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[Illustration: SHE GLIDED AND WHIRLED IN THE MOONLIGHT, GRACEFUL AS A
WIND-BLOWN ROSE. _PAGE 284_]




                         WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE

                                  BY

                             RITTER BROWN
                     AUTHOR OF "MAN'S BIRTHRIGHT"

                             ILLUSTRATED BY
                              W. M. BERGER

                                New York
                        Desmond FitzGerald, Inc.




                            Copyright, 1912
                      By Desmond FitzGerald, Inc.




                                   TO
                                 MY SON




ILLUSTRATIONS

    "She glided and whirled in the moonlight, graceful
        as a wind-blown rose"                     _Frontispiece_
                                                         FACING
                                                           PAGE
    "The picture which she presented was one he carried
        with him for many a day"                            130

    "Instinctively he raised the casket with both hands"    272

    "'Madre! Madre _mia_!' she cried and flung herself
        into Chiquita's arms"                               292

    "They were startled by a low moan and saw Blanch
        sink slowly to the bench"                           330




    There is a tradition extant among the Indians of the Southwest,
    extending from Arizona to the Isthmus of Panama, to the effect
    that, Montezuma will one day return on the back of an eagle,
    wearing a golden crown, and rule the land once more; typifying
    the return of the Messiah and the rebirth and renewal of the race.




WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE




I


The beauty of midsummer lay upon the land--the mountains and plains of
Chihuahua. It was August, the month of melons and ripening corn. High
aloft in the pale blue vault of heaven, a solitary eagle soared in ever
widening circles in its flight toward the sun. Far out upon the plains
the lone wolf skulked among the sage and cactus in search of the rabbit
and antelope, or lay panting in the scanty shade of the yucca.

By most persons this little known land of the great Southwest is
regarded as the one which God forgot. But to those who are familiar with
its vast expanse of plain and horizon, its rugged sierras, its wild
desolate _mesas_ and solitary peaks of half-decayed mountains--its tawny
stretches of desert marked with the occasional skeletons