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Daughter of the Sun, by Jackson

Gregory

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Daughter of the Sun, by Jackson Gregory

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Title: Daughter of the Sun A Tale of Adventure

Author: Jackson Gregory

Release Date: July 27, 2006 [eBook #18916]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAUGHTER

OF THE SUN***

E-text prepared by Al Haines

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 18916-h.htm or 18916-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/8/9/1/18916/18916-h/18916-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/8/9/1/18916/18916-h.zip) DAUGHTER OF THE SUN

A Tale of Adventure

by

JACKSON GREGORY

(Quién Sabe)

Author of Timber Wolf, The Everlasting Whisper, Desert Valley, Etc.

[Frontispiece: Zoraida Castelmar, daughter of the Montezumas]

Grosset & Dunlap Publishers -------- New York Copyright, 1921, by Charles Scribner's Sons Copyright as "The Treasure of the Hills," 1920, 1921, by Street & Smith

TO

ZINGARA

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I.

IN WHICH A YOUNG AMERICAN KNOWN AS "HEADLONG"

PLAYS AT DICE WITH ONE IN MAN'S CLOTHING WHO IS NOT

A MAN

II. IN WHICH A SPELL IS WORKED AND AN EXPEDITION IS

BEGUN

III. OF THE NEW MOON, A TALE OF AZTEC TREASURE AND A

MYSTERY

IV. INDICATING THAT THAT WHICH APPEARS THE EARTHLY

PARADISE MAY PROVE QUITE ANOTHER SORT OF PLACE

V. HOW ONE NOT ACCUSTOMED TO TAKING ANOTHER

MAN'S ORDERS RECEIVES THE COMMAND OF THE QUEEN

LADY

VI. CONCERNING THAT WHICH LAY IN THE EYES OF

ZORAIDA

VII. OF A GIRL HELD FOR RANSOM AND OF A TOAST DRUNK

BY ONE INFATUATED

VIII. HOW A MAN MAY CARRY A MESSAGE AND NOT KNOW

HIMSELF TO BE A MESSENGER

IX. WHICH BEGINS WITH A LITTLE SONG AND ENDS WITH

TROUBLE BETWEEN FRIENDS

X. IN WHICH A MAN KEEPS HIS WORD AND ZORAIDA DARES

AND LAUGHS

XI. IN WHICH THERE IS MORE THAN ONE LIE TOLD AND THE

TRUTH IS GLIMPSED

XII. IN WHICH AN OVERTURE IS MADE, AN ANSWER IS

POSTPONED AND A DOOR IS LOCKED

XIII. CONCERNING WOMAN'S WILES AND WITCHERY

XIV. CONCERNING A DIFFICULT SITUATION, RECKLESSLY

INVITED

XV. OF THE ANCIENT GARDENS OF THE GOLDEN TEZCUCAN

XVI. HOW TWO, IN THE LABYRINTH OF MIRRORS, WATCHED

DISTANT HAPPENINGS

XVII. HOW ONE WHO HAS EVER COMMANDED MUST LEARN

TO OBEY

XVIII. OF FLIGHT, PURSUIT AND A LAIR IN THE CLIFFS

XIX. HOW ONE WHO HIDES AND WATCHES MAY BE

WATCHED BY ONE HIDDEN

XX. IN WHICH A ROCK MOVES, A DISCOVERY IS MADE AND

MORE THAN ONE AVENUE IS OPENED

XXI. HOW ONE RETURNS UNWILLINGLY WHITHER HE

WOULD WILLINGLY ENTER BY ANOTHER DOOR

XXII. REGARDING A NECKLACE OF PEARLS AND CERTAIN

PLANS OF TWO WHO WERE MEANT TO BE ONE

DAUGHTER OF THE SUN

CHAPTER I

IN WHICH A YOUNG AMERICAN KNOWN AS "HEADLONG"

PLAYS AT DICE WITH ONE IN MAN'S CLOTHING WHO IS NOT

A MAN

Jim Kendric had arrived and the border town knew it well. All who knew the man foresaw that he would come with a rush, tarry briefly for a bit of wild joy and leave with a rush for the Lord knew where and the Lord knew why. For such was ever the way of Jim Kendric.

A letter at the postoffice had been the means of advising the entire community of the coming of Kendric. The letter was from Bruce West, down in Lower California, and scrawled across the flap were instructions to the postmaster to hold it for Jim Kendric who would arrive within a couple of weeks. Furthermore the word URGENT was not to be overlooked.

Among the men drawn together in hourly expectation of the arrival of Kendric, one remarked thoughtfully:

"Jim's Mex friend is in town."

"Ruiz Rios?" someone asked, a man from the outside.

"Been here three days. Just sticking around and doing nothing but smoke cigarettes. Looks like he was waiting."

"What for?"

"Waiting for Jim, maybe?" was suggested.

Two or three laughed at that. In their estimation Ruiz Rios might be the man to knife his way out of a hole, but not one to go out of his way to cross the trail made wide and recklessly by Jim Kendric.

"A half hour ago," came the supplementary information from another quarter, "a big automobile going to beat the band pulls up in front of the hotel. The Mex is watching and when a woman climbs down he grabs her traps and steers her into the hotel."

Immediately this news bringer was the man of the moment. But he had had scant time to admit that he hadn't seen her face, that she had worn a thick black veil, that somehow she just seemed young and that he'd bet she was too darn pretty to be wasting herself on Rios, when Jim Kendric himself landed in their midst.

He was powdered with alkali dust from the soles of his boots to the crown of his black hat and he looked unusually tall because he was unusually gaunt. He had ridden far and hard. But the eyes were the same old eyes of the same old headlong Jim Kendric, on fire on the instant, dancing with the joy of striking hands with the old-timers, shining with the man's supreme joy of life.

"I'm no drinking man and you know it," he shouted at them, his voice booming out and down the quiet blistering street. "And I'm no gambling man. I'm steady and sober and I'm a regular fool for conservative investments! But there's a time when a glass in the hand is as pat as eggs in a hen's nest and a man wants to spend his money free!

Come on, you bunch of devil-hounds; lead me to it."

It was the rollicking arrival which they had counted on since this was the only way Jim Kendric knew of getting back among old friends and old surroundings. There was nothing subtle about him; in all things he was open and forthright and tempestuous. In a man's hardened and buffeted body he had kept the heart of a harum-scarum boy.

"It's only a step across the line into Old Town," he reminded them.

"And the Mexico gents over there haven't got started reforming yet.

Blaze the trail, Benny. Shut up your damned old store and postoffice, Homer, and trot along. It's close to sunset any way; I'll