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By Root 8836 0

square in front of the National Palace. He went into one of the cantinas under the arcade and ordered a glass of beer. The waiter told him that Carranza's troops had lost Torreón-and that Vil a and Zapata were closing in on the Federal District. When he got to the bookstore news was going down the street that Carranza's government had fled and that the revolutionists would be in the city before night. The storekeepers began to put up their shutters. Concha and her mother came in crying saying that it would be worse than the terrible week when Madero fel and that the revolutionists had sworn to burn and loot the city. An-tonio ran in saying that the Zapatistas were bombarding Tacuba. Mac got a cab and went over to the Chamber of Zapatistas were bombarding Tacuba. Mac got a cab and went over to the Chamber of Deputies to see if he could find anybody he knew. Al the doors were open to the street and there were papers lit--320-tered along the corridors. There was nobody in the theater but an old Indian and his wife who were walking round hand in hand looking reverently at the gilded ceiling and the paintings and the tables covered with green plush. The old man carried his hat in his hand as if he were in church.

Mac told the cabman to drive to the paper where Sal-vador worked, but the janitor there told him with a wink that Salvador had gone to Vera Cruz with the chief of police. Then he went to the Embassy where he couldn't get a word with anybody. Al the anterooms were ful of Americans who had come in from ranches and concessions and who were cursing out President Wilson and giving each other the horrors with stories of the revolutionists. At the consulate Mac met a Syrian who offered to buy his stock of books. "No, you don't," said Mac and went back down Independencia.

When he got back to the store newsboys were already running through the street crying, " Viva la revolucion revindicadora." Concha and her mother were in a panic and said they must get on the train to Vera Cruz or they'd al be murdered. The revolutionists were sacking convents and murdering priests and nuns. The old woman dropped on her knees in the corner of the room and began chant-ing "Ave Marias."

"Aw, hel !" said Mac, "let's sel out and go back to the States. Want to go to the States, Concha?" Concha nodded vigorously and began to smile through her tears.

"But what the devil can we do with your mother and Antonio?" Concha said she had a married sister in Vera Cruz. They could leave them there if they could ever get to Vera Cruz.

Mac, the sweat pouring off him, hurried back to the consulate to find the Syrian. They couldn't decide on the price. Mac was desperate because the banks were al closed and there was no way of getting any money. The Syrian

-321-said that he was from the Lebanon and an American citizen and a Christian and that he'd lend Mac a hundred dol ars if Mac would give him a sixtyday note hypothecating his share in the bookstore for two hundred dol ars. He said that he was an American citizen and a Christian and was risking his life to save Mac's wife and children. Mac was so flustered he noticed just in time that the Syrian was giving him a hundred dol ars mex and that the note was made out in American dol ars. The Syrian cal ed upon God to protect them both and said it was an error and Mac went off with two hundred pesos in gold.

He found Concha al packed. She had closed up the

store and was standing on the pavement outside with some bundles, the two cats in a basket, and Antonio and her mother, each wrapped in a blanket.

They found the station so packed ful of people and baggage they couldn't get in the door. Mac went round to the yards and found a man named McGrath he knew who worked for the railroad. McGrath said he could fix them up but that they must hurry. He put them into a secondclass coach out in the yards and said he'd buy their tickets but would probably have to pay double for them. Sweat was pouring from under Mac's hatband when he

final y got the two women seated and the basket of cats and the bundles and Antonio stowed