimmy and Mother Burton. It was the plan that had been arranged by Saint Jimmy when they all believed that it was unsafe for Hugh to make his real name known in the United States. For Marta’s sake, the original plan was still{338} to be carried out. When Marta and her husband were safely out of the country and on their way abroad, Doctor Burton would give the facts to the newspapers. In a few months the sensational story would cease to be of news interest to the press and would be forgotten by the public. Then Marta would be told that her husband’s innocence had been established—that Donald Payne, no longer a fugitive from prison, was free to return again to his own country. Saint Jimmy and his mother had said their goodbys at the little home of the old prospectors and their partnership girl. From a rocky point on Samaniego Ridge, high above the Cañon of Gold, Natachee the Indian saw the black moving spot which was the automobile on the old trail that had been followed by so many peoples, in so many ages. Motionless, as a figure of stone, with a face unmoved, the red man watched. The automobile stopped. The dark eyes of the Indian, trained to such distance, could see, as no white man could have seen, the three figures entering the machine. The automobile moved away, winding down through the foothills, crawling cautiously over the ridges, laboring heavily across the sandy washes, growing smaller and smaller until even to the Indian’s vision it was lost in the gray-brown plain of the desert. But still Natachee’s gaze held toward the south where presently he saw a faint cloud of{339} dust rising from the yellow threadlike line of highway. Then the cloud of dust melted into the desert air. A moment longer the Indian watched. Then slowly his gaze swept the many miles that lie between the foot of the Santa Catalinas and the far horizon. A puff of air, fragrant with the scent of the desert, stirred the single feather that drooped from the loosely twisted folds of the Indian’s headband. In the blue depth of the sky, a wheeling eagle screamed. Lifting his dark face toward the mountain peaks that towered above his lonely hut, Natachee the Indian—mystic guardian of the Mine with the Iron Door—smiled. THE END {340}  {341}  <div class="bbox2"> By HAROLD BELL WRIGHT <hr /> THAT PRINTER OF UDELL’S A gripping story of character and action, dealing with a young man’s fight for more practical Christianity. THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS The hearts of men and women, their thoughts and acts, seen in the clear, inspiring atmosphere of the Ozark region. THE CALLING OF DAN MATTHEWS Through experience of people and conditions in a mid-western town, Dan Matthews learns that a man’s true ministry is the work in which he serves best. THE UNCROWNED KING A beautiful allegory of life, showing that “the Crown is not the Kingdom, nor is one King because he wears a Crown.” THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH Achievements of human enterprise in a charming love story whose background is an epic of desert reclamation. <hr /> D. APPLETON AND COMPANY New York London </div> {342}  <div class="bbox2"> By HAROLD BELL WRIGHT <hr /> HELEN OF THE OLD HOUSE A great human story of American manhood and womanhood in the industrial life of to-day. THE RE-CREATION OF BRIAN KENT Keen revelation of life’s invisible forces, out of which come a man’s recovery from desperation, and his success in life and love. WHEN A MAN’S A MAN In the cattle country of Arizona, where a man must be a man, a stranger from another way of life proves himself in many stirring experiences. THE EYES OF THE WORLD A beautiful love story with the inspiration of Nature contrasted impressively with a life of materialism. THEIR YESTERDAYS A delicate story of life and love and the great elemental things that rule men from early childhood onward. <hr /> D. APPLETON AND COMPANY New York London </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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